Jumbo perch fewer, smaller

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2002 (8407 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It had been almost a year since I had fished Pelican Lake in the southwest corner of Manitoba.

Fishing reports on this 16 kilometres stretch of lake nestled in the Souris River valley had been sketchy at best, but since I had to take a trip to Brandon this week anyway, I thought I would find out first hand what the fishing was like.

As I headed south from Brandon on Hwy. 10, then across on Hwy. 2, then south again on PR 18, I couldn’t believe the lack of snow and the dryness of the land.

Forty-five minutes later I arrived at the town of Ninette at the north end of Pelican Lake. This scenic community has quite a fishing history.

Ice shacks were scattered along the lake just south of town. There were a few vehicles on the 35 centimetres of clear ice, but none had ventured too far down the lake. Access is at the boat launch at the community park in downtown Ninette.

As I stopped my truck on a road overlooking the community and lake I couldn’t help but admiring the view and the beauty of this part of Manitoba. For years ice anglers from all over the northern part of the United States, as well as Manitoba, have been making the trek to Pelican and Rock Lake to fish for the jumbo perch these two eutrophic lakes usually produce in abundance. During the last couple of years, however, jumbo perch catches have been down on Pelican while Rock Lake has been poor for more than that.

Dino Branfield, who lives in Morden, has fished these lakes all his life, and believes a combination of fishing pressure and winterkill has taken its toll.

Both these lakes are very shallow. Pelican has an aeration unit at the north end to prevent a total depletion of dissolved oxygen during a long, cold winter. Still, there are fish to be caught, especially northern pike whose numbers remain excellent as they dine on the large numbers of the smaller perch that now dominate Pelican Lake.

I met up with Dino on the south end of Pelican. As I pulled up to the boat launch at the Pelican Beach access road I noticed one lone ice angler out about 50 metres from shore. There were a few small perch flopping on the ice as he crouched near his two ice holes.

Just then Dino pulled up and away we went, one of the first anglers to drive on this section of the lake.

In no time we were drilling holes and dropping a line. Unfortunately while the action was continuous, the perch were extremely small in the spots we tried. Only one was worth keeping. There was some nice pike around though. Dino managed to land one that was in the two kilogram range.

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This past week has been a good one for some of the walleye anglers who have ventured out on the Red River north of Selkirk.

While we had a tough bite last Saturday, there have been some excellent catches of big fish in the Sugar Island stretch all the way up north, five kilometres past the new bridge.

Most of the walleye have been caught in the main river channel in about seven metres of water on 1/4 ounces jigs tipped with a dead shiner minnow. Some suspended fish have been caught as well by anglers using portable electronics.

On Sunday we had some walleye on that were lost below the hole. I also marked a number of fish suspended two metres off the bottom. While we didn’t catch any of these suspended fish this day, they can be caught by getting a lure slightly above them and triggering a strike.

One of the hottest new lures on the market for this type of action has been the Chubby Darter by Salmo lures. It is similar to a jigging Rapala but has a fatter body and when fished with a slow lift and drop will dart forward, then slowly settle back to vertical, an action that a lot of big walleye and other species, include pike find irresistible.

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Anglers are driving on the south end of Lake Manitoba near Delta Beach where the ice is twice the recommended thickness and the perch fishing is very good.

You can access the lake by taking PR 240 north of Portage la Prairie to Delta Beach, then either turn left or right — there are two access roads onto the lake on either side. You will see some ice shacks out about a half a kilometre with some ice ridges a little further out.

This section of the lake as been much better than in front of the Portage diversion entrance five kilometres to the west. In a normal year, it seems after Christmas the perch activity on the south end of Lake Manitoba picks up further west towards Lynch’s Point as the large schools move towards their spawning bays.

Walleye action continues to be good on Lake Dauphin, with good catches on the Valley, Vermillion, Ochre and Turtle rivers. Further west, Lake of the Prairies has been good for walleye for the last three weeks with a foot of ice on the lake right now.

dlamont@mts.net

Solunar tables

Solunar tables for fishing have long been used to find the best fishing times and peak feeding periods. Expert fisherman believe the phase and position of the moon greatly affects fishing results. This solunar table predicts the two best times for fishing each day for the next week. Use this chart to help plan your next fishing trip.

Dec. 14 — 6:42 a.m. to 8:42 a.m.; 7:06 p.m. to 9:06 p.m.

Dec. 15 — 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.; 7:54 p.m. to 9:54 p.m.

Dec. 16 — 8:18 a.m. to 10:18 a.m.; 8:42 p.m. to 10:42 p.m.

Dec. 17 — 9:06 a.m. to 11:06 p.m.; 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Dec. 18 — 9:54 a.m. to 11:54 a.m.; 10:18 p.m. to 12:18 a.m.

Dec. 19 — 10:42 a.m. to 12:42 p.m.; 11:06 p.m. to 1:06 a.m.

Dec. 20 — 11:54 a.m. to 1:54 p.m.; 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.