Manitoba Recap

Its hard to stay away. The fishing is too enticing. Before our trip this past spring there were no plans for a return but a fairly short discussion led to a few of us committing to a fall trip. This was our fourth trip to the Manitoba Parkland - two spring and two fall trips. While both spring and fall have their pluses, I think our experience has us leaning to fall.It was a great trip - sometimes challenging but overall lots of great fish.  Here are a few photos.  Grip and grin photos are hard to get when you are in a float tube managing a fly rod, line and hook and an energetic fish so the pictures don't always do the fish justice. Most of the photos were of 19 inch plus fish.  Some of the larger ones we estimated at over six pounds with a few approaching eight.  The larger ones were mostly released as quickly as possible without photos.It didn't take long for us to find cooperative fish.And the reward - a nice rainbow trout.We found browns as well.The rainbows varied in their coloration.The day ended with the weather closing in but all in all, a good start to the trip.Day two fishing conditions were mixed.  The day started slow for me but ended strong with a number of feisty browns and rainbows enticed from the reeds along the shore of Patterson Lake. These two don't look very pleased about the situation.The rainbows were energetic and seemed particularly interested in my brown P-Quad.Day three we packed up and headed to the Harvest Moon Inn in Roblin.  Great people and a great spot to stay if interested in fishing Twin Lakes and Persse Lake.We checked in Saturday morning and in addition to a warm welcome back Beth informed us that West Goose Lake in the middle of town was fishing well.  That sounded interesting but our attending was focused on the lakes to the north so we unloaded what we didn't need for fishing and headed off to Twin Lakes.The clouds had broken over night so things looked good but unfortunately the fish didn't get the message.  Nothing to show for our morning's efforts so we moved on to Persse Lake after lunch.  Again, nothing but a few hits.  Somewhat discouraged, we called it a day late in the afternoon discussing a conversation we had had with a local expert - Bill Pollack.  Among other things he mentioned that West Goose Lake in Roblin had been fishing well the past few days. Was there something we should be paying attention to?That night over order in pizza from Metal Red's Pizza we discussed plans for the next day. A some point West Goose Lake entered the conversation.  Why not give it a try Sunday morning?Turns out it was a good idea.  Between the three of us we landed a lot of big fish.  The fishing at West Goose on Sunday was so good that we decided to return for a few hours on Monday before heading back to Winnipeg to catch our flights.  And it didn't disappoint.All in all, it was a great trip.  We had to work for the fish but they cooperated, including some really big specimens.  I suspect we will be back.