Granny and I had a good sleep in the van at the Bird Hill Park north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. I pressed coffee early and caught up on email and wrote the blog for yesterday. Then we headed back to Lockport to meet Stu Thompson for another day of fishing on the Red River.
While yesterday was calm today already was not. The wind was cranking and the radio said it was blowing 60 km. It was so strong and steady that when I took my waders out I had to hold them down with my Yeti chair so they wouldn’t blow away. Luckily the sun was strong so it was far from cold. Stu called it “Just another late summer day in Manitoba”.
When you’re casting Clouser’s and other heavy flies on a sink tip line with a 9-weight wind isn’t really a factor unless you’re false casting too much. Once we wadered up we walked down below the dam and went to work. It was nice because there weren’t any other anglers yet. Other than a few inquisitive white pelicans we had it all to ourselves.
The water level was a foot or so lower than yesterday. All the spots that produced yesterday were too low now. I found a deep spot behind a rock with gentle current and cast in my Clouser. I hooked up instantly!
It was a great start to the day. I landed the chunky channel catfish and Stu clicked off a photo or two for me. It seems the bigger these fish are the scarier and uglier they can be. This is a cool angle down the one way street!
Stu was fishing a little further downstream swinging his fly from the heavy current across a seam and into a back eddy. I saw him go tight but could tell it wasn’t a channel cat. The channels here smoke you fast but this guy came in pretty easy. It was a freshwater drum.
Drum are unique species and fun to catch on the fly. They aren’t fancy and for that reason are very underrated. I like catching them and actually caught my first on fly here on the Red River during the trip where I met Stu in 1993.
Stu went right back to action and plucked another drum from the back eddy. Then he stuck this nice catfish. He was in a good spot to land him so I wandered down just in time to take a few more pics.
I turned around after Stu released his cat only to see several bait guys working their way in. My spot got scooped up fast. I dropped below Stu and made an effort for to catch a drum but they would have none of it. Neither Stu or I got a strike the next couple hours.
We took a break around 2 PM. Granny, who has opted to read instead of chasing catfish told us about a pub across the street and we headed over for lunch and a beer. It was a nice rest from standing on the rocks under the hot Manitoba sun and wind. After, we walked across the dam bridge and looked down at the Red River fish ladder. I’m not so sure it does the fish much good as it was lined with pelicans.
Around 3 PM Stu and I headed back out for one last crack at the cats. It was about 85°. Most look at how north Canada is and think its always cold but southern Manitoba is on the Great Plains and summers are scorching and windy. We each caught one more catfish but fishing was slow. Slow enough we packed it in around 4:30 and enjoyed the two last Wisconsin beers from my cooler.
I’m so glad I got ahold of Stu and we finally fished together again. We’ve had a blast and it’s always fun when you do a much different type of fishing than normal. Now that I’m in WI and a mere 8 hours drive away we suspect there will be more time together.
Tonight Granny and I returned to Bird Hill Park and we’ll camp here. Tomorrow will be a rest and catch up on things day. I’ll finetune our gear from cats to pike and lake trout and get ready to fly up to Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge on Saturday. We’ll move from this camp to the Lakeview Signature Hotel by the Winnipeg Airport which is where our trip begins at 4:30 AM Saturday. And once we’re settled and organized we are going for dinner and we get to meet Stu’s wife Rebecca.
Expect the next report from the waters of Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge!
Jeff,
Looks like a great day of fishing. We catch freshwater drum here in North Carolina occasionally and they are a nice edition to the sought after bass.
Have a great Sunday!
Tad