Jumping Cracks on Lake Winnipeg

The spanish-named, Pacific-driven weather patterned that rule Manitoba's December left us with odd ice conditions on Lake Winnipeg.

No snow, ridges, cracks, open water have made for some tenuous travel.  Also large patches of extremely rough ice have left a few areas less than desirable to travel.

A few cms of snow the last couple of days was enough to take the new sled out. (Polaris Voyager 155, which is an icefishing beast)

Jumped some cracks, that were wider than expected but made a full scouting run.

We were rewarded with a good suspended bite on some big fish and lots for the pan.

Even managed to tempt a goldeye on a rattle bait!


Be safe out there, don't assume any ridge or crack is safe, test, travel in pairs, bring safety gear.

Getting involved

Sitting down with a cocktail following the first day of the MLOA (Manitoba Lodge & Outfitters) Convention had me wondering. Why aren't there more faces in the crowd?

I see this as a no brainer to be involved with. I'd just like to encourage my guiding/outfitting colleagues to take the time to be involved in similar groups in your jurisdiction. Having a group to be on top of the myriad of issues facing this industry and being an advocate for operators is invaluable. Trying to navigate these issues is a full time job and being present to be apart of the conversation is key.

Check out the MLOA website at MLOA

PS. 17" of ice on the westside of Lake Winnipeg. More reports to follow this week.

PPS. New sled is getting picked up Thursday...pumped. Westside Honda/Polaris took good care of me again on this. Great local dealer!

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....

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.