Fly Fishing in the Parkland 

By Bob Sheedy

Don't come to the area expecting systems, techniques and fly patterns from other areas to always work on and in Parkland Lakes. We've had numerous visitors from western USA in particular who learned that lesson the hard way and found they were too oriented and inflexible with their own patterns and techniques. The lakes indicated below hold populations of very large trout--anomalous in any stillwater fishery. But that doesn't mean they are easy to catch. Quite simply put, they got that way by being shy and spooky, and they eat certain forage at different times of the year and under different weather\lake conditions. Prepare well if you're going to try your hand at this fishery. Your best bet is to get a hold of my Strategies Book and the related Top 50 Fly Pattern Book before heading out, not afterward, as many have done. They are listed elsewhere on this site. Suffice to say with gasoline prices being what they are they are a bargain in adding to your success and enjoyment.

2009 – Fall Fishing
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The following is a list of Lakes that are worth fishing, will be shortly--or were formerly worth fishing--and in some cases, well above world class. They are located in the highly fertile zone of Manitoba and Saskatchewan Parkland and in some cases beyond. Please don't ask for weekly stuff. I just don't have the time. Most of the better lakes have maps that can be found on the FLIPPR site – www.flippr.ca, after January 2010 when that update is complete.

Lake William:

Still a great holiday spot and a good place for kids to catch stunted perch until the night closes in. Some very nice trout were taken in the spring and summer of 2009. Billy is not just a bass and perch lake. Fish on top and hit the weed edges late in the evening or early in the morning.

Bower Lake:


A golden...er...medium brown... er.. tea-colored gem.

With water clarity approaching my notorious cup-of-coffee for opacity, this lake remains a difficult pond to fish unless you hit it late or early. Hit it early, before turbidity makes lateral line attraction the sole method of probing unseen slop. Bower remains a true trophy lake and is located in favorable proximity to the US border. My best results have come with bloodworm patterns in spite of the stacks of minnows that blot out sonar at times. Some bait fishermen once allowed me to examine stomach contents on some fish taken during one September. It looked like the fish has been feeding on balls of red yarn and many of the bloodworms were still alive. Consequently, my favorite Bower pattern remains the MacSheedy Bloodworm which is in my fly pattern book.

The water in Bower was heavily stained as of last report. It should clear enough in late October for a window of trophy fishing.

Twin Lake

This is a Tiger Trout Lake. Tigers are the hardest fighters found anywhere. The lake attracts people from everywhere in North America and justifiable so.  It must remain a Catch and Release Lake. Nearby Persse lake will be stocked and developed in 2009-10 and folks will be able to keep one fish under 18 inches. There are some 25 inch plus tigers in Twin now although they seem to be quite wily. Probably how they got to 25 inch plus...

Tokaryk's Lake:  

The aerator is being installed this fall on Tokaryk Lake as of this update. Fishing regs will remain unchanged and yes, you can run a gas-powered motor on the lake. Tokaryk is not a FLIPPR project but this lake was an absolute gem again. The fishing is very hot and the lake is bringing the folks back to its shores. With wintertime protection we'll see a true world-class fishery here again, for years to come.

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Spear Lake:

Spear was fished little in 2009 and those that did fish it caught more walleyes than trout.

Kennedy Lake:

Winter killed winter of '02-03. No trout in it for those who have been asking. As far as I know there are no plans to restock it. It's difficult to keep trout through winters even on aerated lakes so I doubt if anything further will be done with this one.

East Goose Lake:

Folks camp beside it and head elsewhere in the morning. Some true salmonid hawgs remain in this lake but so do walleyes. The perch population was strongly reduced by trap netting in 2009 and some walleyes transferred as well. With Twin not far away and Persse coming on-stream people will continue to camp at E. Goose until a campground is developed further north. Best place to fish it is a dusk right to the north of the sunken island and where it drops off.

