MANITOBA
Cooler temperatures and a lack of wind has made the last couple of weeks a perfect time to be on the water. This province is blessed with a variety of sport fish and anglers are buying in big time. Our stocked trout waters are still producing trophy fish as witnessed by this beautiful Master Angler rainbow trout caught on a fly rod in Barbie Lake by Keith Publicover.
As we move a bit further south into the Duck Mountains, one of the biggest walleye I have ever seen registered in Wellman Lake was caught recently by PJ McIntyre that measured just short of 30 inches! Congrats on a great fish.
In the eastern part of Manitoba the late summer crappie bite is happening as well as good smallmouth fishing. The Lee River has excellent populations of both.
Then there is our urban fisheries. Check out this impressive largemouth bass that was caught in the LaFarge Pits by Quinn Harvie.
NORTHWEST ONTARIO
The Kenora Bass International was held last week and Hooked Contributor Jamie Bruce and his partner Bryan Gustafson came away with the title one more time. I believe it is their third KBI Title which is pretty darn impressive. Congrats guys. Here is Jamie celebrating with the family!
Friend Paul Conchatre and I headed out to Lake of the Woods last week and got into some good smallmouth bass fishing and a few bonus walleye. While we tried a variety of lures including Ned Rigs and topwater, by far the best baits were big minnow imitating swimbaits.
And I mean big, the five inch variety and those fish were just swallowing the whole thing! Almost all the fish were shoreline related or using current created by wind. As Al Lindner would say , those flush areas will concentrate fish and they will set up in different areas of that current based on wind direction. We found one particular area where the walleye and bass were both stacked in.
SASKATCHEWAN
Join the crew from Fish Hunt Saskatchewan as they head north to Lost River Camp. This remote area provides incredible northern pike fishing for those lucky enough to make the trip. If not make sure you check out this video.
ALBERTA – WES DAVID, FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
Historically, I do a thorough maintenance check on my boat and all my fishing gear in the first week of August. I go through everything. I respool my reels, tidy up my tackle boxes, and replace or repair anything that needs it. I also go through my boat and trailer from top to bottom, and I’m sure glad I did!
While going through my boat trailer, I found a bad wheel bearing. I always keep a set of wheel bearings in my truck in case I ever need them in a remote location, but I didn’t want to use them unless I absolutely had to. So in a panic, I called every marine dealer and shop looking for bearings. Dandy Auto and Marine answered the call. The technicians assessed the situation and clearly recommended the best solution to repair the problem correctly and get me on the road/water quickly.
Dandy Auto and Marine has their own warehouse stocked with parts, or Dandy works with other local companies that have parts. Whatever your breakdown is, Dandy gets you on the road/water ASAP! Quality work and old-school customer service! What a concept! https://www.dandy.ca
Now that Dandy had me back on the road, even with a week off, I had to go fishing to try my new bearing and my cleaned-up fishing gear. I called a couple buddies and headed to Crawling Valley Reservoir, a lake/reservoir I consider my home lake.
Alberta has been experiencing extreme heat, so we launched early in the morning and planned to be off the water by 1:00 pm when the temperature would reach +33C. We found walleye in 20 to 27 feet of water, holding tight to the bottom. We vertical jigged a 5/8oz jig; colour didn’t seem to matter, tipped with a Liquid Mayhem soft plastic or a frozen minnow. We sent the baited jig down and left it sitting right on the bottom. No jigging or movement of any kind. Just waiting for a walleye to take it. This was kind of a boring way to fish for walleye. However, it produced a walleye every few minutes.
Tip
Walleye will often hold so tight to the bottom that your fish finder can’t tell the difference between the bottom and the fish. This is very common with walleye. However, when walleye are holding tight to the bottom, when you hook into a walleye, two or three seconds into the fight, get in the habit of looking at the screen of your fish finder. The walleye you are fighting will often stir up the walleye in the immediate area, and they will lift off the bottom, and your fish finder will show them to you. By the time you land your fish, they will have all settled down, but you now know they are there.
