Downsizing for giant Lake Winnipeg greenback

Pretty well everyone you talk to has the same topic of interest....the damn winter weather. Its getting downright cold! Wind from all directions, fronts, vortices and cold. Any chance of the fish getting into a pattern? Not even close. This winter has even Lake Winnipeg walleye acting like, well, walleye. The arm wrenching strikes on targets have been missing the last few weeks. The fish are still in the area but a lot of lookers are showing up on the Vexilars. Time to downsize. And again. Finally we found what the fish are interested in eating. 1/8oz Clam Blade Spoons in pink/gold with a tailhooked live minnow.

When setting up the shack (because lets be honest there's not a pile of run and gun fishing in -40C) I drill 3 holes and use the center one for ripping a load rattle bait. The fish will still come in on this but want something more snack sized to chew.

Travel is tracks only now and extensions are the norm. 

Ice Team @ Tolen's Pelican Landing Resort on Lake of the Woods

I was lucky enough to be asked to help represent Ice Team at a contest giveaway from the St Paul Ice Show. 1 lucky winner was picked out of thousands of entries to head up to Tolens Pelican Landing on Lake or the Woods in Morson Ontario, with fellow Ice Team pro Jeff Andersen. Joining us were Clam Outdoors president Steve Geertsen, his son and contest winner Dustin and his father Bryce.

Like much of the ice belt, temperatures were brutally cold the previous couple of weeks, however luck was on our side as the weekend warmed up to near 0C. Perfect to run and gun to get after the myriad of species in this untapped area on Lake of the Woods, which in itself is the best multispecies freshwater fishery in the world.

Tolen's is the perfect base for mobile ice anglers running snowmobiles and portables. New cabins, a comfortable main lodge and access to great fishing. Robert and his family run an first rate camp. We made a amazing scenic run to chase lakers, walleye were found on any main lake point with a deep hole off it. Most surprising of all was the crappie bite. Slabs! we caught big numbers of fish in the 14-15" range. Actually we caught 11 species on the weekend and all on the 1/8oz pink Clam Blade spoon. Pink has long been my go to colour on the northern part of LOTW and it sure transferred here.

Bottom line, great fishing, company, and resort.

 

Icefishing Lake Winnipeg Dec. 16, 2013

After a week of being down with some sort of bird, pig or monkey flu it was great to get out onto the lake, put the new ride through the paces and catch a few fish. The morning started out in a whiteout with little to no visibility. We tried a few spots in deeper, clear water and came up empty, with few fish showing on the Vex's. Made a move towards the mouth in 10fow and hunkered down for a bit. As the wind blew itself out and the sun came out so did the fish. Not a big numbers day by any means but the quality could not be beat. We couldn't catch small fish!!


Ice thickness ranged from 12-18" where we drilled. There is some rough ice and some cracks/ridges, however not a pile of snow, travel should not be an issue...however more snow is in the forecast. Gotta love tracks!

Ice Team TV in Manitoba's Parkland

After a whirlwind week of scouting safe ice, traveling, fishing and filming its time to put some of this to the keyboard.

After a quick scouting mission on the Red to secure lunch, I headed west to check the ice on a couple of lakes and see what was biting. Ice conditions showed a fairly uniform 6-9" on the 3 lakes I looked at Sunday. Spent a few hours fishing and got a couple fish....confidence was running pretty high for day 1 with the camera. Fellow Ice Team pro Jeff Andersen and cameraman and theorist extraordinaire Greg U. were coming up to capture the amazing 1st ice bite for stocked trout in Western MB's Parkland Region.

Got the guys, got some sleep and woke up to big south winds, and everyone's friend horizontal snow. We had a few (very few) chances and managed 1 good fish for the show. Wow...are we going to get a show? After some intense discussions it was decided to stick out the trout and try a new lake the next day. Good choice.

In the first 20 mins we had a couple of dandys on the ice.One big hen brown adorned Jeff's Lift Suit with a souvenior.

Our hot baits were small creature baits, this brown's undoing was a deadsticked Maki Maki

Team selfie!

We found fish along edges in 3-8 fow, small plastics were best for us, a mix of jigging and deadsticked presentations work. White seemed to be the colour of preference. We managed a number of fish catches on film and shot some great underwater footage of these gorgeous fish. Keep an eye out for this online and on WFN at a later date. Can't thank Greg and Jeff enough, great team to work with. Working behind the scenes to make this shoot a success were Sandi and Paul....THANKS!


Last, I had a chance to try out the Clam Auger Conversion Kit I had really dismissed it as something for others further south and of little utility for us here in MB. I was pleasantly surprised. With a 7" bit this machine drilled 35 holes through 8" of ice on 1 battery in -20C. For early ice and panfish, this rig is slick. Being able to walk and drill holes carrying half the weight of a conventional auger really facilitates mobility which makes you more succesful. Is this for Lake Wpg in March? Of course not, but when conditions allow it is a great tool.

Stay tuned for ice updates on the conditions sections of the blog....

Why we do what we do - the guide life

This video struck a chord with me, its worth a watch and heeds a listen.

No doubt making some cash is a requsite to enjoying the things we all want to do in this life, but when you commit yourself fully to anything and work your ass off the money will follow. I made a big change in the last year to pursue the outdoors and guiding as a career path, there hasn't been a day that work sucked since. Sure there are days that are more difficult than others, but whats the alternative.

Lake Winnipeg Ice Conditions Nov 21 2013

Took a walk out (thinking thin) to see what ice conditions are looking like on Lake Winnipeg in hopes to get out after some early walleye.

Its frozen 1-2 miles off shore. 100 yards out from my place it was 2.5-3"...calculated risk as wader fishing last week I found this to be 4-5 feet deep with a hard bottom.

Anyways jagged ice has formed from recent winds and it looks like a nice ice ridge forming out from Matlock, right now there is a 1/4 mile of no ridge further south. The next week or 2 will tell the tale on the ice conditions in the southwest part of  basin for the winter.

Stay tuned. And stay off...for now.

Is it frozen yet?

No. But there are signs of freeze up. about 8 hours of calm and cold had about 500 yards of skim ice around Matlock this morning. With a bit of wind alot broke up but there is still a fair bit out there.

Pray for calm and cold.