Author Topic: 'Dead of Winter' ... Manitoba mid-season ice fishing  (Read 2503 times)

Offline Drift Dodger

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'Dead of Winter' ... Manitoba mid-season ice fishing
« on: Feb 11, 2020, 09:50 AM »
I've lived in southern Manitoba all my life, fished most of my adult life. And yet again I have experienced directly, heard first-hand from others, and read numerouis social media reports about how poor the 'fishing' has been lately.

Well this really is nothing new IMHO. It actually seems to be the rule rather than exception that compared to any first-ice early season action and late-season pre-spawn feeding frenzy, whether or not either of those actually occur, that the middle of our winter 'typically' has less productive periods for decent catches of fish ... be it numbers, size, desired species, etc. Not saying there aren't any great catches, because there certainly can be some.

Is a mid-season turn down just a perception or is it reality?

If a perception ... why?

If a reality ... also why?

(P.S. Primarily targeting walleye.)
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Offline prezdead

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Re: 'Dead of Winter' ... Manitoba mid-season ice fishing
« Reply #1 on: Feb 20, 2020, 02:51 PM »
Well, when targeting walleye I'm primarily fishing big windy. My best fishing has always come in February but I head much further north (still in the south basin) and avoid the regular spots. I've actually been itching to hit the mouth and find out how it will produce late season.

2 weekends back 4 of us caught 85+ fish over 2 days. I have found it to be slow in the south basin but I honestly just think the fish pattern differently over the years and we're finding them in spots we never used to find in the winter. Get off the beaten path a bit.

Size-wise... everything we're catching is 17-23". A handful +/- that with the biggest this hardwater season being 26". Say what you will, but the numbers of recreational anglers has exploded in recent years. Commercial nets by us are still pulling out fish by the hundreds of lbs. The slot size restrictions was a nice addition but I haven't noticed a major change, only that the fish aren't as plentiful in the commonly fished areas.
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