Twin Lake, First Impressions
By Bob Morenski
At the FlIPPR banquet in 2003, Fisheries Biologist, Ken Kansas asked me what I thought about having a tiger trout lake located in the Parkland. Having caught tigers in several lakes in Saskatchewan, I thought having a tiger trout lake here to fish would be cool. Tigers are a cross between a brook and brown trout. They have a reputation for being extremely aggressive and tenacious. The ones I caught in both Lady Lake and Little Jackfish Lake in Saskatchewan never quit. Little known to me, the plans were already in the works to get this established. In 2004, FLIPPR got an aeration system installed on Twin Lake and the province stocked it with 6 to 8 inch tiger trout.
Author with a tiger trout from Little Jackfish Lake in Saskatchewan. Photo By Bob Sheedy
I took a trip to the Parkland the first week of May of 2005. We had just had a ten day long cold front that parked itself in the region. This cooled the water temperatures down to the low forties from which they were slow to recover. At any rate, I was not expecting much action when I set off to fish Twin Lake on the 3rd of May. It was noon before I launched and I spent my first hour and a half trying to figure out where the fish were and what they wanted. It was 1:30 before I had my first fish, a feisty 15 inch tiger. A couple casts later, I had anther fish on my casting apron and I quickly figured out a pattern to how the fish were hitting and by 2:30, I had landed 10 fish and lost a few more. The balance of the afternoon was really a lesson in the use of electronics. I had to stay in water no shallower than 3 feet on my electronics but no greater than 4 feet. I had to cast out over a ledge into deeper water and bring the fly back on an angle up the ledge. I was using a size 6 beadhead Black & Tan Wooly Bugger fished on a Uniform Sink 3 line. The wind was constantly shifting all afternoon. At around 2:30, it made a 90 degree shift and I had to go looking for the fish again. It took me a while before I found the same conditions but as soon as I did, I would be rewarded with a fish. I was having some physical problems, probably brought on by the fact that I never slept a wink the night before, with my legs, hands and arms constantly cramping up on me. So, I called it a day around 4:00 PM. I had no regrets. I had landed 20 tigers and lost about six more. So, I thought I had a pretty good day. The smallest trout I caught was 13 inches and the largest were at 17 inches. The average fish was about 15 1/2 inches.
Tiger Trout caught at Twin Lakes in June of 2005
Twin Lake is fairly easy to find. It is right off Highway 83. While you can not see the lake from the highway, you can hear the traffic whipping by on 83 while you are fishing. I took an odometer reading from the junction of Highways 83 and 5 in the town of Roblin and came up with 25.8 miles to the turnoff for the Teese Lake Road. Keep to your left once you leave the highway. If you go up there at this time, you may have a little trouble getting in by the aeration system. The road was quite muddy, so you may want to park back a little and walk in with a tube.
After fishing a couple more days in the region, I began to realize just how bad the fish were put down by that huge cold front that had preceded my visit. I, therefore, felt quite fortunate to do as well as I did on this lake. This might be something to think about if you are in the area under similar circumstances. I do not know how big that these fish will get in Twin, but I do know of specimens up to 28 inches coming out of Lady Lake in Saskatchewan. At their present rate of growth, we may see a few topping 20 inches by late fall. At the very least, we should be looking at 18 to 20 inch fish by this time next year.
In conclusion, I think Twin Lake is destined to become one of the most popular trout lakes in the Parkland region. I can’t think of a better place to bring someone new to the sport. And in a year or two, the fish there will be big enough so that even the most seasoned fly fishers will find contentment on its waters. Currently, the Missouri Valley Fly Fishers of Bismarck are helping to fund the aeration for this lake. If you would like to help out by contributing to this effort, you can do so by contacting Chuck Loftis.
While you are in the area, you may want to take a look at Persse and Tees Lakes. These are both potential FLIPPR projects. After leaving the highway, make a right at the first road junction instead of keeping to your left. You can see both lakes from the road. Percee is on the north side of the road while Tees is on the south. Persse was once the prize trout lake in the region in previous years. It is about 100 acres and has 3 basins. It looks like it should still be a good one. If we can get this tight grouping of lakes all stocked with trout,, this area will quickly become a favorite of fly fishers.