A must stop when you visit the Parkland Region of Manitoba is Patterson Lake. Again Patterson is a FLIPPR Lake.
http://www.flippr.ca/
Patterson Lake is located about 60 km from Russell. The lake is about 3 km long and 1 km wide. There is a campground complete with power. It's cheap to camp there at $15 a night or $300 for the season. The lake allows electric motors only. Take spare batteries. You are going to need them! Patterson Lake contains trophy rainbow and brown trout. There was talk at the Patterson Lake camp area that a 30 inch brown will probably be caught there this year. I believe it after Karen and I spent two days there sampling the fishing. I would recommend taking a fish finder when you go, not to locate fish but to find any underwater structure. The lake is about 25 feet at its deepest spot.We hit Patterson on two very hot days. The surface temperature rose from 59 degrees farenheight to 62 degrees farenheight while we were there. Luckily there is enough depth for the fish to find cool water.
It took Karen and I a bit to get to know the lake. We saw chronomid shucks on the lake and after locating a potential spot to fish them, we had our tried and true (at Twin lakes the day before) ice cream cone black and red chronomid on.
It didn't take long to catch a smallish brown of about 16 inches with our chronomids. Soon after, a true trophy brown caused the strick indicator to dip under the surface. This bruiser estimated at close to 7 pounds headed for some wood. Luckily he didn't rub the chronomid off. After an excellent fight. Karen netted the 26 inch plus brown. We were both quite excited.
A 26 inch Patterson Lake brown.
We soon set up in another potential location and again fished chronomids. We were into rainbows that were consistently in the 20 inch range. They were all acrobatic and fiesty.
In the early afternoon we saw several risers. We tied boatman on an intermediate sinking line. In the next 30 minutes we had 3 hook ups, all rainbows. These rainbows put you into your backing in seconds. Karen was holding her 6 weight Helios with both hands. I was snapping pictures and enjoying the show.
Karen fighting another acrobatic rainbow.
A 21 inch rainbow caught on a water boatman.
By 4 p.m. the fishing slowed. We has a great day and our second battery was just about spent. Time to head for the dock!
We drove back to Russell. We stayed at the Russell Inn. It was clean
and quiet with an excellent restaurant attached to the motel.
We also spent the next day at Patterson. It was hot and the fishing was slow. We still managed 4 more fish, two more browns that were quite impressive. Again chronomid fishing was our ticket to the action. From conversations with the regulars in the parking lot, this lake does not give up its fish easily. But it is definitely worth the time to try!
If I was to recommend when to hit Patterson Lake or any of the lakes in Manitoba's Parkland Region, plan on the last weekend in May, early June and mid September onwards.
Take time to go to Bob Sheedy's web page:
http://www.mwflyfishing.net/
I have never met Bob, but you can learn a lot about the Parkland Region of Manitoba from his web site.
Karen and I had the opportunity to meet Andrew, a past Fly Fish Alberta customer. It was nice meeting you Andrew. See you in Alberta in July and of course out at Fortress Lake Lodge.
Bob and Karen Vanderwater
A cool picture. The light on this big brown's snout is neat!
Another bruiser brown that gave a great fight.
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