Fly Fishing Reports for 2023
To save time and to have pleasant, fly fishing stuff to do in the winter, I have just made one large report.
As I didn’t go to Florida and it was a long winter, My first report is not until May.
1. May 14th Secret trout creek
If I am going to wait this long to fish, better make it a good one! Lots of walking and small trout to get the cob webs out.
2. Manigotagan River May 22nd
A couple hours north, in the middle of nowhere for bass, pike and red fin suckers.
3. Manigotagan River May 28th
Go to the same place twice in a row? Well give the sucker runs and presence of big female bass is temporary, get will the getting’s good!
4. Secret Creek June 18th
Pretty much Father’s day fly fishing
5. Pine River Manitoba June 30th
1st day on a 9 day trip. First stop is the lower crossing of the Pine river. No fish really but beautiful shots from my drone.
6. Pine River Manitoba July 1st
Canada Day Fly Fishing For Native Brook trout!
7. Goose River Manitoba July 2nd
Near Cranberry Portage. Took a while to get a feel for the place. Managed a sucker and to crash my drone. It was retrieved and flew fine!
8. Goose River July 3rd
We explored the lower Goose River searching for the Brook Trout.
Then headed back up closer to the canyon.
When you’re the trip photographer, getting pictures of your own fish can be a challenge.
Not much chance to get a night sky photo on this trip
9. Goose River July 4th
Repeat
Stu Trying for a resting pike in the shallows.
When we say it’s a one fly situation, it means the fly lasts one fish.
10. Barbe Lake July 5th
Is it pronounced Barb or Barbie?
Stocked Trout Brookies and Rainbows
I took only a couple of photos of landed fish as I was counting on my GoPro Footage to cover the rest but the GoPro 11 defaults to HVEC format and that is a whole layer of processing. Suffice it to say I caught quite a few big trout both Brookies and Bows
11. Barbe Lake July 6th
The rest of the group did a day trip into Amphipod Lake I returned to Barbe.
Again, I counted on the video to capture my success but I manage a few more pictures.
We finished the day at Goose River.
12, 13. July 8th and 9th Pine River
On the drive back we revisited the Pine.
Kinda a repeat of last time, lots of nice fish and scenery
14-15. More Brook Trout
I will never tire of brook trout. Our little secret was in high water mode (with the help of a beaver family)
16. August 14 Downstream of the private access brook trout section
Nothing but chubs. But they take a fly well (especially drys), fight hard, grow big and there are large numbers! Hardly picture worthy though.
17. August 22nd Fly Casting Class
I joined fellow club members in teaching a fly casting and fishing class. I am not a fan of this approach (large numbers varying levels of interest) but people learn to cast a bit and saw fish landed.
18. Aug 26 Brook trout Stream
Never disappoints
19. Trip to Ontario for Labour Day
My sister rented a cottage in Tamworth. The dock fishing was amazing but also a nearby stream to wade for smallies!
20. Dock at Tamworth
Actually the dock. As mentioned the fishing off the dock was spectacular!
21, 22, 23, Sept 29, 30 Oct 1st. Failed Pine River Trip
Thought a fall trip to the Pine would be awe some. Turns out the fish disappear at this time. We tried the lower mid and headwater sections and got zero fish. The scenery was spectacular but we needed to go to an old standby to actually get fish.
25. Oct 15th Lyon’s Lake
I remember when the bulk of my reports would be out of the Whiteshell area with the River and this lake making the majority of trips. Still a beautiful easy access place to fish.
26. LDP Trout Pond
As the light fades it’s nice to have a couple of trips that don’t entail driving back in the dark with every other car having headlamps with X-Ray strength.
27. Fairford River
When the weather changes here, it changes hard. Now we have ice flows and snow on the ground. Walleyes on a fly rod!
28-35 Florida Dec 23rd-31st
Every year we go to Florida to celebrate Christmas. What’s Florida without fishing bass ponds and what’s Christmas without flyfishing?
A mix of Largies, Shell Crackers, and Pumpkin Seeds…some of which got photos
That’s it folks. 35 fishing days. Some all day some just a few hours. This is a number I strive to beat each year. This was a low year for me so next year should be easier.
Fly Fishing Manitoba
info@flyfishingmanitoba
Winnipeg,
Manitoba
Canada
R3N 1P5
(Texting only) 204-770-0846
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
Manigotagan River Manitoba May 22nd 2023
Time for our semi annual trip the Wood Falls Section of the Manigotagan River 200km north east of Winnipeg Manitoba.
Each year we go open minded and so far it has given something different each time.
Once known as White Bass hot spot the last few times we have been there has been Smallmouth Bass Northern Pike and Shorthead Redhorse Suckers.
This trip we were into bass, lots of bass and good size. They were females fresh from leaving the males on the beds protecting fry. So they were hungry!
A few bite off and one pike landed.
I was using a 6wt Switch rod and my partner was using a 7wt. Fly of the day was the Black over white Clouser. Other flies worked but not as well.
Also included is this video I shot between fish. A mix of drone footage, hand held and still photos.
The End of the Fairford River Freeze Off
With the new regs in place, giving us year round fishing (except for the Holy Walleye), the need to scream 2½ hours north to the only fly rod friendly water in the province, before seasons end, is gone.
It was a great run. 20 years of getting some fishing in before the 6 week closure.
We had good years, brutal years and everything in between. The thought of going another 6 weeks after a long winter propelled us northward willing to brave brutal winds bone chilling temps a icy waters and frozen line guides.
Now, if you want to scratch that itch, we can go any mild day of the year.
In some ways I’ll miss it.
It really was thing to look forward to.
It really attracted new comers to the sport
It highlighted the hardcore fly rodders.
