CLEARWATER LAKE

As the name would imply, it's claim to fame is clear water, so good you can see down 30 feet on a good day. According to one local angler who has lived on this body of water all his life, it's the second clearest lake in the world. Located just north of The Pas in northwestern Manitoba, Clearwater Lake, is a pristine environment with clear, cold water. Lake trout rule here and anglers from all over the world come to Clearwater in hopes of catching one. The lake itself is somewhat of a big bowl with very few islands so when the wind blows things can get a might hairy. There a number of big bays that hold northern pike, including one in the eastern section named "The Trophy Room".

Clearwater Provincial Park is only 20 kilometres north of The Pas and we stayed at one of the two provincial campgrounds on the south end of the lake on Provincial Road #287 called Campers Cove.

After checking in and securing a nice wooded remote camping spot for the family, I bumped into a local angler Jeff Richardson who offered to take me out in the evening. As we headed across the lake, Jeff explained that at this time of the year (middle of August) the lake trout in Clearwater like to hang around the four deep holes in the north end. These holes drop down to about 35 metres and concentrate the trout on the edges of the drop-offs and he was hoping to find one famous spot called "The Wall" that dropped from 20 to 32 metres almost instantly. Though we didn't find it exactly, we marked a whole bunch of fish in an area not to far away. Jeff suggested we use a one ounce jig and big white plastic tail tipped with a chunk of sucker. Sure enough, within five minutes he had one nice two kilogram laker to the side of the boat. No matter, more fish would be on the way!

Jeff had a classic lake trout jigging style. First he dropped the jig to the bottom, watching to make sure the line didn't go slack as the jig plummeted some 30 metres down. After hitting the bottom and taking up slack he would rip the lure up two or three times, again watching the line as it plunged back down. If nothing happened he would then quickly burn the jig to the surface, reeling as hard as possible. I must say it worked, because though I had three hits, Jeff was the only one that landed fish that night.

Clearwater Lake and region is certainly worth the drive. The campgrounds do have power and are very well maintained, though in the month of July you might want to make a reservation for a campsite. We stayed at the Campers Cove site located at the mouth of a bay on the southwest corner of the lake, which by the way, has some excellent pike fishing. The other provincial campground just recently built, Pioneer Bay, is a little more open and is located between two of the lodges on the lake, Carpentar's Clearwater Lodge and the New Vickery Lodge.

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