MANITOBA
Record breaking temperatures are making a full day angling in a boat problematic. Anglers have to be careful to take care of themselves. To learn more about ways to protect yourself and those with you read the great article on our website written by Nathan Blank called “Summer Survival Guide for the Smart Angler” Check it out here.
Shore fishing remains good as the rivers and streams are still high from earlier rains. The channel catfish are an apex predator and they are enjoying the high water and the heat. Here Abby Romaniuk and a friend had some great channel catfish action on the floodway recently.
Genseric Inguillo got out the fly rod and headed to Anton Lake where he hooked into this gorgeous brown trout. Stocked lakes are still producing some good fishing both from shore and in the boat.
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
Jeff Gustafson has been enjoying some time around home before heads east for the final two tournaments in the Bassmaster Elite Series.
It’s been a much needed week of relaxing! I left my boat and truck near Toronto last week and flew back up north so I’ve been sticking close to home. Had to get out and catch a few walleyes to eat and ran across a couple of nice ones mixed in.
We also put in a couple of shifts picking blueberries…the wild berries taste about 100 times better than the ones you buy at the store! I think we have enough to last until at least Christmas time!
SASKATCHEWAN-WES DAVID
Tate Island Lodge is located about mid-lake on Reindeer Lake in the beautiful northern boreal forest of Saskatchewan. The lodge is family-owned and family-friendly and employs local guides who know the lake like the back of their hand. After arriving near Southend, Saskatchewan, guests have two options to get to the lodge. Take a float plane or take the scenic boat trip to the lodge. We float-planed in and took the boat ride out. Both were amazing. Once you arrive, you will be shown to your cabin and given a tour of the main lodge, and introduced to your guide.
GREAT FISHING FOR FOUR DIFFERENT SPECIES!
Tate Island Lodge specializes in quality and quantity of lake trout, northern pike, walleye, and the bonus, Arctic grayling. When we visited Tate Island Lodge, we focused on the monster northern pike swimming within the countless bays surrounding the lodge. However, we were challenged with the Grand Slam. We caught and released several 40-plus-inch northern pike, lots of big lake trout and walleye, then turned our attention to Arctic grayling. All four species gave us non-stop fishing action, and I will let you in on a little secret. The fishing at Tate Island Lodge is so amazing that getting the Grand Slam isn’t that hard.
ALBERTA – WES DAVID, Host and Producer of Fishing the Wild West TV
Cold Lake Lake Trout
Cold Lake in northern Alberta is well known for its lake trout fishing. I would venture to say it is Alberta’s number-one drive-to lake trout destination. The lake also holds quality walleye and northern pike, but the lake trout is its biggest draw.
We were finding lake trout everywhere, in depths ranging from 30 to 80 feet of water. The most active and aggressive trout were in 40 to 55 feet of water. I don’t know the names of the areas we were fishing, but we were across the lake, and the shoreline was always in very close sight.
A popular bait on Cold Lake is vertical jigging a 1oz jig with a white paddle-tail swim bait or a white tub-jig. A 4” Liquid Mayhem white paddle-tail swim bait worked well for us vertical jigging and swimming it to the surface. However, we had several followers that didn’t commit to the bite. So I started making long casts with a ½ oz Holographic Spinnow from Buzz Bomb Tackle, letting it sink to the bottom, then slowly swimming it back to the boat. If nothing took the bait while swimming it to the boat, I would vertical-jig the Spinnow right at the boat and slowly swim the bait to the surface. In most cases, this triggered a bite. If the bite slowed and we stopped marking fish, we rarely moved more than 4 or 5 boat lengths and started fishing again.
We quickly lost count of the number of lake trout we caught and released as the lake provided us with non-stop lake trout action.
Now off to ICAST!
