Adventure at Child’s Lake
By Bob Morenski
Sometime in May, I read an article on the
FLIPPR website written by Ken Kansas about fly fishing for lake trout on Childs
Lake which lies in the Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Having never taken a lake
trout on a fly rod, I was immediately taken by the article and thought to myself
that this was something that I would really like to do.
My next step was to contact Joan Forbes at
Childs Lake Lodge to get some more information about cabin and boat rental
prices. From there, I sent an e-mail out to the club with my proposed plan to
see if anyone else would want to do this with me. It was not too long after that
I had my response from Byron Grubb. He and fellow dermatologist William (“Joe”)
Moores from Indiana were interested. Joe is a member of our club who frequently
comes out to North Dakota to hunt and fish with Byron. We next set a tentative
date and I contacted Joan at Childs Lake Lodge, (http://www.childslakelodge.com/),
to reserve a cabin. Last but not least, I obtained as much information as I
could about the location and fly patterns.
On October 4th, I met Joe and
Byron in Roblin and we fished the balance of the afternoon on Twin Lake where we
had a ball catching tigers. The early weather report was good. I was most
concerned about the wind and it was only forecast for 6 km an hour for Wednesday
and 7 km for Thursday. The Wednesday forecast was totally out to lunch. Instead
of the light winds predicted, the wind was blowing a steady 25 to 30 mph and
gusting much higher. The high was about 33° which was far below the 45°
predicted. (This was the day of the big blizzard in North Dakota). When we
reached Childs Lake, it was obvious we were not going to get in any fishing
there. Brad & Carmen Butler and Joan Forbes were heading out to Black Beaver
Lake when we arrived and invited us along. I had heard of the lake from John
Yuri who owns the Northern Angler Fly Shop in Dauphin, MB
(http://www.northernangler.mb.ca/).
John had told me that Black Beaver was producing 22 inch rainbows and 17 inch
brook trout. So, we went. I thought the lake was a walk-in only but Joan thought
that you could drive in. Well, we never made it in. I still think that walking
is the only way in unless you have a quad. To make a long story short, we did
not fish there but hit Perch Lake instead. Perch can be good if you hit it
right. Other than a newly stocked rainbow caught by Joe, we had no action there
and decided to call it a day. Fishing is supposed to be fun. With the wind and
the cold temperatures, this was more like capital punishment.
The wind howled all night. We were worried
that it would blow again on Thursday. The report was that it was suppose to lay
down early in the morning. Finally around 6 AM it began to subside. At 8 AM, we
ate breakfast over at the lodge restaurant. We decided to wait until 10 AM for
things to warm before we headed out.
Rather than trying to fish from the boat, we
lashed Byron’s and Joe’s float tubes to my kick boat and towed them behind our
rented boat. The location we were given is on the far side of the lake, about a
four mile boat ride away. Once we arrived, we homed in on the spot fairly
quickly. We saw several lake trout on t
he way into the little bay where we
parked the boat. This encouraged us. We all tied on different flies to get a
feel for what would work and headed out for the reef. The spawning reef actually
sits in very shallow water. There are reeds sticking up through the rock rubble.
The water drops away quickly from the rocks into weed beds. The trick was to
cast as close to the reeds as you could, let the fly sink and start stripping
with a short but quick erratic retrieve. Byron connected quickly using a black
Clouser with red eyes and landed about a 28 inch lake trout. We did a lot of
casting over the next 2 hours but all we had to show for our efforts was some
short strikes and a few follows.
We broke for lunch back on shore. We sat in
a large clearing and basked in the sunlight which felt great. While the wind was very light that day, the temperatures were chilly. After about a half hour, I
broke off and got back in my kickboat to give it another try. I tied on a lime
green and white Clouser and started casting. I stuck a fish fairly quickly. I
never got to see the fish but I know that it was a lake trout and that it was
well over 30 inches. It was still running and starting to take me into the
backing when the trout threw the fly. By that time, Joe had made his way back to
the reef and stuck a fish on his second cast. I never asked Joe what the size
was but it was at least 28 to 29 inches. Joe stuck his on a 2/0 chartreu
se and
white Clouser with red eyes.
For the balance of the afternoon, Joe and I got to watch the Byron show. Byron
landed another four lake trout which went up to 32 inches and lost what probably
would have been his biggest fish for the day. I accused him of hogging all of
the fish but Byron had no sympathy for me. That was even after I had to
repeatedly lend him my net because his was too small for the fish that we were
catching. You would have thought that I might have done that myself to other
people over the years the way he acted. At any rate, he was not feeling the
least bit guilty.
Around 4 PM, the fish gods got tired of listening to me
whining and I stuck what turned out to be my only fish of the day.
