Welcome to The Complete Angler, your source of information on the outdoor industry in Central Canada.

With over 35 years in the field, host Don Lamont covers topics and issues with industry leaders and influencers to bring you up to speed on what's happening in the outdoor world.

And now, here's your host, Don Lamont.

On today's show, we talk to third-year environmental science student, Nathan Blank.

Nathan has been writing for Hook Magazine for a couple of years and brings a young person's perspective to angling in Manitoba.

Hey, Nathan. Welcome to the show. Great to have you on.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Well, you've been writing for us for how long now, Nathan, for Hook Magazine?

The first issue, I'm just looking up at the wall here, spring of 2024, so a couple years now.

Yeah. Yeah, well, I kind of found out about you through a couple of friends of mine.

Matt Galley was one of them. He worked with you at the fishing hole, and I think he was one of the guys who said you should write for Hook, was he not?

Yeah, that was definitely him. He was the one that I was looking at as far as the writers, and I sort of asked him questions about it and how he started doing it.

And then eventually he got me in contact with you, and then, yeah, the rest is pretty much history from there, I guess.

I'm glad to have you on board. And I know you're currently at the University of Manitoba working on environmental science. Is that correct?

That's correct, yeah. I'm in my third year.

Oh, wow. How many years does it take?

So, with co-op, it'll probably be five, maybe six years. Probably more like five years, though.

And the ultimate goal is?

I want to get into the fisheries. The top spot would be being like a fisheries biologist, but I don't see anything in the fisheries if I can get my hands on that. That's what I'm looking to get into.

Yeah, well, I have a lot of my friends who are fisheries biologists, and they're very interesting people, and they're a valuable tool and an asset to what we do.

And I think in Manitoba, I don't know if you agree or disagree, I think we have one of the best managed fisheries anywhere that I've ever seen.

Yeah, I mean, I would probably agree with that, just for the fact that I hope they're hiring the best.

I mean, considering they're looking at Lake Winnipeg, you know, White Shell, very important parks that bring lots of money into the province.

So, based on what I've seen with who's in charge, I think the fisheries are in good hands.

Yeah, I mean, I've been in this business 45 years now, and one of the first contacts I had was the fisheries branch, and I'd go in there at least once a week during the wintertime.

And talk to the people to see what was going on.

And we had some pretty involved conversations.

I remember Carl Wall, probably 38 years ago, we talked about barbless.

And they were going to be the first jurisdiction in North America to implement barbless total province-wide.

And, you know, it was interesting because we got in discussion about why would you do it and what is the benefits of it.

And he gave me a pretty interesting rationale.

He said, well, yeah, I mean, it's going to be easier to release the fish, but I think he said it's an awareness of that you're buying into, you know, the sustainability of the environment.

And I think that, I mean, that's, to me, that is a very valid answer.

Agree or disagree?

I would agree, yeah.

Yeah, so anyway, we've been kind of leading the way on that.

But, so how did, how did you get involved in, how did you fall in this passion for the fishing part of the world?

So, like, I grew up at a family cabin, like, on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.

Parents bring out the whole family pretty much every weekend when I was younger.

Like, they don't fish or anything, so it was kind of just something I got into myself.

Around 9 or 10, I saw someone fishing just along the shore there.

And I figured I'd give it a try.

I went home that weekend, and the following weekend, I brought out my dad's fishing rod that was sitting in the rafters collecting dust.

It was one of the old Shimano quick trigger, quick fire rod reel combos.

And, yeah, I got a couple lures from a neighbor that was just hanging around, and I tried out a couple casts, and I just, I thought it was so exhilarating, and just, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

And then, from there on, after probably about two weeks of trying it out and watching a bunch of YouTube videos and figuring out what I was doing, I finally caught my first walleye.

And I still, like, I was absolutely ecstatic.

And, yeah, it was just such an adrenaline-filled feeling that I fell in love with it right now and there.

Well, that's funny.

I have a similar experience, but I was a little older than you because I grew up in Winnipeg, but my parents, like your parents, didn't fish.

And so I didn't have much opportunity when I was younger.

