BROWN TROUT OF MANITOBA

Brown trout are a wary fish, some say smarter than the average duck. Many an accomplished angler has been beaten by these wily, opportunistic predator and over my 21 years as a professional angler I have had more than one memorable experience with these wary fish. One of the first shows that I ever filmed on The Complete Angler came from a small little lake in the Duck Mountains that had been stocked with some trophy sized browns a couple of years previous. Tom Zaporzan and myself launched our float tubes on Perch Lake as the late September sun started to dip over the pine trees. Tom, who resides in Dauphin, had been fishing the brown trout in this lake for a couple of years with decent success and had invited me along for the experience. We started off first though fishing for the jumbo smallmouth bass that exist along the shoreline in this small lake, catching a few on a small popper on the fly rod. As the sun started to set behind the trees, we switched over to#10 Mickey Finn flies, a choice Tom preferred for night fishing because of the brightness of the pattern; an orange, black and white combo that the brown trout could key in on fairly easily. Perch Lake is a catch and release only body of water with a dock for anglers to fish from. With its small size and large trees all around, it's great to fish even on the windiest of days. As the sun went down in a blaze of glory that day a full harvest moon came up the other way, bathing the lake in an erie glow. While spectacular to look at, the bright moonlight actually had a negative impact on the fishing, at least until we figured out the pattern. As we made our way around the lake in our float tubes, we finally arrived in the southeast corner were the moonlight was blocked out by the trees. After a couple of casts to get the range, we hooked up on a number of nice medium sized browns in the one kilogram range. Switching over from my fly road to a spinning outfit I cast out a #11 floating Rapala in a perch pattern. Wham, something just smoked my lure and started screaming off line, so much so that I thought I would be spooled. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to find out as a huge shadow emerged from the lake in front of me, shook the lure free then dove to freedom. Tom who was next to me when all this happened, took the opportunity to mention the fact that quite a few brown and rainbow trout in this lake were over three kilograms, making this small little lake just one of the many gems we have in this province.

Speaking of new jewels, there is word out of the Parkland region of a new brown trout fishery at West Goose Lake. Fisheries personnel and a myriad of volunteers helped release an estimated 100 brown trout in West Goose Lake, located in the town of Roblin in early May. What made the stocking so impressive was the size of the fish. The smallest of the browns was in the three kilogram range with some huge fish up to 6.8 kilograms thrown in for good measure. Talk about creating a trophy fishery all at once. I have fished East Goose Lake, just across the road, and have had great success for rainbows and some brown trout, but now an angler has two options side by side for trophy fish.

My largest brown trout came from Silver Beach before it became overrun by northern pike and I have also had some excellent catches of brown trout at Tokaruck lake. Certainly there are more lakes than these available in Manitoba and if you would like to find out more informationon Bob Sheedy's website at http://go.to/lakeflyfishing or browse under the title Parkland Fly Fishing. Anglers Notes:

If you like fish with a little bit of zip, I tried some walleye the other day coated in Club House Cajun seasoning. Just soak the fish in a little milk so the seasoning will hold, then mix some Italian bread crumbs and Cajun seasoning together in a bag and drop in the fish to coat. Have a medium hot fry pan with a little butter and olive oil mixed to together. Sear the fish quickly on both sides making sure the fish flakes when done. Do not overcook and you will have a nice spicy fresh fish dish that will tantalize the taste buds!

Back