West Goose 

West Goose suffered a heavy kill at the end of August 2008 when tornado like winds and a Noachian deluge caused the lake to turn over and stirred the bottom layers of anoxic water to the top. Several other lakes we were investigating for future development suffered the same fate and were dropped from the list of potential waters. West Goose is one of those lakes that requires constant observation. It is so fertile that it continues to grow the tallest cattails found anywhere! But man does it grow big fish in a hurry. I’m told that some large fish made it through the kill and the newest stockers are putting on the pork.

Pybus Lake

Stocked in 2007 and an aerator installed.  Located just one mile south of Sandy Lake. Pybus was an ice-fishing paradise for the first part of 2008-09. Rainbows now exceed 21 inches and a 25 inch fish has been caught and photographed. Water clarity is a key to good fishing and this lake seems to improve annually.

Corstorphine Lake

Corstorphine Lake is located about 7 miles NW of Sandy Lake. Two legs quit on the aeration system and the lake suffered a complete kill. Aeration is fixed and the lake restocked with rainbows—a lot of rainbows.

Anton's Lake

Located behind rest stop building at Junction of Highways 16 and 10. Trout to 20 inches have been taken. It's a pond but it’s very productive pond and a fun place on a windy day. This little water is a smashing success and kudos to the developers. I mapped it at the end of August and was happy to see it’s depth and the number of e-fish on the sonar as well as rising for backswimmers. Windy day that blew you off Tokaryk or Patterson? Head here!

Lake 400

Right under everyone's nose at Sandy Lake. It's a put and take lake but should be tons of fun once it's "discovered". 12 feet deep and crystal clear. Yes it has a population of yellow perch and the trout are not likely to overwinter but on a windy day elsewhere....

Child's Lake:
Primarily a Lake trout lake but it has a good population of Splake. Lots of big spruce trees. Some power. Store and Restaurant. This is a great place for bird-watching and boreal forest experience.  When the trout come up onto the spawning reefs in the late fall the place becomes a ff paradise,--once you get to it. Work with the lodge to get there. It's worth the trip.

East Blue:

 Holds all the Manitoba Trout records for weight and now the record for Rainbow length as well at 32 1/2 inches. It is so clear that it is renowned throughout Canada as a diving lake.  It can be tough to fish and you have to stay away from your fly, use a float tube and don't move around much. Or long-line troll like everyone else tries. I use some special bottom techniques with much more success.

This is a challenging fly-fishing lake. You can expect to go fishless on many occasions, even during the Hex hatch, which on the Duck Mountain lakes can be very impressive.

This is a plankton lake, that ends with some large schools of rather nebulous forage fish. However, my first choice of fly patterns favors, blood worms, gammarus scuds and hexagenia limbata patterns of variable color that usually are best fished at night. A BeaverRuff Dragon, fished right over the bottom would be my suggestion.

The largest trout I've ever seen in fresh water this side of the great lakes was swimming in this pristine puddle. It's a fly strollers dream.


Perch Lake:

A catch and release entity. Some of the bass are huge, true trophies, and can be seen just as it begins to come daylight. If you're in the Duck Mountains and the wind gets up (as it sometimes does on the prairies) head here. Some great brown trout fishing at times.

Laurie Lake:


A fly  troller's paradise. Why it sees such few fly fishers probably has to do with lack of success with normal techniques. There are large fish here but only in spring and fall do they work the shallows in the daytime.  A large mohair leech in #4 was the key.

Obviously, once the fish move deeper, daytime anglers would do well to use some of the deep-water techniques we posted earlier and is now found in the book, Bob Sheedy's Lake Fly Fishing Strategies

Laurie still has a good population of large browns but most fish caught are splake until the late fall brings the lakers into the shallows again

Gull Lake:


Still my favorite Duck Mountain lake. Splake, Whitefish, Brookies and Rainbows. Always my Duck Mountain pick during weekdays. Hit it early in the day and along shorelines--tight to the shorelines along the weed edges because Gull drops off quickly. It fishes well right through the season but expect summer action to be early and late. 

