LEGEND OF THE NORTH

There aren't too many anglers who have ventured to northern Manitoba that have not heard of Rick Hubbs. Originally from Winnipeg, Rick has made his home in northern Manitoba for the last 24 years, many days of which have been spent fishing on one of the numerous lakes near his home on the shores of Clearwater Lake. Rick owned New Vickery Lodge on the south shore of Clearwater for 23 of those years, until he sold it last year. Given newfound freedom with retirement his lifestyle of fishing and more fishing has not changed. Yes, he and his wife Fran have built a new house but almost every morning his boat is hitched up to the back of his truck and he is ready to head out to one of the numerous lakes that abound in this part of the world. Rick Hubbs is as articulate and passionate about his pursuit of freshwater fish of all species as he is about their preservation. For example, when he took our family out fishing for the day on Clearwater a couple of weeks ago he made sure to be extremely careful handling and releasing both the lake trout and pike we caught. Hubbs is a versatile angler as well both in technique and species. On the first part of our day, we went out to one of the deep holes on Clearwater to jig for lakers. We started out using a jigging spoon I had never fished before, a long thin piece of metal that he bent to shape, I believe called a Norzilda. Rick very patiently explained how to properly work this lure, demonstrating the technique to my wife and daughter and son. Sure enough we caught a fish within five minutes and that's how most of the day went, with Rick sharing stories and techniques that most anglers would never conceive of. In fact, Rick showed me a number of lures that he had designed himself, including one lake trout jigging spoon that was shaped like a petal with a small Colorado blade added to the split ring by the treble hook. Designed to drop rapidly for deep water jigging, this lure provided constant action in our boat. Then for a change of pace, Rick drove the boat over to a bay on the east side of Clearwater for some northern pike action. As we quietly glided into the bay, we could see scattered pods of northern pike slowly swimming around in the crystal clear water. Rick Hubbs then showed us a unique way of catching these fish. He would tie on a one ounce white bucktail jig, tip it with a piece of sucker than cast it out as far as he could throw it. The bay was about three metres deep on the average with a sandy bottom and some very sparse weed. This enabled Rick to fish this jig very slowly, by letting it fall to the bottom and sit for a few seconds, then retrieve with an extremely slow lift and drop. Wham, Rick quickly set the hook on a nice northern pike that had greedily swum over for a free lunch. The action in this bay was pretty continuos and everybody in the boat enjoyed watching the pike follow the bait back to the boat even if they didn't bite the bait. After a fun-filled five hours of fishing we headed back to shore and ended the day off with a cup of cappuccino for the adults and a hot apple cider for the kids.

Clearwater and area: Here are some of the other lakes near Clearwater that Rick Hubbs fishes and recommends:

1) Bradley Lake- this smallmouth bass has some real bruisers in and makes for a great day when the waves are big on Clearwater. You head down the Moose Lake road for 39 kilometres and it is on the left side of the road. It has a good boat launch and big smallmouth up to 23 inches in length.

2) For walleye, Rick Hubbs usually heads to Cormorant Lake. This large body of water is another 20 kilometres down Provincial Road # 287 past Clearwater.

3) Rick also likes to fish for rainbows and he heads west and north up Highway # 10 towards Cranberry Portage, turning west on the Sturgeon Landing Road to either Barbie or Chocolate Lake. Barbie is 6 kilometres west on the north side of the road while Chocolate is 20 kilometres in on the south side. You have to watch very carefully for the sign that indicates the Chocolate lake turn off. It is small and easily missed.

You can spend countless days fishing this country and the roads here are in good shape. As mentioned last week, provincial campgrounds here are spotless and have power but in July and even June reservations are recommended at least for Campers Cove. For more information visit www.travelmanitoba.com.

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