Rivers Finally Become Fishable
The month of May at us going to the same secret trout stream that well I don’t keep it a state secret I don’t post it on the Internet because we know what Internet does to fishing spots. So we went on the 9th and the 25th. On the 9th when I caught 19 fish. The fish were stacked up in the pools and not in the rapids. The water was quite cool and there would be 20 to 60 fish in each pool. Which was amazing that we only managed 19 for the day but was really good to see is a lot of fish in a lot of places as opposed to the main spots as usual. Travelling from spot to spot, we probably scared as many fish as we saw.
The next time
The second time we went it was fished till sunset and and drove out in the dark. The air temperature was 21 to 12 and we got so many on rolled muddlers and nymphs and a few on drive flies just for the fun of it! and he has you know it’s late at night but you got fish until sunset more often that’s for sure!
And Again
We were going to fish a different area and then we saw so many birds of prey that we decided to fish the main trout section. Now you may say what does that have to do with anything but, over the years we have found that when the solunar cycle is at a certain way the birds of the prey and the animal activity of predators goes up and it does seem to correlate to fish activity and it turned out to be the right idea. We went straight to our favorite pool got fish but we found fish in all sorts of places and were able to catch them in pools that haven’t had fish in for quite a number of years. Hard to fish pools and in some pools that we only find available and active later season so it was actually very hard to leave the fishing was so good we caught like 60 fish between us.
Oh Heck Why Not Go Again and Make a Weekend of It?
Left straight from work on Saturday and got to start fishing around 4 in the afternoon until sunset. Stayed overnight in a motel in the area and went back on the river by eight in the next morning got off about 11 to drive home as I had a gig that evening. We found a Beaver Dam down way downstream and it was full of fish. We really only got to look at a little bit because of the long walk back And it looks like there’s more of a below that and so we’ll be looking at that later on this year. Both look extremely fishable as opposed to you know Beaver dams where it’s so mushy on the outsides of it that you can’t get at it except by standing on the dam and tangling your line up in all the sticks! When we went back the next day we just basically fished some of the closer spots to where we park.
The winning fly for that day though was a tie that I had made over the winter that I thought might be good for a bass and it’s basically a rolled muddler done in all white so white rolled feathers, crystal flash and white deer hair for a body and based on the way the fish hit it it has been named Rage Bait.
Having Too Much Fun Fishing to Take too Many Photos
I promise, the next installment will not be brook trout from a Creek I can’t tell you about.
A Fly Fishing Season Start Unlike Other Places
Well most places have their seasons start early like ours does the target species is usually trout. Now our trout season, at least in streams, doesn’t start until the middle of April. But it might as well be April Fool’s Day because most of our trout are stocked fish in lakes and this far north, are still ice covered The middle of April most of our rivers are unfishable. If we’re lucky it’s thawed but they’re just running high and brown but typically they’re still very very low with lots of water locked in the in the hills and valleys around the handful of trout rivers we do have.
So our start of the season tends to be the Fairford River in Fairford Manitoba
Because of the drop, from the control structure, it is water that is open all year round but it’s pretty hard to stand in when it’s minus anything. Sometimes we get up there earlier in the year, if we have a mild spell that gets it close to above or below freezing. So spring break is our official start to our fly fishing season and we are just waiting for the ice come to come off of lakes from that point forward.
Back in the old days
We used to find giant schools of Tulabi, better known as Lake Cisco, in recent years those numbers have dropped way down but our experience of fishing this water has enabled us to find other target species that happened to be there feeding on the tulabi, like pike and walleye. But on really warm years, as the climate is circular, we’ve been able to get carp as well! This year was mostly just the Lake Cisco but I did catch like my biggest one ever close to 14 inches. We were there for 4 hours ’cause we still don’t have the good light and it’s still bloody cold but it was a good time.
We got lucky with a high of +4° C that day The fish were caught on a Bucktail streamer with holographic black collar. Only three fish caught but they were good ones. and by good I mean these fish actually put a bend in a 10′ 8 weight.
After that much fishing that much cold, it was time for a high calorie high protein meal before the trip home.
July Fly Fishing North/Central Manitoba
July has us doing a second (annual?) trip to Cranberry Portage Manitoba. Like last year, first stop is the Pine River, just north of Dauphin Manitoba.
I am pretty good with the bugs in the province, but it was a record year and I was ill prepared. One, no amount of bug spray or pipe smoking stopped the onslaught and two, the road was in too rough a shape to hazard bottoming out the SUV again!
Next year I am definitely bring a bug net to wear and possibly renting a more robust vehicle!
Barbe Lake Manitoba
The next day we only ventured to the 1st crossing on the Pine. it has been good in some years but the last 2 no fish to even scare.
the next day we made our way up to Cranberry Portage and our first day fishing was good old Barbe Lake.
Webster Lake Manitoba
The next day I went and got skunked at Webster Lake I actually got one small fish near the end the lake was quite weedy and hard to fish The other guys went to Amphipod Lake and did quite well actually.