And then I ended up moving to Prince Albert when I was in 1979, and I was already, like, I don't know, 36, 37 years old.

And I was lucky enough, I met some guys that liked to fish, and so the North Saskatchewan River is right on my front door.

So before I went to work, every morning, I didn't start work till noon at the television radio station.

I would go out, and the second spring up there, first day of the opening of the season, I caught a nine-pound walleye, and that was it.

But I was done, right?

You know, I mean, it's those kinds of experience that I said, I have to make this a living.

So it's great that you're headed in the same direction, and there's lots of opportunities to make a living in this industry.

So good for you.

Now, you also, as you got, I have to mention this, because a lot of your stories are centered around shore fishing, and that must be something that is close to your heart.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't have a boat for the first little while, so I was navigating and doing all my fishing from shore.

And, yeah, like, I think in comparison to boat fishing, I definitely learned the most from shore.

I feel like as you're limited, you want to be as effective as possible, and that's where I think I learned the most.

But, yeah, no, everything from the Red River into the White Shell, Lake Winnipeg, stuff like that, I started all from shore.

I didn't get the boat till much later.

Well, I found an interesting stat that was presented by Jim Linder.

He said 54% of the anglers in North America fish from shore.

So it's a huge industry.

Now, that also kind of led you into the fishing hole.

And, I mean, I've talked to the people in there, and shore fishing is a big part of what the fishing hole does, sells.

It's a big part of their inventory.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, considering what we have, too, it's so easy to fish from shore.

It's not like we have water bodies that are strictly for boat fishing.

Like, we can definitely have so many different opportunities across different parks and places.

So it's definitely more popular, I would say, than fishing from a boat for the most part, just because it's so easily accessible.

Well, let's talk about that.

When you come into your tackle store and you're looking to start being effective from shore, what kind of things would you look for, Nathan?

Well, I mean, looking at the Red River specifically, I think the biggest thing is weight selection.

So with bait cast sinkers, I've seen people using way too light.

I've seen people using just the wrong kind of weight.

I think the biggest adjustment or things that we try and encourage people to do is go heavier.

And that definitely helps a lot of people for the most part.

They're not fighting the current or stuff like that.

So I'd say that's the biggest thing.

There's also, too, when you're comparing like dollar or 99 cent pickle rigs, jumping up and going to the premium stuff, like made with heavier pound test, oversized swivels.

That stuff also helps a lot just for the amount of fish and the size of fish in the Red River, for example, like right at Lockport.

Stuff like that helps a lot with upsizing tackle selection.

How about, I know rods and reels are very, very important for a shore angler.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, the Ugly Stick Catfish combos and the Ugly Stick GX2 combos we sell left, right and center.

It's definitely the top seller as far as shore anglers and stuff like that, getting your first outfit.

But yeah, I know the mix of the graphite and fiberglass with those rods.

I mean, people love them.

People are always asking about them.

Well, I don't live very far.

I live by Polo Park, so I'm not very far from the Asinomine River and Omens Creek's right there.

And that's one of the hot spots right in Winnipeg.

And we do have a really good urban fishery here.

I know during COVID, I spent a lot of time fishing from shore.

And there's some good fish to be caught, some really nice catfish.

There's a good fall walleye run in the Asinomine as well, most years.

And I don't know if you knew this, but the Manitoba length record walleye was caught in front of the Misericordia Hospital.

Oh, I did not know that.

Yeah.

Actually, when I wrote for the Free Press, I interviewed the guy.

And there was some speculation that it wasn't a real fish, but it was verified by the fisheries department.

And I think it was 37 inches long or something.

Holy smokes.

Wow.

That's a long walleye.

It was pretty slim, but it was long.

Yeah, still.

Wow.

And you know what?

What people don't understand is that you could, I remember one time in our Fish Winnipeg, we pre-baited carp off the bridge downtown.

And so we would take people out in the afternoon and raise money for our urban angling partnership.

Anyway, the one year we did that, I was unable to, I had a family problem, so I couldn't guide that year.

But my friend went out and he went to the pre-bait spot and they won the tournament handily catching, I don't know, 25 carp from 10 to 18 pounds.

So that's another thing that people are unaware of.

