Editor’s Note: Wildfires across the west continue to be the story especially in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This has made travel to the central and northern parts of the province a difficult decision. Many of our lodges and outfitters have been evacuated along with various communities. Anglers have also postponed their trips to more remote regions and are heading to southern waters.
MANITOBA
Fortunately most of our lakes, rivers and reservoirs in the south have been fishing extremely well. Out west, Lake of the Prairies and Lake Dauphin have been supplying some great walleye action.
Lake Manitoba has been good for walleye, perch and some big drum not to mention carp and sucker. Hooked Contributor Sarah Henuset made it a mission to catch some Master Angler Carp this year in the Delta Marsh area of Manitoba. Delta Marsh didn’t just meet expectations; it blew them out of the water. Sarah landed not just one, but three absolute tanks. A new PB at 33.25”, plus 32” and 30.25” back-to-back beasts.
Meantime her partner on this journey, Brinna Tough, was on a mission to land a quillback. Part of the sucker family this fish feed mainly on small aquatic vegetation. Getting them to bite a hook is a real achievement. Brinna put the hours in and continued to fine tune her presentation until it finally happened, a stunning 23” quillback.
Congratulation Brinna on the fish of a lifetime. You can read all about their adventures in the upcoming Summer Issue of Hooked Magazine.
LAKE WINNIPEG
The fishing has been so good on Big Windy that it deserves a section all on it’s own. Hardcore anglers Nolan Plew and Petro Hrynda were out a week ago and land multiple Master Angler fish.
Unbelievable day @ppetroh and I had on the big lake. We landed 10 walleye over 28 inches and 4 of them that went over 30. This was my big one of the day coming in at 30.75.
SASKATCHEWAN
LAST MOUNTAIN LAKE – ROGER AND SUE GERES
Last Saturday with a favorable forecast we decided to load up and head to Last Mountain for the day . While we had to work at it, fishing many different spots. For us moving around and fishing marks paid off for Emily. She caught 4 giants being 29.75 ,30.5 and 2-31’s.
Jigs and minnows were the ticket and moving when needed. Glow jigs and 8-18’ jigging vertical was what worked for us. I did follow up with a 29” but Emily had the hot stick all day !
ALBERTA FISHING REPORT – WES DAVID, FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
Fishing the Lac La Biche Region
The Lac La Biche Region is jam-packed with amazing lakes and fishing opportunities. Lac La Biche Lake is a stone’s throw away from the town center of Lac La Biche and the Canalta Hotel, where we call home while fishing in this region.
We launched at the Winston Churchill boat launch, about 15 minutes from the Canalta Hotel, at 7:30 am. The boat launch is in great shape, and launching my 20-foot Tracker Targa was no trouble.
Once on the lake, we started bottom-bouncing PK Lures zigzagging from shallow water (eight feet) to deep water (20 feet). Although the Humminbird was marking fish, after an hour of fishing, we only hooked into two fish, and one was a northern pike. We had the same experience with Lindy Riggs moving the boat at .3 mph. I’ve experienced a slow bite before, but this was painful. We decided to set up on the edge of a sharp drop-off from 11 feet of water into 17 feet of water. We set up on the sharp drop-off in 15 feet of water and sent down a yellow Chubb’s jig baited with a frozen minnow. It took about five minutes before the first bite. However, it was worth the weight. My rod bowed under the pressure of a heavy walleye.
Vertically jigging and staying stationary was key, and due to the wind, that was sometimes challenging. We would land a walleye every five to 10 minutes. If we had to wait any longer for a bite, we moved about a boat length along the structure and hit Spot-Lock on the Minnkota and began the vertical jigging process again and within five to 10 minutes, the rod would bow over under the weight of a heavy Lac La Biche walleye. Painfully slow and staying stationary was key to triggering bites on Lac La Biche during the first week of June.