Amphipod Lake
At the insistence of the other guys in the party, I went to Amphipod Lake. The always generous Stu lent me his float tube because my fish cat is just too much boat to try and drag into a portage so that’s what we did and I had a great day and got a bunch of really big fish here are the video and photos.
Language Warning
Sorry, but the first two fish got off way too easily and a little frustrating so I admit to possibly swearing.
Webster Lake Manitoba
A lovely lake that reportedly was stocked with a rainbow trout and has fished fairly well but by the time I got to it was very very weedy had a large populations of loons working the shallows. I got like one small trout kind of in the middle of the day
Beautiful lake probably better there to get earlier in the season or maybe not in the middle of a heat wave.
Scotty Lake
Another gem of a lake in the middle of all this beauty. Again, another lake that was supposedly stocked with two or three kinds of trout. All we managed was perch but being far away from everything it was actually quite nice there.
Dauphin Manitoba
Since the Pine River was such a bust we decided to fish the Vermilion River. It’s a shorter drive easier on the car.
Nice catching some chunky small mouth bass in a river .
Halfway through it I did switch over to my fishing partner’s Stephen Jay 7wt bamboo, that was made by Marcel Duval, and caught a few fish that way.
Summary
This will be the second time going up north and stopping off in Dauphin to go up to Cranberry Portage and hit some of those lakes up there. Overall it wasn’t as good I got skunked on some of the trout lakes, Goose was unfishable Pine was a disaster. I definitely going to be prepared for bugs next time but it was nice to finish off with Vermilion and some bass
Some big fish were caught and some lessons learned.
June 2024 Fly Fishing Report
The first weekend of the month had us a our favourite healing space.
We explored a northern blue ribbon that looked great on maps and in real life. While it was interesting there was zero fish of any sort.
Also the bugs where extra so we headed south to more familiar waters
Didn’t take too many pictures as we were a little busy catching
We also went two weekends later
Robert Burton
info@flyfishingmanitoba.com
204-770-0846 (Texting only)
May Fly Fishing Manitoba and Ontario
My true opener
I did go to Ontario for the Victoria Day Weekend but the fishing areas and opportunities were poor
Back home to fish the Lac Du Bonnet Ponds
Robert Burton
info@flyfishingmanitoba.com
204-770-0846 (Texting only)
Big Creek Manitoba
I need to make better notes on these trips if I am going to wait so long to post them.
I remember thinking it was a bonus trip as we no longer have a closed season but no one told the fish
I am guessing it was too early and too cold.
Robert Burton
info@flyfishingmanitoba.com
204-770-0846 (Texting only)
March 2024 Fly Fishing
I went one place, froze and got skunked…great day
Robert Burton
info@flyfishingmanitoba.com
204-770-0846 (Texting only)
Stonfo Razor Blade holder
It is not news that trimming and shaping materials like spun deer hair and sculpin wool, is best don with a razor blade. But, as a professional musician and educator, I can’t take a chance of slicing my fingers for the sake of a fly.
I have just trimmed with scissors and accepted the results.
Enter the Razor Stonfo tool. The grip spins to allow trimming with the razor flat or a semi circle. For me, who’s been tying for years, it is a game changer. Ya my scissor trimmed muddlers still caught fish, but now I can show them in public.
Overall, I tie to ‘throw not to show’ so I am not looking to win an tying contest but, this tool makes trimming spun deer hair fun and fast.
Here’s a short video.
Spindler Popper Body Tool
Popper bodies for exciting top water action is nothing new. The variety of shapes, sizes and colours is truly great today but, if we are going to tie our own flies, let’s make our own foam shapes!
make your Own Popper Bodies
Mike Corrigan, from the Manitoba Fly Fishers Association, turned us onto a tool for turning out popper bodies for fly fishing with a Dremel tool. Called the Spindler, it is a take on an old way I used to spin popper bodies. I burned out my old Dremel making them.
We’d take an industrial sewing needle (because they where thick enough to put in the Dremel’s chuck and also some bite to the foam. I used to make foam cylinders sharpening a bit of copper tube and hammering it into beach sandals. They were called “beach sandal poppers. Then stick them on the needle and run the rotary toll on high and apply an emery board to shape and smooth.
Introducing “The Spindler”
I bought mine from The Caddis Fly Shop but they seem to readily available online and in some stores.
Now the next stage is I got some “Hollow Punch” drill bits to create some raw popper shapes
Here’s a video of successes and failures
January 2024 Fly Fishing Florida
Fishing the last few days of our annual Florida Christmas Trip.
Last day in the Destin area
Then 2 days later I fishing the pond in the parking lot of Coronado Springs in Disney
I only Got one bass and that was while trying to avoid a small gator
No More fishy until March at the earliest
Robert Burton
info@flyfishingmanitoba.com
204-770-0846 (Texting only)