Whitemud Produces Big Fish!

Three pontoon boats were tied to a series of docks near the boat launch at Lynchs Point, a sure sign that the fishing and boating season was in full swing in southern Manitoba. As I backed my friends boat down the cement launch pad, the adrenaline started to pump. It was the start of a new fishing season, the sun was shining and hopefully the fish would be biting, so how could you not be excited. As Jim Price and I headed down the channel into the Whitemud River, shore anglers were lined up at the campground near the mouth of the river as it empties in Lake Winnipeg. Taking a wide path around them Jim motored out into the very mouth of river, checking for fish on his depthfinder. Marking a few scattered fish, we decided to drift fish with a jig along the edge of the main river channel. Soon we were joined by a couple of other boats of young anglers. The first anchored a short distance away from us, while the other trolled back and forth. As we drifted by the anchored boat, I had my first bite of the day. I was fishing the new Berkley Gulp Hollow Bodied Swim Bait in the five inch split tail shiner pattern. A nice chunky eating size walleye had whacked the bait and we had our first eater in the boat. A short time later we heard shouts of excitement from the anchored boat. The young angler in the middle was a fighting a sizable fish judging by the way his rod was bent over, his partner in the front of the boat grabbed a net. Anticipation was high from all the boats in the area as an intense tug of war continued. Finally a big walleye surfaced to be scooped in the boat. After a quick measure (thirty one point five inches) a couple of pictures, this monster walleye was released back into the river. A couple of drifts later Jim and I decided to drop the anchor in the main river channel in hopes of catching a few more fish. Twenty minutes without a bite made us change game plans once again. Tying on bottom bouncers and spinners we started backtrolling against the current. A couple of minutes later Jim set the hook on a substantial fish but unfortunately for us the fish gave one big head shake and was gone. It was my turn next, a big bite, a fish on briefly, then lost. Then conditions started to change dramatically, the wind switching from the south to northeast. Fighting boat control it was time for a change in tactics. Tying on Berkley Flicker Shads we started trolling back up the river. As we rounded the first bend, Jims rod loaded up in the holder under the weight of something extremely large. As Jim fought the fish I took over the control of the motor, backing up the boat just a little bit, turning it sideways so Jim could be in the correct position to fight this fish. Sure enough, a huge walleye could be seen with the crankbait stuck sideways in its mouth. Jim had brought his non tournament net, a little rubber affair. While I waved at the fish, it decided to go straight under the boat. Jim was quick to react, keeping the rod away from the gunnels. Back and forth, up and down went the walleye, putting up one of the best fights I have ever seen from this species. And I have seen a lot of big get caught! Finally Jim got the fish once again to the side of the boat. I managed to get the head of the fish in the net but the tail was sticking out the back so Jim reached down and grabbed that and between the two of us we managed to haul this monster into the boat. Jim quickly measured the fish at thirty two inches, then held it up for a few quick pictures. As he released it back into the waters of the Whitemud we both enjoyed the moment. What a way to start the fishing season!
As the day went on, we travelled up and down the river, trying a variety of different spots, enjoying the day and talking to a number of anglers who were out. Many were family groups on pontoon boats but my favourite was the father/son team that were in separate plastic kayaks fishing from the weeds. At one bend about a kilometer from Lynch’s Point, there were a number of boats pulled up to shore fishing for silver bass or freshwater drum. Using worms fished on pickerel or live bait rigs the action for these scrappy fighters was non-stop. This type of fishing is great for the young or beginning angler.

Nueltin Lake Pike

THE EARLY SEASON PIKE OF NUELTIN LAKE
To have the chance to catch a really big pike, one that breaks the magic 50-inch barrier (127 centimetres) has been a dream of mine since I started fishing professionally. My most memorable experience with these big creatures came when I visited Neultin Lake Lodge as guests of Gary and Shawn Gurke a couple of years back.

