Fishing the Manitoba Parkland
Our spring trip to the Manitoba Parkland region has come to an end. What a trip it was. Eight days of fishing for trophy trout. Over that time we fished six different lakes:
- Patterson Lake
- Tokaryk Lake
- Pybus Lake
- Twin Lakes
- Persse Lake
- Gull Lake
The first five are associated with the FLIPPR program (Fish and Lake Improvement Program for the Parkland Region). FLIPPR focuses on the development and maintenance of a trophy trout fishery in the Manitoba Parkland region.
In its 12th year the program has many successes to point to and the region is slowly being discovered as a top North America still water fishery. Gull Lake is a brook and rainbow trout lake in Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The first four days as part of Fly Craft Angling’s Prowling the Parklands Stillwater Seminar. Phil Rowley offers a great seminar that is a combination of teaching and fishing.
The teaching component focused on chironomid techniques and the fishing gave everyone lots of opportunity to practice. The accommodations at Arrow Lake Outfitters and Ranch work well for the way the seminar is set up. This was our group’s second time around. Phil along with cohosts Bob and Karen Vanderwater provide a great experience that is highly recommended for both first time and fishers returning to the Parkland.
For the last half of our trip we moved up to Roblin, closer to the western FLIPPR lakes - Twin Lakes and its healthy population of tiger trout and Persse Lake as well as lakes in Duck Mountain Provincial Park. We based ourselves at the Harvest Moon Inn. The Harvest Moon worked out great and Roblin itself offers a variety restaurants and services for fisherman.
The fishing over the course of the eight days was great. Each of the lakes offered their own challenges and rewards although the rewards for a couple of them were harder to discover. I’ll post again with more details about the fishing itself. Here is a shot of a Tokaryk Rainbow.