MANITOBA
Wildfires are still impacting the Northwest and Southeast parts of the province. There are plenty of places to still go to experience some great fishing including Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba.
I was able to get away for a few days to Hecla Island Provincial Park with my wife and friends Phil and Lorraine Brake last week. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and headed out fishing right away. It didn’t take long to find massive schools of walleye and have non-stop action that evening. The fish fry later was world class and it was great to be back on the water.
Monday brought five foot rollers to Big Windy, whipped up by a relentless northeast wind. We decided to take a quiet day at camp and play a variety of games. Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day and we headed out after breakfast for a five hour fish. Unfortunately where we had caught fish before was now surrounded by commercial nets, so other fish had to be found. It took a few tries but we got on a school of 25 inch fish that made the day memorable. We just used jigs and minnows and some plastic in 18 to 20 feet of water.
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
Jeff Gustafson is back home on Lake of the Woods. He had an extensive run of tournament fishing in the U.S. and gets a bit of time back to fish close to home. Gussy says the walleye are on right now, feeding on an abundance of shiners in the system right now.
You can catch up to Jeff and fellow tournament angler and Hooked Contributor Jamie Bruce at the Lake of the Woods Sports Headquarters Saturday June 28th from noon until 2p in downtown Kenora.
SASKATCHEWAN – WES DAVID, FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
On June 10 & 11, we fished with Arden, the owner of South Sask Fishing Adventures, on Lake Diefenbaker. What an amazing experience.
Lake Diefenbaker is 225 km long, and in my opinion, it fishes similar to a river system. Water temperature played a big part in the walleye bite. We found fish in a variety of depths ranging from six feet of water to 21 feet of water. We fished various depths of sharp drop-offs and moved up and down the sharp edges as the fish moved. We were casting a 3/8oz Chubb’s jig tipped with a frozen minnow or a leech and slowly retrieving the bait up or down the structure, depending on the boat’s location. Sensitivity was key. A medium-fast action rod and a reel spooled with 20lb Sunline braided line so you could feel every bump along the bottom. There was very little difference between the bite of a one-pound walleye and a five-pound walleye. Keeping your line tight and making a quick hookset was extremely important.
Arden not only put us on 6 different fish species, but he also put us on quality and quantity fish. If you are looking for a drive to fishing adventure for the whole family, give South Sask Fishing Adventures a call. Located out of Beaver Flat, Saskatchewan, on the shoreline of Lake Diefenbaker, only 40 minutes from Swift Current, Saskatchewan. https://southsaskfishingadventures.com/
ALBERTA – WES DAVID, FISHING THE WILD WEST TV
Three Reservoirs in two days with three very different walleye bites.
Crawling Valley Reservoir, Lake Newell, and Rolling Hills Reservoir are all within the Brooks Region. All three reservoirs feature beautiful campgrounds, boat launches, beaches, and, of course, incredible walleye fishing.
On Crawling Valley Reservoir, we found the walleye in 14 to 17 feet of water on a variety of structures. Sharp shorelines drop offs and the deepest side of sunken humps, held the most active feeding walleye. Bottom-bouncing and vertical jigging picked up a few walleye. However, the bulk of our bites came while making long casts to the deepest edges of the structure and letting our PK Lures Spin-A-Jig, tipped with a Liquid Mayhem swim bait, fall to the bottom. The retrieve was a combination of jigging and slow rolling the jig back to the boat. Walleye would pick up the bait right off the bottom. In most cases, they would hit it with aggression.
Forty minutes from Crawling Valley Reservoir is Lake Newell. We fished Lake Newell the next day under the same weather conditions as Crawling Valley. However, we experienced a very different bite.
After some searching with the PK Lures, bottom-bouncers, we found the most active feeding walleye in six to nine feet of water along the wind-swept shorelines and islands. However, they did not want to chase down our presentation or work for it in any way. Vertical twitch jigging the shallow water with a Chubbs jig tipped with a medium to small frozen minnow, resting on the bottom, was the only way we could get a walleye to bite. The bite was subtle and slow, with a bite coming every 10 to 15 minutes. However, it was worth the wait. Every walleye that committed to our slow presentation was a quality walleye.
A few hours later, we were fishing Rolling Hills Reservoir with a completely different bite. From the marina, we headed to what I call Seagull Island, still within sight of the marina. Trust me, you can’t miss it. We started bottom-bouncing a PK Dakota Disk baited with a soft plastic worm from Liquid Mayhem. We were moving at 1 to 1.2 mph and picked up walleye in 12 to 15 feet of water and never had to change our presentation.
All three of these reservoirs have incredible campgrounds and marinas. We spent the night at the Canalta Hotel in Brooks, which gave easy accessibility to all three reservoirs.
The Brooks Region is loaded with incredible fishing and outdoor adventure for the whole family!