I suggest using some deep water techniques along the mouths of bays with bloodworm patterns or in the open lake with backswimmer imitations. In summer, work just over the thermocline, especially where it touches the shore and use your sonar to stay on that contour.  Gull is one of the few Duck Mountain Lakes without a perch incursion.

Shilliday:

Shilliday is a float tuber's paradise and its forage base promotes great growth rates. There are a lot of perch in the lake at present but there are some nice trout too. Popular on windy days. No launch for big boats though.

Two Mile Lake:

Rainbows and Brookies--and Yellow Perch. Lots of yellow perch so choose your fly patterns and adjust your technique to avoid them and still offer your fly to trout. Fish it late in the evening when it comes to life and the perch go to sleep.   It fishes best just before freeze-up, in my opinion.

Glad Lake:

Still a good place to sniggle some large Rainbows as well as lakers if you get there in the spring. If they aren't up where you can see 'em, probe the thermocline and if not there, fish the bottom. Glad is a clear water lake. I like to hit the bays. But watch for compressed balls and columns of forage fish, often boiling on the surface.

Beaver Lake:

Light fishing pressure. Adjustments are required to fish it now to prevent hooking Perch. This is one I haven't got much info on at present.

Black Beaver Lake

When it goes through through the winter Black Beaver fishes well on years when it is stocked. Not many un-aerated, shallow lakes made it through the winter of 2008-09. I have not current report on this one

Vini:

Vini is in the Porcupines. The road can be an adventure at times but has been improved.   During some visits, the lake can be phenomenal and in the past fishing pressure has been light other than for osprey activity. Vini has some large long-lived trout and is a highly recommended lake when road conditions allow. 

Gass

Nothing current to report. Couldn’t find accurate info to update.

Mid Lake

South of Thompson, Manitoba. This is a fun lake, right on the side of the road. There are great old trout in it but few are taken. It was popular in 1999-2000 but has been since "fished out"--which is a less-than-scientific term for a forage base shift. I still recommend it if you're in the area. It is stocked annually. It will never be "fished" out and is a fun lake with plenty of shallows and littoral zones.

Barbe Lake

 Learning the flavor of the year is crucial. I used to troll Deep Misery patterns with great success and if they wouldn't take that, an Olive Flash Scud. Either one or the other would work. Other times, I lowered bloodworm patterns under a slip "strike-indicator" into 33 feet of water and did a lot of loafing in my float tube. Every now and again something would respond. Olive Marabou Muddlers work fine right at dark as do Zonkers when the trout come up to feed on the forage fish. The Crystal Minnow is great right after the spawn when the Fathead minnows are dying and flipping around on the surface after spawning periods. Large brown mohair leaches work at other times. The lake has a highly variable forage base and the trout can become very selective. They drive me nuts when they go onto snails. Why do trout have to go through such selective phases? Is that why the primitive species still exists? If so Barbe will be with us for a long time!

 Good camping at Rocky Lake near Wanless.

Patterson Lake

 FLIPPR LAKE

 The Silver Beach replacement.

Thanks to the FLIPPR regulations, the RM of Rossburn and Water Stewardship plus a natural protection by acreage and the refined techniques required this has become the destinations of all destinations for North America Stillwater fly flingers. It is truly the best of the best and hosts the largest number of silver and brown legless pigs in the continent. I camp there in the summer when working on other developmental lakes in the area and often am awakened by the browns night fishing right behind my tent. The electrical sites campground was completed last spring with full 30 amp services. With good toilets and a new dock it's proving to be the attraction we always envisioned. The fishing is awesome and the sizes are amazing. In the early morning it's a true wildlife sanctuary and the sounds of nature are unbelievable from wolf howls to Canada geese awakening to a loon chorus. Plan your vacation here!

Don't forget to drop a few dollars in Rossburn, and at the Olha store. They've definitely earned it after giving us this one!