If you do a little work, there's so much good fishing to be had right in the city of Winnipeg.

And of course, we have world-class catfish fishery at Lockpart and Down.

And you wrote an article about that for the fall issue, which is going to be out here shortly.

So what were some of the keys for you if people want to go out to Lockpart and catch catfish, either from a boat or from shore?

Yeah, I mean, the two biggest things I would say, like I mentioned before, is just having the right size weight.

Certain times of the year where the locks are flowing heavier than other times of the year, I think having the proper amount of weight on is absolutely crucial.

Because, like I said, it'll just be swept downriver if you're not using it correctly.

So that's the biggest thing I would say.

Besides that, it kind of depends the time of the year, but I think having different kinds of bait readily available, whether it's chicken liver, shrimp.

Now the catfish are biting on frogs.

So it's kind of the, depending on the time of season or in the spring where they're biting more on gold, I think just having a good selection and seeing what works and what isn't working is going to help out a lot.

Have you taken up fly fishing yet?

A little bit, but not very much.

That might be the next step.

Yeah, it's funny because with the TV show that I had, I had to learn how to fly fish because I couldn't be the complete angrier if I didn't know how to fly fish.

Anyway, and I actually had the opportunity.

Stu McKay, who's been a legend in that part of the industry, was the guy that took me out to this pond, trout pond.

And he made me cast all day until I learned and came home with a sore elbow.

But I did get a, at least I was able to get the fly out and I love fly fishing, especially for pike.

So it's something as you get a little older, Nathan, I'm sure you'll take it up and it's a great, just a great part of the sport.

But anyway, I think you, judging from what you had in your bio, you like catching almost every type of fish, don't you?

Yeah, I mean, I grew up on the walleye.

I do really like the black crappie and the smallmouth bass now.

But yeah, no, I love all species for the most part.

So what's the future hold other than your education component?

What do you think your new challenges are from the fishing side of things?

You know what, I do want to get a musky on the board.

I have not really musky fished too much.

So that's something I kind of want to take up a little bit more.

Whether it's, you know, going more into Ontario or somewhere like that.

I want to get something like that done.

And then besides that, probably a pretty big sturgeon.

That'd be nice to get as well.

I mean, so many different places we can go now.

I feel like the sturgeon have come back in the last couple of decades.

So that'd be something I'd want to try again too.

Well, yeah, I was talking to one of the biologists about the sturgeon.

He's an expert on it.

And one of our writers, actually.

I'm not going to mention his name because he was going to do an article on it.

But anyway, he said that the Winnipeg River, especially Nunamik areas,

there's too many sturgeon, and basically they're eating themselves out of house and home.

So they're going to have a decision made whether they're going to allow a limited harvest of them,

First Nations or whatever.

So, I mean, that's, you know, when you're taking all these courses,

then you have to, I would imagine, figure out what works best for the resource,

for the sustainability of the resource.

Is that something that is part of what you learn?

Yeah.

I mean, getting into all the things like very, very basics.

I mean, you realize there's so much going on that you couldn't even imagine from before.

I mean, there's so many things that are interconnected and things that are happening all at once.

And the biggest thing I've learned is how fragile ecosystems are and how bound they are to change.

So, yeah, no, I definitely have more respect for all the people that are taking care of it now, too,

just because I've realized how much is actually going on and how much there is to manage.

So, yeah.

Well, yeah, at least now they are doing a fairly aggressive hiring policy.

So we are almost up to the full staff, which is fantastic.

Eric Mullen was also telling me about the fact that largemouth bass have been put into some of our stock trout lakes and they're wreaking havoc.

So for the first time this year, they actually have a limit or not a limit on largemouth bass and some of those trout ponds.

Is that correct?

Yeah, well, I mean, the biggest case study I saw was probably Hunt Lake with that.

That seemed to be one of the biggest highlights from that whole research project.

Yeah, and I know when Darren Bohannis was mapping the pits out there, the Reynolds, is that what they are called?

Reynolds Ponds?

Reynolds Ponds and Lafarge pits, yeah.

Yeah, Lafarge.

