Tag Archives: manitoba

Track snowmobile adventure by satellite

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It’s been a sad excuse of a winter if you’re a snowmobile rider here in Grand Forks, but if the snow won’t come to you, you can always travel to the snow.

That’s what Park River, N.D., snowmobile enthusiast Ross Spoonland is doing next Friday, when he embarks on a three-day trip with some friends out of West Hawk Lake in southeast Manitoba’s Whiteshell region. The ride will take them through southeast Manitoba into northwestern Ontario.

Ross Spoonland of Park River, N.D. stands by his snowmobile in late January 2012, during trip across northwest Ontario that included a stop at White Otter Castle, a three-storey log house built in the early 1900s by an eccentric hermit. According to Spoonland, the castle is located in a remote area that’s accessible only by boat or snowmobile. “It was an amazing building to see and go through,” he said.

I’ve written about Spoonland and some of his snowmobile adventures in the past. In 2010, he and two friends from Winnipeg completed a 658-mile, one-day marathon that began at Falcon Lake in Manitoba and ended back at Falcon Lake 17 hours and 4 minutes later. They hit the trails at 6 a.m. and were off the sleds shortly after 10 p.m. on a route that took them across parts of the Ontario and Minnesota sides of Lake of the Woods, the Northwest Angle, Shoal Lake and forested areas of southeast Manitoba.

As he’s done in the past, Spoonland will have a SPOT satellite messenger mounted on his snowmobile for people to track the ride. The satellite tracker will update his location every 10 minutes for viewers to follow on Google maps. The ride will start about 10:30 a.m. Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 and about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 27.

If you’re interested in following Spoonland on his trip next weekend, click here. Since Grand Forks can’t seem to get more than enough snow to dust up the sidewalks and turn the streets to ice, it might be as close as some riders get to a snowmobile trail this year. Again.

 

Closing out 2012 on the ice

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I closed out 2012 on a fine note, fishing three out of the last four days of the year.

Friday, a friend and I joined Darwin Sumner and Daris Rosebear of Seven Clans Casino in Red Lake, Minn., for a day of trout fishing on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. This winter, for the first time, the band is allowing nontribal members to fish four small lakes on the reservation stocked with rainbow trout and brook trout.

To fish the lakes, nontribal members must be accompanied by a reservation guide, and Seven Clans Casino is offering fully outfitted trout-fishing trips throughout the winter months. In other words, just show up and they’ll provide the gear and heated portable fish houses. A one-day license costs $10, and longer-length licenses also are available. Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a sovereign nation, regulations differ from state-managed waters in Minnesota, and a trout stamp isn’t required.

An average-size rainbow trout from a small lake in the Red Lake Indian Reservation. (Brad Dokken photo)

The lakes might be small, but the trout are dandies. One of us who shall remain nameless had trouble putting fish on the ice, but the trout mostly cooperated, and “we” landed several rainbows ranging from 16 inches to 22 inches. No brook trout were landed, but my fishing partner lost one at the hole.

We fished two small lakes and didn’t see another person the entire day. The scenery and the quality of fishing rivals the kind of experience you might expect venturing into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in winter — within a 2½-hour drive of Grand Forks.

I’ll have a story about the reservation’s trout fishing opportunities in Sunday’s Northland Outdoors Section. For more information on the reservation’s winter trout excursions, click here:

Saturday, I ventured north to join longtime friend and fishing partner Jim Stinson of Lockport, Man., to try our luck on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River.

Hmmm … where do I go now? Trying to navigate a large expanse of rough ice Sunday on Lake Winnipeg proved to be a challenge even by snowmobile (Brad Dokken photo)

Late Sunday morning, as we drove snowmobiles onto the massive expanse of Lake Winnipeg, we were greeted by several miles of some of the roughest ice I’ve ever seen. Jagged shards of ice, some more than 3 feet tall, covered one area of the lake for what seemed to be several miles in every direction, preventing us from reaching one of our time-proven fishing spots.

The rough ice forced us to backtrack and search for a smoother place to set up the portable, but we finally had our lines in the water about 12:30 p.m. Considering we basically picked a spot at random, fishing wasn’t bad at all, and we landed 10 walleyes

Few places can rival Lake Winnipeg, where walleyes generally seem to be 20 inches or longer. Brad Dokken landed this 25-incher early Sunday afternoon.

ranging from 20 inches to 27 inches in length by the time we packed up and headed for shore four hours later. In my experience, there’s nowhere within easy driving distance that rivals Lake Winnipeg for quality-size walleyes. There’s not much infrastructure such as the rental houses and plowed access roads, but for anglers with the means and desire to explore, the walleyes are well worth the effort.

Monday, we shifted gears and fished the Red River not far from Selkirk. We accessed the river by snowmobile, but lots of anglers were getting around in full-size pickups on ice that was about 14 inches thick.

Winter fishing on the Manitoba side of the Red River generally is better early in the morning in my experience, and while we didn’t start fishing until after 11 a.m., the two of us managed to scratch out an eight-fish limit — five walleyes and three saugers — before heading home about 4 p.m.

Jim also had a fish snap his line that left us wondering what might have been.

Nothing came easy those two days, but there are worse ways to wrap up a year than catching fish on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River.

Seeking green on New Year’s Day

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Any time you can start a year with a fishing trip, the year’s off to a pretty good start in my book.

Such was the case Sunday — New Year’s Day — when Brad Durick of Grand Forks and I joined Jim Stinson, a longtime Canadian friend, for a few hours on the Red River north of Selkirk, Man.

Our goal was to catch a few of the “greenback” walleyes that swim into the Red each fall from Lake Winnipeg. Known for their iridescent greenish-blue coloration, these walleyes can reach astounding weights, and every bite offers the opportunity to battle a fish weighing 10 pounds or more.

The weather Sunday wasn’t exactly in our favor, with wind gusts flirting with 50 mph that drove the light snow into horizontal sheets. There’s not much snow in southern Manitoba so far this year, either, which probably worked in our favor; otherwise, we would have faced the kind of blizzard conditions that prevented us from even making the trip north for New Year’s last year.

Setting up portable fish houses in 50 mph winds isn’t a whole lot of fun, and it took probably twice as long as it should have to get our lines in the water. Once we got set up, we weren’t going anywhere so we just had to hope the walleyes cooperated in the spot we’d chosen to fish.

Brad Durick of Grand Forks caught this 24-inch "greenback" walleye New Year's Day on the Red River north of Selkirk, Man.

Considering the weather and our late start, the fishing wasn’t bad. Durick, fishing by himself in a Frabill pop-up portable, had the hot hand, landing a half-dozen walleyes up to about 24 inches, along with a couple of saugers.

I fished with Stinson in a portable just a few yards away and managed only one walleye, a 22-inch greenish beauty that hit so hard it nearly swallowed my lure.

There would be no lunkers, but we felt like we’d accomplished something when we packed up and headed back to the Stinson residence for an evening fish fry.

Conditions on the river were good, and we drilled through at least 16 inches of clear, solid ice to reach open water. A few anglers were driving trucks on the river, but we chose to play it safe and use Stinson’s snowmobiles, instead.

We fished for a couple of hours Monday morning, as well. Wind wasn’t an issue, but the temperature had dropped substantially, and the fish were sluggish. We marked very few fish on our depth finders, and the ones we did see weren’t much interested in biting.

Stinson landed the only walleye of the morning, a 15-incher he kept, but he lost a fish at the bottom of the ice that left us wondering what might have been.

We never saw the fish, but judging by the rod bend, it likely flirted with 10 pounds or more.

There’s always next time.