Stephenfield Reservoir

There were rumblings through the fishing grapevine of a reservoir in southern Manitoba that was producing some excellent perch and pike fishing. The first time I had heard the name mentioned was in the local spirits shop from a fellow who read my column all the time in the Winnipeg Free Press. "Don," he said, "my cousin was out over the holidays at this Stephenfield Reservoir and did real well! You might want to give it a shot"

Now I do get the occasional tip on a spot that is "hot" so to speak but after having been on an occasional goose chase I thought I might want to get confirmation on this "hot spot" before I waste both time and energy. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to fish new water and if there is even a remote possibility this tip might pan out, I'm all for going. A couple of phone calls to some friends that live in this part of the country confirmed that indeed, this was a body of water to be tested.

So I called a teacher friend of mine named Phil, and we hopped in the truck for the short ride west to this reservoir. From Winnipeg we headed west down Highway # 3 some 62 kilometres to Carman, continuing straight through the town past the golf course and west on Provincial Road 245. Ten kilometres later there was a sign indicating Stephenfield Provincial Park. After making the turn right, we headed down a gravel road for a kilometre until we came to the park entrance itself, then followed the boat launch signs until we came to the lake.

There was a well worn path onto the lake from the access there and by the launch itself there were three ice fishing shacks and two vehicles out the ice. As we drove down, we saw one of the anglers run to a tip up on the ice and set the hook on a fish that had grabbed his bait. Both Phil and myself looked at each other and nodded.

Now one of the buddies I had talked to said to look for the water tower and fish there. Okay, easy for him to say but once driving on the lake I was surprised by both the size of this man-made reservoir and the number of anglers out on the ice. Ice conditions looked good and there were vehicle tracks heading in every direction. Taking one of these we headed across the lake east to find the elusive water tower.

Sure enough after coming around a point on the lake, there it was, looming in the distance. A couple of vehicles were situated off the next point with anglers spead out across the ice so we decided to pull up a safe distance away and go and talk to these individuals in hopes of learning more. The first thing that we picked up as we started walking was that almost every hole that was drilled had a tip up in it. Hmm, I thought, they don't look like there perch fishing to me. Sure enough, after striking up a conversation with this particular angler, she assured me that yes indeed she was fishing for pike. When I asked her, if she was catching any perch, she pointed out that if she wanted perch, she wouldn't be fishing here because the pike would eat them. Fair enough, I thought and with my tail between my legs I headed back west to try my luck with a fellow that relaxing beside his old yellow pickup truck. "Howdy", I mumbled, "how is the fishing going here?" "Just one small pike", he replied with a big smile on his face. "Are there any perch in the area", I asked, hoping for the best.

"Well there was some fellows out yesterday and did pretty well over there," he said, pointing to a spot down the shore about 500 yards. Okay now we're getting somewhere I thought and after thanking him we hopped back in the truck and pulled up to an area that had some old holes. Drilling a couple more new ones, I dropped down the new Slender Spoon from Reef Runner and had a fish on immediately. That was followed by about 25 perch in a row, one for every drop. "Wow," I said to my buddy Phil, "that's not bad!"

We fished for about three hours that day out of the same two holes and we caught lots of perch though the size was a little smaller than I was used to in other areas, the biggest about nine inches. We did catch some bonus pike, with one about eight pounds getting off right below the ice. All in all, an excellent day on a new body of water that obviously has a lot of fish.

After about an hour, the fellow in the old yellow pickup truck walked over to see how we were doing. Upon spying a half pail of perch, he scratched his head and admitted we were doing pretty good. He then proceeded to tell me how he had been fishing this reservoir for 20 years and that there were pike up to four kilograms in size but that most of the perch were small. That would explain to me why most of the local anglers had obviously targeted pike.

Stephenfield Reservoir would be a great place to take the family. From what I saw this day you could drive around the lake with a two wheel drive vehicle or if you didn't feel comfortable with that, you could easily walk on the lake and start fishing. The area we angled was along the northeast shore and the water was about five metres deep. Our newfound friend said we were fishing in the old river channel. The reservoir itself stretches for some ten kilometers and is the dammed section of the Boyne River. On the east end, we find the Stephenfield Water Treatment Plant which officially opened in 1999. It supplies water to the R.M of Dufferin and surrounding area. As mentioned earlier this reservoir also has a provincial campground with sand beach. It is a popular spot in the summertime for boats and anglers alike.

You can find the park on the Manitoba Government Park website at www.gov.mb.ca/natres/parks/regions/western/stephenfield.

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