He said he saw all these huge largemouth there, like five, six, seven pound largemouth that we have.

And I guess a lot of people are targeting them now, are they not?

In kayaks and small boats and from shore.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing I've seen.

I think I've seen more posts coming out of there for people targeting the largemouth over targeting the trout.

I mean, yeah, I mean, you look at the size of fish in there.

I mean, it's absolutely incredible what's actually down there in some of the little ponds there.

Yeah, no, that's for sure.

And we do have an extremely diverse fishery.

When Eric Mullen, he's from Ontario, first came in, I said,

why did you take a job in Manitoba as a fisheries biologist?

And he said, well, I loved it here.

He said, you have such a diversity of species that you can catch.

I don't think people understand what we have in Manitoba, right?

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And even with myself, too, I was pretty naive to what we actually have as far as different angling opportunities.

I mean, you can go up, like we said, to the Red River, right in the city and catch trophy class channel catfish.

You can go up to Hecla in the spring and catch the biggest wall you've ever seen in your life.

Not only that, but they're also a different, they're greenbacks.

So it's super cool what we have.

And yeah, I think a lot of people are very happy with what we have here in Manitoba.

Well, Sarah Hennessy is a good example of that.

Her and Brina and Brina Tuff and all her fishing partners, they target the white mud and the deltas and stuff for, you know, carp and freshwater drum.

And I mean, those are two species that I love fishing.

Actually, I just got back from Last Mountain Lake in Saskatchewan, and we had a half day of carp fishing with my friend Rob Schultz.

And I had many years, I did a complete angler show with Rob, and I had a 13-foot rod custom built for that experience.

And that's one thing I learned from shore fishing.

If you have a longer rod, number one, you can get the bait out further.

Number two, you can handle the fish when you hook one.

And you're able to, you know, keep it out of trouble for one thing.

And so, you know, and I like the fact that my 13-foot rod had a soft tip, and the last two-thirds of it were fairly stiff, so they can handle 20-plus pound carp in their hard-fighting fish.

So, yes, we have a great diversity of species here.

And sunfish have become a little bit of a player in certain parts of the province.

But I think black crappies have really taken over.

Do you like fishing for those, Nathan?

Yeah, I mean, it's just way different than the walleyes in the smallmouth, in my opinion.

I mean, you're looking for your screen to light up when you're trolling around.

It's just super cool.

And, I mean, targeting specific ones out of the school, I think, is just so much fun.

Yeah, I actually grew up guiding black crappies in Lake of the Woods, so that was a bit of a challenge, figured out how to catch those little rascals.

Yeah, where they are.

But they're a little easier to catch in the spring and the fall time, especially in the fall time when they school up a little bit deeper water.

I remember doing a show with Gussie when he still had his TV show in Lake of the Woods.

We found them on a mud rock line, and they were eating insects as they migrated to the hard bottom.

Boy, it was fun.

Caught lots of them.

I love fishing crappies.

It's one of my all-time favorite.

Future articles, what do you got on your plate coming up?

What do you think kind of trips you got planned?

What kind of ideas do you have?

Well, for the winter, I'll definitely be back up on Lake Winnipeg, so we'll see something like that.

As far as next spring, there's a couple ideas of going into, like, Turtle Mountains, Duck Mountains, maybe a little bit more Riding Mountain National Park.

We'll see with some friends.

But, yeah, no, I definitely have a few ideas, a couple ideas in the chamber.

But, yeah, we'll see how it plays out.

Okay.

And how's school going?

Pretty good right now.

I mean, we're still in the introduction kind of thing, first week.

But, yeah, I've definitely got my plate full, as I'm finding out here, for the next little while.

It's cutting down on your fishing time.

Oh, it's going to hurt big time for the next little while.

But it'll be all worth it when we're back out.

It'll be that much more enjoyable.

Well, that's good.

I'm so glad you're able to contribute to the magazine.

We really appreciate that.

And, you know, it's very important that we have young people involved in the industry and passionate about the sport.

And it's nice to see that you're working toward that degree.

And hopefully you'll get a job, full-time job in the industry.

Thank you very much.

Well, thanks for coming on, Nathan.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for tuning in.

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