This summer I have been working on some projects out in Manitoba. I knew I would be out here for a while so packed a bit of fishing gear and planned on trying for catfish and then maybe some other fish in the area.
On my first couple weekends I hit up Lockport. First trip the water was high and it took me a few tries to find a decent spot but I ended up with my first channel catfish and then caught a couple more. Next trip I caught around 10 more, most were pretty similar size but I didn't get any great pictures and only have these ones of my first channel catfish.
Once I knew I was going to be out here for a while longer I decided to message a few lodges in the Kenora region as I was curious about how covid was affecting prices. Sure enough they are hurting as 95% of their customers are Americans. Some lodges aren't even planning on opening this year and others are offering some deep discounts to try and gain new Canadian customers. I ended up booking with Tamarack Wilderness Lodge and hit it up this past long weekend. It was a beautiful long weekend but the lodge wasn't even half full, if anyone is interested in trying out musky fishing I would highly recommending hitting them up while things are slow as the current rates are extremely reasonable and they could use some support to try to break even this year.
Anyways once I showed up at the lodge I discussed things with the owner and guide. I told them musky was my primary target and that after I caught one of them I might want to try for crappie. They explained that both species are hard to catch but I should be able to get a musky with some effort and might get lucky and jig up a crappie when fishing for walleye.
I started out the weekend with a day of guided musky fishing on Friday. We started the day off hot with a high 40s pushing 50 inch musky follow less than half an hour in then a second smaller follow shortly after. I was thinking this was going to be easy, then things dried up... It was a hot day and the fish were lethargic and we ended up only seeing 4 more follows the rest of the day.
On Saturday I was on my own and the wind was blowing so fishable spots were limited. I put in a long day but only managed a few more follows and a nice 40 inch pike.
Then on Sunday the wind was still blowing a bit but there were a few more options to fish. In the morning I hooked into a fish and once I saw it I thought I had hooked a musky. It ended up being a half discolored 41 inch pike though.
The rest of the day I was unable to find fish yet again and after ~ 36 hrs of fishing I was still musky skunked and heading into my final day of fishing. I wasn't going down without a fight so I woke up at the crack of dawn and hit the water. I figured I could fish till around 2 before I would have to head back to camp to start the trip back to Winnipeg. The weather was finally ideal with a calm day and temperatures in the low to mid 20s. I hit all the fishing spots I had found in the previous days bouncing from island to point to bay in search of fish. Around 11 AM I had my 3rd follow and was able to get the fish to figure 8. After a few figure 8's I was able to coax a strike but unfortunately she only glanced the lure and didn't get hooked but realized she didn't want to eat the lure and swam away.
I kept on fishing and had a couple more follows but still couldn't catch a musky. It was 1 PM and I was running out of time, I decided to go try a new island and a new unproven lure (Rapala Super Shadow Rap) in the hopes it would elicit a strike with its action and rattle. I had worked my way half way around the island when I made another cast and could see a fish come screaming up and slam my lure. Once I got a good look I confirmed it was a musky and my heart rate spiked as I tried to fight the fish one handed and wrestle to get the musky net ready with my other hand. A few moments later I had my first musky in the net and was able to breath a huge sigh of relief. It was a nice 45.75 inch musky and worth the ~43 hours of effort through the weekend.
It was 1:45 and I figure I better head back to camp. While on the way I decided to hit up a reef to use up my last 4 minnows and hopefully get a couple walleye to bring back. First minnow down I caught a small walleye then second minnow down what do you know I caught my first crappie!
In all it was a great weekend. Extremely tiring and frustrating at times but worth it. I caught musky, pike, walleye, perch, sauger, saugeye, crappie, smallmouth bass and rock bass. Kind of neat fishing the reefs and not having any idea what you might reel up next.
Catfish & Musky
Hybrid Mode