Footprint Lake

As one member of the MFFA put it, Footprint is just too near Winnipeg and the fish are just too big to require a drive to the western lakes. Footprint has produced some amazing rainbows indeed and is a venue well worth visiting. Camping available.

More

Other Manitoba waters worth mentioning, although not in our immediate sphere are:

Webster Lake and Amphipod Lake

--OVER THE LINE --

SASKATCHEWAN!

You'll have to work a little harder and brush up on your trout location techniques, but the rewards are there and very large. Saskatchewan has spectacular scenery and is a favorite of mine. I just don't care for their licensing fees, park entry gouging, and the insane ability to discourage people from taking up the sport of angling.

Wilson Lake:

Wilson hosts some very large Rainbows. It is a structure-less lake, lacking concentrators and is subject to some truly horrendous algae blooms, but is fertility cannot be argued. Use a giant scud.
Lake is aerated. Located NW of the town of Yorkton. 

Lady Lake

North of Preeceville, Sask. 
This is a great fly-fishing lake and 24-inch rainbows are common--if you fish the concentrators. It continues to harbor the colorful Tiger Trout as well--a 29-incher in 2002. This is a must lake if you are anywhere near the area-- probably the best in Eastern Saskatchewan. Fish a Beaver Leech of BeaverRuff Dragon in the deep parts if there's no action in the shallows.

Steistol Lake

Steistol is in Greenwater Provincial Park. Steistol Lake was "discovered" in 2001. It's a worthy lake and boasts excellent structure. It has record sized Rainbows but catching them is another matter. It's a hike-in lake unless you can get permission to run your quad into the lake shore. Use the techniques outlined in my Strategies book

Lake Deifenbaker:

Deif is nowhere near the Parkland, but it must be included if you even breathe Saskatchewan. I know everyone there in the province likes to fish the Little Bear Country or along the Hanson Lake Road for trout, and justifiably so, but I like Deif. Just below the dam in the tail water live world records and that is a fact! Dief has yielded 37 lb. + Brown Trout, Atlantic Salmon, Rainbows galore and all of the warm water species. Its surface area is larger than some European countries. Its shoreline and coulee contour looks like the original hydra. Love it!

Let’s hope the fish farming nets get broken again this year when the ice goes out.

Bass and Giant Pike


Many of our readers would like to hook a giant Pike on a Fly Rod. Most bypass southern climes to big lakes and lodges in Northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Sask. that offer sufficient forage bases to nurture croc-o-mo-gators to true trophies sought. Figure on 2 to 3 grand for the fly-in experience of a lifetime. Having guided for some of these in my earlier days I can attest that the fish are there and are now getting more protection as affluent North Americans make the trips and enforce regulations, not wanting to see what happened at home, happen in Canada.

For those of us with only one lifetime and smaller purses, you may be happy to know that it is not only possible in Western Manitoba too replicate the experience but a real likelihood. I've released more and larger Pike in good ole Lake of the Prairies, about a mile from home in one week than a season on the so-called big water trips. I sure wouldn't knock the fishing in any of the Northern flights but a steady forage base of walleyes can also produce some very large Essox. Moreover, northern fishing isn't what it was 30 years ago, when I guided.

 I long ago discovered that water fertility makes for big fish whether it be trout, walleye or Pike. These toothy monsters grow faster in the fertility of the lakes around the Parkland and the Assiniboine watershed than in any acidic Northern Lake, where longer-lived trophies take more years to reach the same dimensions. They may not be not as numerous, however, but they are there and must have protection.

Don't go bringing a 7 weight rod to do battle with these guys. A 10 or 12 weight would be better. More to be able to cast the flies you have to get out than anything.

Anything less than 9 you have to bring a tent and be prepared to fight on into the night . . .



Singuish Lake:

BASS

Lake has lots of Smallmouth bass, pike and walleyes. I fish it for Bass on occasion because there are some true trophies usually popping around in the morning but alas I'm usually off to a trout Lake. Great spot to ponder, procrastinate and conjure and tie the flies I should have tied last winter.
When I first saw the bass in this lake on their nests, I was shocked at their size. Later, I caught and released a few. Great top water action with dry flies in the calm of the morning in the area just out from the campsite. 