This lake one of the most exciting trophy destinations in the world. Given the fact that the lake is close to 170 kilometres long, interspersed with shallow bays that are prime pike habitat, your choices and chances to see and catch big fish are only limited by the time that you have to fish them. Two days was all I had on this particular trip to try and catch the monster that I have always hoped for. In order to make my task a little easier, Shawn had supplied me with Guy, one of Nueltins veteran pike guides.
With the ice still on the main lake, we were still limited somewhat were we could go but there were enough dark bottom bays in the south end of the lake to make the two days an exciting challenge. The first day we tried a couple of bays on the east side of the lake, relatively close to the lodge. In the second area we spotted a number of huge pike laying right on the bottom, including one that looked like a submerged submarine. It was so large in fact, that I knew this fish was well over the magic number.
EASY TO LOCATE
Finding the fish can be relatively easy at this time of year. The pike are in the back bays on the nice sunny days looking for the warmest water available. Spawning for most of the fish had just finished and some of the big females in this bay were still recuperating. I caught smaller males in this area, the bigger fish totally disinterested. Since it was Guy’s first day on the water as the camp at just opened we headed across the lake to the west side and a large river that had huge shallow bays. Heading up one long creek I stood in the front of the boat peering down off of the casting platform in search of pike in the relatively shallow clear water. Sure enough as we got further back up the creek arm, long shadows were visible, the odd swirl indicating that one of these large fish had been disturbed by the boat’s intrusion. Getting the fly rod ready, I started false casting, measuring the distance out to the weed edges on either side of the creek. Laying a black bunny streamer out on the edge produced a viscous strike from a decent sized pike. Some twenty fish later we still hadn’t produced a fish over the required 104 centimetres or 41 inches that is required for a Manitoba Master Angler. Somewhat puzzled, because we had seen bigger fish swimming by, I switched over to smaller yellow streamer. First cast, I could see a big pike twist its body and move up to the fly and with a snap of the jaw I had my first trophy of the trip on.
After a nice battle on my nine weight Fenwick fly rod, the fish was put in a cradle, the fly gently removed. While in the cradle the fish was measured at 106 centimetres, a picture taken, then quickly released.
The change of colour to the yellow along with a downsizing of the streamer fly had the desired result. Two casts later an even larger pike screamed out of the weeds and slammed the fly, taking it out to the middle of the creek in a smoking forty metre run. My guide backed the boat out to the fish and after another excellent fight a slightly larger pike was released. This continued on for another two hours, big pike after big pike slashing and dashing at my poor yellow streamer until it was a streamer no more, the marabou shredded and lost. As the time came to go back to the lodge, three master angler pike had been released but none came close to the magic 127 centimetre mark (50 inches). Just to tell you how difficult a task it is to catch a pike of this size, look at the Manitoba Master Angler book from this past year. There were only two fish that size recorded. One, however, set the new Manitoba length record. It came from Apisko Lake and measured 153.67 centimetres or 60.5 inches, a true monster. Gary Weber from Minnesota caught it on the 26th of May 2004. So at least I knew I was in the right time frame to catch a true record fish. As mentioned I had seen at least one fish that seemed certain to fit the requirements. As I rolled out of bed for day two, rain clouds had rolled in along with a nasty cold front that seemed certain to shut down those shallow fish. Indeed it seemed that way, as the first two pike areas we visited were desolate. We decided to fish for lake trout that morning in hopes that the weather would get a little nicer for the afternoon. After a shore lunch of cajun blackened lake trout we returned to the small stream in which we had done well the day before. As we motored back, the overcast conditions and the black bottom made it almost impossible to spot fish. Still, I was confident that I had found the fly that the fish were interested in. I had downsized once again the size of streamer I was using. This time I had on a small orange saltwater fly that Brian Chan of Kamlops had given me some years ago while fly fishing for lake trout on Great Lave Lake. Salt-water flies are a good choice when fishing for large pike because of the heavy duty hooks that they come with. Sure enough on my first cast I had a nice pike dart out of a weed edge at my orange fly. I was stripping this particular lure in quick darts to keep the hook from picking up the moss from the bottom. As we moved to the back of the stream to a small pool it happened. A moment earlier I had seen a huge puff of mud caused by a large pike that had been spooked by the boat. I don’t know if this was the same fish but a monster pike appeared from nowhere, opened a mouth that could swallow a goose and took my fly that was the size of a small minnow. Taken off guard, I hauled my fly line down to set the hook and keep pressure on the fish. All seemed under control, as the magnificent pike assessed the situation. While he was figuring out the game, I started to try and pick line back up on my machined fly reel. Just about that time this pike figured it was time to exit stage right. Unfortunately as he was doing that my fly line looped around my reel. Ping, went the line, what was left shooting back into the boat beside me. I figure I had caught about 70 pike previous to this without losing any of the larger fish. Why do the really big fish always seem to get away? To me, that’s what makes us always come back for more.
For a trip of a lifetime, visit their website at http://www.nueltin.com/

Piking in the Interlake

It was a bright, beautiful day as we headed up Highway #7 to Teulon, then left on Highway #17 that splits the Interlake into two sections. We headed north through Inwood, past the Narcisse snake dens, stopping in Poplarfield to get an ice cream cone, then continued on #17 all the way past Fisher Branch until we hit Provincial Road #325. Now on gravel, we headed straight west for 16 kilometres until we came to Davis Road. Here we met up with another truck full of anglers with a boat hooked on the back looking for directions. As we pulled up beside them I indicated that this should be the correct turnoff, even though there was no sign. Turning north on Davis Road we drove until we saw a campground sign about 4 kilometres later. Turning left, we followed a winding gravel road for another 22 kilometres until we came to our destination, Mantagoa Lake, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There were four boats on the water already when we launched on this small picturesque body of water. As we slowly trolled away from the dock, my depthfinder indicated an average depth of around two and half metres, obviously a very shallow lake as well.
We rigged on a couple of lures that I knew would dive about one metre, Berkley Frenzy 3 ½ inch Firesticks. Two minutes into our first troll I had a fish on, a nice fat and sassy northern pike. This kind of action for pike was to continue all day long, no matter where we fished or what technique we tried. These fish were on the bite and anything that moved was taken with a vicious strike. We kept a couple fish for supper that evening and while cleaning them we found their stomachs jammed full of perch. We had tried various locations and techniques for walleye with no luck. In the evening as took our boat out of the water some local anglers were just heading out.
From the nearby community of Inwood, they were camping overnight at the unserviced campground at Mantagoa. Your leaving too early, they told us, the walleye don’t start biting until the evening on this lake.
And you know what, they were probably right. Mantagoa is stocked every year with walleye and according to local conservation officers with whom we talked to, the last two years have been very good for this species. On this trip, the walleye won, but the pike fishing more than made up for it.