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PRO POINTERS >DON LAMONT Karen and Glen Smith with another trophy from the walleye hole. Glen Smith had eight master angler walleye on his trip. Karen Smith with one of her trophy walleye from Gunisao. Great Walleye Lakes What makes a great walleye lake? That was the question in front of me this spring as I visited two of the best walleye lakes in Manitoba in one short week. First, a three day trip to Budd’s Gunisao Lake Lodge, which is located in the middle of prime walleye real estate on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Then on the Sunday when I got home it was a day trip into Crowduck Lake in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. WALLEYE COUNTRY For years this section of Manitoba has been producing outstanding walleye fishing on myriad of lakes and rivers that dot the landscape in this hard to access part of the world. Very few roads exist and those that do only happen during the winter. It’s fly-in country and Budd’s has a 3800 foot all weather runway that allows anglers to depart from Winnipeg airport and land at the lodge an hour later. Gunisao Lake is located 250 air miles from Winnipeg and it kicks out more Master Angler walleye than any other body of water in this province. On an average year close to a thousand trophies 10 | HOOKED | Summer 2011 are registered by the 500 guests that visit each spring and summer. One evening at the lodge I got a chance to ask owner/operator Dusty Budd why the lake is such a big walleye factory. LAKE TROUT COLLAPSE In middle of the century, Dusty says Gunisao Lake was commercially fished for lake trout. That was until the finite population of these slow growing fish had been depleted. After anglers discovered how great the walleye fishing was, a lodge was established on the lake. In 1987, after much research and test fishing, his dad, Dr. Jim Budd, purchased the lodge. Since that time the Budd’s and their clientele concentrated their fishing efforts on the walleye that had filled the niche left by the lake trout. They soon discovered that the walleye grew to trophy size by chasing down ciscoes that had once been the primary forage of the lake trout. Gunisao Lake itself is sixteen miles long by four miles wide and holds abundant spawning grounds, another key to producing excellent year classes of fish. It’s a classic mesotrophic lake that has stretches of deep water to go along with granite outcrops and a great variety of structure to hold both fish and forage. This is much the same case for Crowduck Lake. But while the lakes are almost identical, there is one equation missing from Crowduck that has slowed down the production of Master Angler walleye. When the walleye were first stocked some twenty years ago, the population exploded and as the walleye grew they started chasing down the ciscoe that existed in the deeper more pristine parts of the lake. When I filmed a show back in 1995 we caught three Master Angler walleye in one day, something that rarely happens now. If you ask friend Jim Price, who has been going to the lodge since it opened, he believes it was caused by the collapse in the ciscoe population. This lack of high protein forage in Crowduck limits growth and while there are still big fish caught it takes them longer to get to that size. This is also a total catch and release fishery, allowing the walleyes total control of the lake. Unfortunately they have been a victim somewhat of their own success. Don’t get me wrong catching a hundred walleye a day between eighteen and twenty one inches is a lot of fun!
Crowduck boats ready for action . POST SPAWN FISH On our trip to Gunisao Lake the big walleye were just staging outside the spawning areas and could be caught using a vertical jigging presentation. Karen and Glen Smith, who reside in Winnipeg, caught a total of 14 Master Angler walleye while on their seven day trip. Karen landed the biggest at 31 ½ inches. They fished one small area in “walleye hole” with orange ¼ ounce jigs tipped with a dead shiner minnows. Glen said the key to get the big post spawn females to bite was to the let the jig sit on the bottom for about five seconds, then slowly lift it six inches. Almost all the bites were extremely subtle in nature, requiring a slight lift on the rod tip to make the walleye commit to the bait. While the Smiths stayed in a few areas, our group travelled all over the lake in search of both walleye and pike. While we caught three Master Angler fish we certainly enjoyed the outstanding fishing for both walleye and pike. In fact, despite only fishing for pike for three hours I managed to land a 40 inch fish, one short of Master Angler length. “The walleye grew to trophy size by chasing down ciscoes that had once been the primary forage of the lake trout.” Meantime on our one day trip to Crowduck, we jigged up a bunch of fish in five feet of water in Dark Bottom Bay, another classic post spawn location. We caught the bigger fish though out in the main lake near the Gull Islands, using a variety of presentations including bottom bouncers and spinners. Both Dusty Budd and Bill Kolanski run great operations, two of the best in Canada. If you are looking for an outstanding fly in trip for walleye check out www.buddsgunisaolakelodge.com. If it’s a one day trip for walleye, consider driving up to Big Whiteshell Lake and have Bill pick you up for the trip into Crowduck. You can check his camp out at www.crowducklakecamps.com Either way you will be officially in walleye heaven! ■ Gunisao has plenty of big pike too! Incoming feeder creek means successful spawning Summer 2011 | HOOKED | 11
Page 1 and 2: www.hookedmagazine.ca Volume 4 Issu
Page 3 and 4: MAKE YARD WORK QUICK AND EASY ABC P
Page 5 and 6: Contents | Summer 2011 Feature 24 N
Page 7 and 8: THE WORLD’S ONLY SEA-DOO.® WATER
Page 9: THE POWER TO GO ANYWHERE For a deal
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Page 15 and 16: May Long Weekend Mania! At a rustic
Page 17 and 18: Kids! The Manitoba Moose have gener
Page 19 and 20: HALL OF FAME! We always like seeing
Page 21 and 22: prime spots at this time of the yea
Page 23 and 24: YEARS OF HARD WORK AND WE’RE FINA
Page 25 and 26: Summer | HOOKED | 25
Page 27 and 28: Summer | HOOKED | 27
Page 29 and 30: Avoiding the Hang-ups BY JAMIE ROBI
Page 31 and 32: amongst the crowd, as they couldn
Page 33 and 34: One of the most overused terms in f
Page 35 and 36: “Sock-It” to the Fish! BY JUSTI
Page 37 and 38: It’s heating up! The 24th Shaw Ke
Page 39 and 40: are designed for trolling a spinner
Page 41 and 42: Davis Viehbeck angled this hefty wa
Page 43 and 44: thwestern Ontario SO CLOSE AND SO A
Page 45 and 46: cisco or shiners that smallmouths f
Page 47 and 48: Visit us for all your marine access

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