Primitive camping but the most beautiful spot I've ever seen in Manitoba and I've been to a few. Towering Spruces. Grey Jays and squirrels become part of the family. Clean toilets but no running water. Hand pump. Just a great spot to rest up.


Two Loon Lake:

BASS

Everyone knows that Nopoming and the Whiteshell has the best Bass fishing in Manitoba or even central Canada...

Wanna bet?



And Still Others:

McNicols Lake:

Thompson. Giant Pike. Better take a ten weight plus.




THE RIVERS


The Pine

Picture a quiet little Appalachian Stream tucked away in the North Woods. Quiet sun-dappled pools and runs. Stony bottoms give way to quiet and thoroughly enjoyable pools. Good wading and sand bars and easy access. Lots of pressure and small fish, in easily approached stretches but there are larger Rainbows and Brookies in upper reaches where there is little or no pressure (or trails). If you’re hale and hearty and like wilderness you can hike off the road to the various stretches and fish the log jams and undercuts and 14" to 18" trout. Down where the road crosses the stocked trout are fished heavily by bait fisherman and surprisingly numerous fly fishermen. I love this place and visit it often when I need to relive life on the streams.


Steeprock River:

There is a fine madness that dwells in the hearts of men. It envisions rivers with waters that would be as clear as air and its pools numerous and deep and its cataracts tumbling down over moss covered rocks. It would be a wild and unspoiled wilderness and its trout would break tackle and men's hearts. Every cast would be to an unknown lie. Its paths would be animal trails. It would be in an impregnable wilderness. It would test every aspect of endurance and tackle.

This was no dream.

It WAS the Steeprock River before chopping every tree off the top of the escarpment let the flood of '95 scour the basin and flood plain. But the river is rebounding and gaining a little topsoil to repair its riparian zones, every year. Some of the upper reaches still host good trout and habitat.

No campsites. No trails. No roads or human presence. 100% backpack. Wild and virgin canyon country. Fast crystal water. Natural spawners and some supplemental Brookie stockings. After leaving the cutbanks and hogsback regions, 15 to 20 miles of hiking, wading and sweat--living amongst black bears, black flies, moose,  wolves. Oh yes, I almost forgot, add to that  some rather questionable rumors of Sasquatches from some early-day loggers I met in the 1980's when it was a fly fisher's paradise for those brave enough to tackle it.

The flood of the early 90's removed most of the topsoil for some distance on each side of the river so walking is best suited for a Patagonian Rock-Hopper (that's a penguin--not a Sasquatch). The loss of fertility reflects in the reduced size in the trout but it's still a backpackers dream. Not for the faint of heart or out-of-condition but an experience that should be. Right now there are only a handful of people who have ever been to its upper reaches as fly fishermen. Biggest Rainbow I have ever taken was 22" (before the flood and before Rainbows were excluded from stocking) and in a pool at the bottom of a cataract right in the canyon that heads up toward Steeprock Lake. Now, it's mostly smaller Brookies, but the scenery will rival anything in the West and the darkened, moody canyons could host any tale. When camping at night owl hoots sound like rifle shots up in those segments. Wish I was younger again ...

More

There are several other streams in Western Manitoba but when you consider the size of the trout in the Lakes it is hard to give them the attention they deserve.

Fly Patterns are covered on other pages in our sites and ARE available in the book, Bob Sheedy's book, Bob Sheedy's Top Fifty Stillwater Fly Patterns  complete with how, when, and where to fish them. (Our only ad--mine).  If you want to learn the techniques  required, they too are available, in my book, Lake Fly Fishing Strategies. 

REMEMBER THIS IS MY OPINION. YOU MAY KNOW OF SOMETHING THAT YOU THINK IS BETTER, SEND ME AN EMAIL AND TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT. We'll check it out

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