BOOSTER LAKE BASS

It wasn't a subtle take, just a steady pull on my live bait rig. Giving the fish a little bit of line, I closed the bail on my spinning reel, lifting my rod tip off the water in a sweeping motion. Chunk, would be the best way to describe the sensation on the hookset as line and leech started to move the other way. Using flame green fireline on my live bait rig reel in order to watch my line above the water, I stared in fascination as it straightened out, then started to come off my spool. (This doesn't detract from my presentation, with a clear snell from the weight to the hook.) I mention this because on this particular fish, that fascination changed to awe as my line suddenly came slack and a huge smallmouth bass cleared the water,.

Given its incredible girth, the height that this fish achieved was somewhat of a feat. That was the last glimpse I had of that monster, the hook shaken free in flight.

My fishing partner this particular day was Winnipegger Dave Watson, a long time cottage owner on Booster Lake. Located in the southeast corner of Nopiming Provincial Park, Booster is another one of the lakes that make this part of the country worth a visit.

Dave had met up with me earlier in the morning at Nopiming Lodge, just five short kilometres away from Booster. While he had mentioned the fishing on the lake was pretty good for walleye, he didn't talk at all about the huge smallmouth this lake has to offer. In fact, while we did catch some decent walleye that day it was the bass that made it memorable. Dave landed the biggest smallmouth of the day later that afternoon, a 48.72 centimetre bruiser that weighed close to 1.8 kilograms. While that is a tremendous fish, I knew the one that I had missed earlier in the day was certainly over the 50 centimetre mark. In Manitoba the all-time length record for smallmouth is 58.42 centimetres out of little known Vermillion Reservoir near Dauphin. That said there has been only six smallmouth of more than 54 centimetres registered in the Manitoba Master Angler program.

The largest smallmouth that I have ever landed measured in at 54.62 centimetres in a small lake just on the outskirts of Kenora, Ontario and the fish that jumped and spit the hook earlier in the day looked to be all of that! According to local cottage owners like Dave, it has only been the last seven years that anglers on the lake have been catching smallmouth. Nobody exactly knows were they have come from, but given the day we had the water, it was the smallies that made the occasion a most memorable one. By checking the on-line Manitoba Master Angler records (www.travelmanitoba.com) I found that the largest bass registered from this lake came from another Booster Lake cabin owner, Brian Gross of Winnipeg. Brian caught and released a 50.80 smallmouth back in May of 1998.

Certainly there might be a Manitoba record in this lake somewhere! Booster, though is not the only lake nearby that has large smallmouth, The day previous while fishing with Nopiming Lodge owner Blaine Guenther, he mentioned that two 50 centimetre plus bass had been caught and released on Bird Lake were his lodge is located.

We fished a variety of spots that day, catching walleye and bass on shallow weedlines as well as shallow reefs close to shorelines. Any of the deep fish off of mid-lake structure turned out to be walleye on this particular day. Once you moved shallower however, it could be either a walleye or big smallmouth. On the second spot we tried in the morning, a shallow weedline next to a rocky shoreline, the first three fish were a small pike and two small walleye. I got Dave to move us a little closer to the shore were the wind was blowing in and sure enough, on my first cast I landed a 47 centimetre bass on a jig and large live chubb. (live minnows are still allowed in Nopiming this year but that will change in 2005). As the day wore on Dave took me to a variety of spots but one of the best turned out to be a shallow reef next to an island. With large scattered boulders both walleye and bass were using the structure. There was also deep water nearby, always a consideration when fish start moving towards their fall spots.

Booster is right next door to Flanders, which also has some private cabins and some decent fishing. Down at the end of Provincial Road # 315 right next to the Ontario border is Davidson Lake. It has a small resident population of lake trout. While all these lakes are fun to fish, they are not large bodies of water. A very limited harvest of fish will keep these waters healthy for years to come. For more information on Nopiming Park, visit the Manitoba Parks website at www.manitobaparks.com

Anglers Notes: The second annual Angler Young Angler Walleye Championship was held on Lake of the Woods recently with a team from Red Lake going home with the top prize. There were five teams in total representing their regions. The winning team of Eric Sanna along with Robert and Kyle Melanson will now get the opportunity fish Wollaston Lake Lodge as the grand prize winners.

If you plan on being in Winnipeg on Saturday, September 11th and you like to fish you might want to head down to the Forks for ten in the morning. For the third year the Urban Angling Partnership and City Cats are sponsoring a shore-fishing event to promote Winnipeg's world class urban fishery. There are a tremendous number of prizes in both the adult and youth categories. Admission is free and fishing will be from the Red River walkway.

More than 600 of Winnipeg's youth participated again in this year Fish Winnipeg program. Again all of the anglers who came out went home with a rod and reel at the end of the day.

Last week I talked about the new Manitoba fishing publication, "the Fish'n line. Unfortunately I gave you the wrong website address. Here is the correct address www.thefishnline.com.

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