This past June I visited Manitoba for the very first time. My trip started out with an immediate flight to the northern part of the province to meet up with Dusty and the crew at Budd’s Gunisao Lake Lodge. The lodge is the only one on the entire lake and the only way to get there is by flying in so needless to say, the fishing is good!
Gunisao Lake
Every day we were at Budd’s, we caught a ridiculous amount of walleye (and northern pike). We caught walleye of all sizes, including a bunch of Master Angler walleye’s. A walleye in Manitoba is considered a Master Angler catch if it’s 28 inches or longer. My personal best was actually just shy - 27 inches, but Dusty and a few other guests were catching Master Anglers like it was no big deal! We practiced catch and release for the majority and kept a few smaller ones each day to eat at lunch. The staff deep fried the walleye in all sorts of delicious sauces ranging from mustards to hot sauce, the latter being my favourite...my mouth is watering as I’m writing this.
We're all pretty focused on the shore lunch...because it was DELICIOUS!!!
After a rich and satisfying experience at Budd’s Gunisao Lake Lodge, we flew back to Winnipeg where we met up with Stu McKay who owns and operates Cats on the Red. I’m not a fan of catfish (I just can’t warm up to their look!) but I suspected that I was in for a good time nonetheless...and I was right. Although I don’t particularly want to cuddle up to a catfish, I was reminded that I do in fact, like to fight a catfish when it’s on my line! To add to this fun and different (for me) experience, my high school friend Nicole, joined us for the evening. We grew up together but she moved out to Winnipeg a few years ago so we don’t see eachother that often. We all had a great time on the boat - a bunch of laughs was had, the sun was setting and I caught a nice size channel cat fish using cut goldeye.
Before heading home, Nicole, her buddies, the Hookin’ Up crew and I spent the night out in Winnipeg. That’s definitely a plus side to Stu’s guiding service - its' home base is so close to the city. We were off the boat, freshened up and at dinner in a trendy part of town within a half hour!
Manitoba is great because you can have both worlds - one minute I'm up north fishing for walleye and the next, I’m just outside the city fishing for catfish. If you’ve watched my show before, you know that I like to mix it up and this was the perfect place to do that!
Thank you to the following friends for making this trip a memorable one!
Travel Manitoba
http://www.travelmanitoba.com/
Budd's Gunisao Lake Lodge
http://buddsgunisaolakelodge.com/
Cats on the Red
http://www.catsonthered.net/
