Author: Don Lamont

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Don Lamont - The Complete Angler Don Lamont has been a full time professional angler for 41 years, hosting and producing the award winning “The Complete Angler” television series for fifteen of those. Don has received several awards for his commitment to public education and the future of recreational fishing in Canada. Don had a regular fishing column in the Winnipeg Free Press for 30 years and is currently editor of Hooked Magazine. He also recently took on the role of Executive Director of the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters, if he wasn't busy enough already! He recently published a book that highlights many of his adventures over a lifetime of fishing. It can be purchased online at donlamont.com

It has been a busy week on Lake Winnipeg as anglers take advantage of the warm weather. A couple different groups of friends were out this week, with both reporting excellent action for walleye. Jim Price found a way to get around the pressure ride on the west side near Warner Road to get out to deeper water and away from all the angling pressure. It paid off in spades with a number of nice walleye caught in 13 feet of water. This pattern was repeated yesterday with Gene Collins and friends headed out on snow machine. They landed 30…

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STAYING DRY STRYKR Jacket and a big Tobin Lake walleye!For years I have been searching for raingear that would actually keep me dry. As editor of Hooked Magazine, I have to research new product that I can tell our readership about. I also like to test things out so when I checked the ICAST Awards for this year, I saw that a company I had never heard about won the award for the Best Technical Apparel: Stormr Fusion Bib Stormr has experienced exponential growth in the fishing markets over the past two years, owing to its comfort level, impenetrability and feature-rich design.…

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Jim Price fools a Lake Winnipeg fish on a spoonAt the start of every ice fishing season anglers are looking for information that will help them be more successful. The funny thing about all of this, is that in my years in the business, there are many things that have been tried and forgotten only to be reinvented. I can remember fishing for stocked trout on a small gravel pit with a light flutter spoon some 25 years ago. Here is that rainbow from the archives!The slow flutter and drop of this light spoon was a great trigger for these aggressive…

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Pete with a nice one!When I saw the weather forecast for Thursday this week, I knew I had to get out to Traverse Bay for some greenback walleye. Word on the street had anglers heading up from as far away as South Dakota to get in on a late season bite. Friend Pete Hiebert and I arrived at the boat launch just after 8:30 in the morning and there were already a number of boats launched. As we had driven up that morning the wind was gusting from the northwest, the worst possible direction for Traverse Bay. Once on the…

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Manitoba has a new record goldeye! Jim Tarsiuk with his monster goldeye!Jim Tarasiuk has been fishing with friend Terry Tooley on the Saskatchewan River for the last seven years. Terry held the Manitoba goldeye record for five years, from 2007 to 2012. So, it was only fitting that the two were fishing together at the time when this fish was caught. Jim wasn’t sure what kind of fish he had on the line when he set the hook given the variety of species that exist in that stretch of river near The Pas. In fact, given the pull on the end…

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Jim and Dale with another Red Zone fishTOBIN LAKE: DAY THREEOur captain had to head to Saskatoon for a wedding so we jumped in with Dale and Russ in the big 21 foot Ranger. Since there were four of us fishing today we decided to jig. With a water temperature at 46 Fahrenheit, the use of a jig at this of the year is always a great option. As it turned out, we had a tremendous day on the water with 16 Red Zone walleye caught. I have done a lot of jig fishing over the years and I have…

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Don and the Captain!DAY TWO: TOBIN LAKEThe sun broke out on day two of our trip and so did our spirits. Funny how a little sun can cheer things up and erase some of the disappointment of the day before.Jim and I were in Boyd’s boat again as we headed back down to the river from Tobin Lake Resort where we were staying. A strong west wind made heading out to the big lake an impossibility. Jim taking a bit of a breakGiven the success we had trolling yesterday (Jim!), we decided to put some time in today, fine tuning…

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DAY ONE: TOBIN LAKEThe long range forecast was very encouraging, sun and temperatures getting over the ten Celsius mark, a heat wave at this time of year. We had moved up our annual fishing trip to Tobin Lake, Saskatchewan a week earlier than in previous years. After an uneventful ride from Winnipeg, we caught up with a number of old friends who make this trip so special for us.On day one we fish with Boyd Holmen, in his eighteen foot Yar Craft, a very nice rig indeed! This turned out to be the nicest day weather wise but probably our slowest…

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This jumbo fell for the PK Spoon on a lift and drop flutter.Late fall is one of the best times of the year to find big smallmouth bass schooled up off of points at the mouth of bays. Most of the time, these fish are aggressive and love a piece of metal jigged in front of their face! Case in point was yesterday on Lake of the Woods, Ontario while fishing with top North American bass angler Jeff Gustafson. Jeff loves to catch both largemouth and smallmouth but the largies on this day were proving a bit difficult to catch. In…

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I was out on Lake of the Woods today with one of the best bass anglers in Canada and in North America. Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson took time out of his busy schedule to take Hooked Magazine owner and publisher Kevin Stobbe and myself out for a day on the water. Jeff is a busy guy, so his commitment to a day in the boat was much appreciated. It was a beautiful morning as we launched the boat at Pye’s landing on the northeast end of the lake. Certainly way out of line for this time of the year. Jeff was…

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