I cast to the edge of the reeds and I don’t think I moved
the fly six inches before it was slammed by a big trout. The fish rolled right
after I hooked it and knew right away that I was into one heck of a splake. I
have heard of there being some huge splake in the Duck
Mountains
but I never thought that I would be lucky enough to ever stick a big one. After
a fairly long battle, I slid the big splake into the net. The first word that
came to my mind was awesome. I have caught some very pretty fish in my day but I
don’t think that any of them topped the splake that lay on my apron. It was
actually very difficult to measure on my apron. I used my rod measuring from the
first guide and counting the cork rings so that I could get a more accurate
measurement later. That turned out to be 30 inches but the fish was somewhat
curled on my apron and it was probably closer to 31 inches. Using a crossbar on
my kickboat frame for reference in a picture that Byron took, it may have been a
little larger than that even. Never the less, it was the best trout that I have
taken this season and will probably stand as the largest splake that I will ever
take in my lifetime.
We called it a day around 5:30 and started heading back to
the lodge. We were all excited about the results of the day. Catching lakers and
splake on a fly rod turned out to both enjoyable and rewarding. Before the
evening was done, we all started making plans to return to do this again next
year. Except, we want to do it for three days.
We learned a lot from our lone day of lake trout fishing.
Several boats of fly anglers had hit this location both before and after the day
that we did it. They stuck a few fish but never landed any. We had more action
on that day than anyone had collectively. I think that part of the reason was
that we fished out of our float tubes. From the boats, they could see the fish
but the fish could also see them. Second, I think we were varying our retrieves.
It seemed like a more erratic retrieve was more effective. We also quickly
learned that almost all strikes occurred within a foot or two from the reeds. If
you did not put the fly right up against the reeds, you did not get a strike.
One of the things that helped us the most was taking a
lunch break. Resting the fish seemed to help big time. All three of us had a
fish on within 10 minutes after returning from lunch. I think that it would
behoove us to find other nearby locations and rotate between them to rest them.
Nearby, we think that there is at least one if not two spots where the lakers
are moving up to spawn. We also saw a lot of splake in the area. Originally, I
thought that these may be lake whitefish, but there are no whitefish in Childs
Lake, according the former area biologist, Ken Kansas. These were rising fish
that I believe were taking boatmen. We did not fish for them, but I believe that
we could have had some good action if had concentrated on them. The next time
that I do this, I am going to have a second rod rigged up just to fish to these.
Wind direction and velocity can affect whether you can get
out to the location or not. It was, therefore, critical to find optional
locations to fish. Black Beaver Lake would have been a good location. I talked
to Kim Russell from Winnipeg who has fished at Black Beaver. He said that
walking in or using a quad is the only way to fish Black Beaver. He said that it
is only about a 10 minute walk into the lake. This lake winter-killed a few
years ago but has been re-stocked and already has brookies to 17 inches and
rainbows to 22. If it stays healthy over this coming winter, it will be worth a
shot or two as a primary location or a backup. Other lakes in the park to check
are Laurie Lake which has splake, lake trout and browns, Gull Lake which has
rainbows, splake, spar, brook trout and lake whitefish, East Blue, West Blue,
Shilladay, Two Mile and Glad. The latter lake has rainbows, lake trout and
arctic char. Twin Lake is also only a half hour away.
In an attempt to work up a nearby backup plan, I fished
Laurie Lake later in October. I caught 2 non-spawning hen lak
e
trout that were both 28 inches long. If I had figured out what fly to use and
the location earlier, I think I might have caught a lot more. Both trout took a
size 4 Egg-Sucking Olive Glo-Bright Wooly Bugger tied on 4X long hooks. I was
sitting o
ver
13 feet of water when each of these fish struck. Each of them fought very well
and took a while to coax into the net. Both fish came from the bay where the
boat ramp is located. I concentrated on Laurie as a backup for the fact the
Laurie has a good population of lake trout and splake. Its proximity to Childs
Lake also makes it a prime backup location. Last but not least, a north wind is
what would most likely keep you off Childs Lake. The same direction would put
you on the lee side on Laurie Lake.
The accommodations at
Childs Lake Lodge are very good.
While the cabins can easily house four people, it is best to keep your party
size to around three. This is because your boat will only be able to accommodate
three people with equipment and the location can only be fished by three people
easily. Four starts to get a little crowded. Cost is not too bad. For three
people, lodging comes out to about $35 each a night US and the boat will cost
another $25 each which is quite reasonable for a lake trout fishing trip.
As I mentioned earlier, Byron, Joe and I are going to do
this again next year. If others are interested, I would be willing to take
another group, as well. It was a lot of fun and now that we have taken out a lot
of the guesswork, we should really increase our hookup ratio. Lake trout and
splake proved to be a lot of fun. They offer something different for us to wet a
line for in the region and for that reason alone, they are worthy of our
attention.
If you would like some more information, contact me at
rmmorski@restel.net
Tight Lines!
Bob Morenski