But 20 years is a good run for a tradition that helped build fly fishing in the province.
Whiteshell Pike and Bass Trip
Around this time of year my fishy senses start to tingle as the pike and bass move into the shallows of the Winnipeg River tributaries. They are there all year long but the numbers and sizes are better early season (May from the opener to the middle of June). A narrow window of opportunity exists before the bigger fish move deeper and they spread out in general.
Mostly Pike, lots of hits and some sign of Bass.
Typically going on a Friday, after the long weekend and before school lets out you wouldn’t see another person but these are unusual times for sure and the parking lot and launch were the busiest I have ever seen them.
Casting Classes
While I haven’t done any fishing since getting back from vacation, I have given some casting classes. These are all private lessons and (if needed) I supply the gear. On the 20th I was teaching a fella who is planning on retiring to the B.C. mountains.
A few days later I gave a fly rod casting lesson to a fella who’s van trip to the mountains was thwarted by engine failure.
I went a little earlier so I could shoot some birds.
The next fella was a guy who hasn’t had much success fishing but thought fly fishing was for him.
With these classes I use 6wt rods (which I feel are a good 1st outfit for Manitoba Waters) a real leader and real flies (with the points off so no one gets a hook in them)
All of these folks couldn’t cast even a little but by the end of the hour they had the skills that could get them fish!
Whiteshell River Tour September 2nd 2018
I had been fishing since I got back from my trip to Newfoundland (where I fished a lot!). One because I was quite busy with gigs (playing music) two, we had some brutally hot weather and three, I was giving my music school a bit of a make-over.
But this date was booked way back and I was kinda needing to get back out there.
Because it was the Sunday of the last long weekend of the summer I could not take him to all my spots. Luckily I have a few spots that are less known.
We caught trout, pike and perch and missed out on bass which are pretty likely and walleye that are almost impossible this time of year for wading fishers.
The client was from Italy and marveled at all our wild spaces and so much open areas. Italy has almost twice the population of Canada but could fit comfortably inside our province.
Ironically, we happen to be planning a family vacation to Italy next year and my client this day has offered not only tourist advice, but to set up some fishing opportunities!
Funny how things work out.
Big Creek Manitoba Fly Fishing for Bass and Pike
The first fish I ever caught on a fly rod was a small-mouth bass in a southern Ontario stream. That fish and fight hooked me on fly fishing and I love to return to that regularly. I thought that, after good rains followed by steady weather, today would make a prime time to try. We went to Big Creek Manitoba. This is a big creek that feeds into the Winnipeg river system inside the Whiteshell Provincial Park. We launched our float tubes and and went at it. I found active fish pretty early.
The first fish was my first bass of the year (not counting Florida) and was nice at just under 18″.
I called to my fishing partner to come over as there were plenty of active fish in this inlet.
The next fish might have been the best of season and maybe my best bass.You can hear and see it on the video at the end of this article
After that there was numerous hits tugs and struggles. I worked the area, where I lost that fish, pretty hard and but only got one more bass and pike to hand.
My partner caught 5 smallies and zero pike.
Here is the full video (at least until the battery died).
The storm clouds you can see in the background of the photos and videos, finally caught up to us and we got off the water.
We were craving a burger from the Nite Hawk Cafe so we drove to the south east part of the park. If that seems like a long drive to you, you’ve never had one of their burgers!
As we were in the area, we thought we’d take a look at the Whiteshell creek after the disappointment of June 8th’s trip
Apparently there was supposed to be a tour ending with a stocking on the 9th. Our thinking being, 2 weeks might have given the fish time to acclimate.
There were no fish.
I don’t know if they stocking was so small as to be meaningless, the stocking didn’t happen, the mergansers picked them off or what. But no trout but also no native fish or fish sign at all.
The head waters are in trouble and maybe all of this is the after math of the stream ‘improvements’ and the bridge reconstruction. Maybe it will rebound in a few years. Maybe not at all
Whitshell park spots
ON Friday myself and a friend hit a few spots along the Whiteshell River.
This Manitoba river winds through the park from McDougall’s landing to the Nutimik portion of the Winnipeg River. There are a handful of places where the river is accessible from road points without too much hiking.
We hit a few of these
We found mostly 12″ pike and the odd perch.
We found this very unusual. Typically the pike would be bigger and there could be more variety in species, but this has been a bizarre spring and the fish patterns are WAY off!
We also found it unsatisfying, so we headed down to the stocked portion of the river. This is usually stocked, stocked early and often
Not a sniff. We did read that they were going to make a big deal out the stocking the next day at the end of some tours ad presentations.
We are suspecting that the lack of stocking over all and the not publishing of reports for 2 years is to hide from the public how bad things are. Particularly how bad stocking is for non politically motivated lakes and streams.
There was some work done to create more fish habitat but someone put the ‘dead fall’ in backwards. A tree that falls into a river does not fall roots first.
I am not sure the logic. On one hand the roots will provide under water micro habitat for minnows and fingerlings. On the other hand they look hideous and unnatural. They are also going to be line and fly snaggers.
I am hoping this spring levels out and a normal summer leads to a great fall but right now the warm water fly fishing is weird and the stocked trout fishing is in precarious need of fixing, particularly in the fairness department.
FRFO (Fairford River Freeze Off)
Every spring, on the last day of the general season, we head up to the only open water in the province. Fairford river is 2 hours north of Winnipeg. Because of the drop it never freezes along a short distance from the dam on highway 6 on its way to Lake St. Martin. The species caught can vary widely but this year is was just Lake Cisco (locally know and tulibee) This is the first year I did not attend for non weather reasons. Any kind of weather can happen at this time of year. While some years have been beautiful this year was more like its normal self with a daytime high of -7
