Magnificent fishing in Duck Mountain area

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2015 (4139 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As I slowed my vehicle to go around one of the many bends in the road, two deer bounded into the bush a short distance away.

These were not the last deer I was to see on the two days I spent fishing in the Duck Mountains recently. A relatively mild winter and reduced snowfall has allowed the deer population to rebound somewhat.

I was on a speaking tour to six schools in the Swan Valley region as part of a Stewards for the Resource program sponsored by Swan Valley Sport Fishing Enhancement Inc., but had managed to organize a couple days of angling along the way.

My first day was spent on Laurie Lake, which is located in the middle of Duck Mountain Provincial Park. I had never fished that lake before, and I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the boat launch. The lake was surrounded by pine trees, with water the colour of the Caribbean, a beautiful aquamarine. I figured even if we didn’t catch a fish, this was going to be fun.

I was with a couple of friends from Swan River, accomplished anglers who spend much time chasing the many species of fish that exist in the multitude of lakes in the region. On this day, we were after trout, including splake, lake trout and brown trout. After launching Brian Hunter’s small aluminum boat, we headed down the shoreline to the east.

Duane Whyte had the first keeper, a small lake trout that was kept for dinner. We then fished a small bay that had some wind blowing into it. This would prove to be the hot spot, producing both brown and lake trout. While we tried other spots, this shallow bay with two extended points held the active fish this day. While Duane caught the first three fish, I got hot later in the day, landing two Master Angler brown trout.

All in all, we caught seven fish, a productive day on this tough-to-fish lake. All were caught on a No. 9 black-and-white floating Rapala lure that dove to about 1.8 metres, with 28 metres of line out.

All the fish were caught along shallow shorelines. That was not the case when I returned three days later.

I had deliberately delayed my ride home a day so I would get a chance to fish with Ryan Suffron of Alpine Country Outfitters. Working out of his home south of Benito, at the base of the Duck Mountains, has allowed Ryan to become an expert on the different trout species out his back door.

On this day, he, too, wanted a crack at the big brown trout in Laurie Lake. The Manitoba length-record brown trout (79 centimetres) comes from this beautiful lake.

Ryan fishes out of a five-metre aluminum boat he’s able to launch in most of the lakes in the region. It’s equipped with front and back troll motors that allow him to abide by the electric-only rules that apply to a number of lakes in the region.

What impressed me as the day went along was how Ryan read the water and controlled his boat in the wind and with the wind. When the fish are in shallow he likes to cast, but when the fish are along the first drop-off like they were on this day, he uses a reverse drift to present our dropper fly rigs to the deeper fish. On this day, we marked most of the fish along a three-metre transition line from harder to softer bottom. By letting our flies drift down behind the boat, we were able to cover all depth ranges with a very subtle presentation.

I had the first brown of the day, a large fish that threw the hook. Not to be discouraged, Ryan quickly got the boat back up to the top of the drift. This time I made no mistake, hooking and landing a beautiful 56-cm brown trout.

After a couple more drifts with no takes, Ryan took us into a flush area between the mainland and an island. On the one side of the island, he backed us into the wind. Ryan had a bite on his small back fly, a blue leech pattern.

Another big brown was on the end of the line, with Ryan guiding the fish from side to side during the fight with his three-metre fly rod. Around and around the boat this fish went before finally sliding into the waiting net. Another trophy brown was in the boat.

For more info on Ryan and his fly-fishing guide service, go to alpinecountryoutfitters.com.

dlamont@mymts.net