Dunlops 2019

Opening Day Frozenassittis at Dunlop’s Lodge

June 2019

Brett Thomas and Steve Pape

I think there should be a medical term for those fishermen that gamble their fishing trip on opening day, maybe something like Frozenassittis or Acute Hyperfisherman Edema.  It takes a special breed to spend months worrying about weather, ice, flight delays, and lockjaw fish only to fish the opening week at their favorite fishing lodge.  These trips can be really good fishing or REALLY bad fishing.  For better or worse Steve and I decided to go for it at Dunlop’s Lodge starting on May 31, 2019 in Northeast Manitoba.

Dunlop’s has a really good reputation for providing a good quality fishing trip at a decent price in a quality location in NE Manitoba.  For 2350US Unguided or 2950US Guided you get a comfortable cabin with a 3 piece bath, 3 meals a day with dinner being restaurant quality.  Lake Waskaiowaka is a really excellent option for guys seeking a Northern Manitoba location without having to mortgage the farm. The lodge although older has been fixed up by Jerry Dunlop to a very comfortable level.  The cabins offer hot and cold running water, wood stove, daily bed service, laundry, mini fridge, and picturesque views of the lake.  The lake itself is large and offers more than 24 miles x 14 miles of water to fish.  The American style plan offers excellent food, including ordering your lunch the night before and it’s waiting for you in a cooler on ice every morning in the boat Jerry being a former guide also provides nice quality 16ft Alumarine boats with flat bottoms ,casting decks with newer 30HP Evinrude 4 Strokes to power you around the large body of water.( 40HP in the Guided boats) A nice feature in the boats that thankfully we did not need to use was a GPS emergency locater, lost or stranded we felt much safer.

Steve and I met in 2017 just talking about fishing locations on Mike Borger’s site.( I am from Henderson Nevada, Steve from just north of Toronto)  We were really just talking fishing and the online banter turn into a couple of phone calls which turned into a pretty cool trip to Dunlop’s.  It was my 3rd year of doing trips like this to Canada, it was Steve’s first big Bucket Lister outside of Ontario.

FINALLY our trip date rolled around and the ice had left the lake less than a week before our fly-in.  We were a GO!  We both flew into Winnipeg and spent the night at one of the airport hotels.  I personally prefer the Grand Winnipeg.  It is the closest to the terminal, recently renovated, and always clean.  We met for the first time in the lobby and headed out for a quick breakfast and trip to Cabelas.  After spending a couple of hours chatting over breakfast I was confident we would be good boat partners and we would be able to work well together.  I always enjoy stopping at the Cabelas in Winnipeg as they carry items that are very much directed at Manitoba Pike and Walleyes. This trip was going to be good.

Travel on Friday night to Thompson ( because it was opening week we got to fly in Friday night instead of overnighting in Thompson) was right on time and Dunlop’s expeditor was waiting for us in the tiny commercial terminal with a transfer to the charter terminal.  One more quick flight into the camp and WE WERE THERE!  I sure wish the water level was there as well.  A quick flashback to my 2017 trip to Dunlop’s the water was~5 feet high.  Record high per the camp owner Jerry Dunlop.  This time the water level was 2-3 feet low also a record per Jerry.  So much for fishing the same locations as 2017.  This was going to be a whole new game and we going to need to figure it out.

Off we went Saturday am after a hearty breakfast.  We drove to the NE corner of the lake with a plan to fish our way back.  After a 20 mile  ride averaging ~22mph we started looking in bays and found the water was 2-3 feet deep for the majority of these huge bays.  One of the first things we found was these shallow bays still held some smaller fish but the bite was scattered. We gradually moved out to the neck down entering the bay and found 6-8 feet of water, the bite started to percolate. I nailed a nice fat 38″, we both we catching lots of 24-30″.  One thing I did not mention was weather and water conditions on this opening day. Air temp of 40F, 15MPH wind out of the NW, main lake temp of 38, temp in the bay’s ranged from 44-46, it was far from ideal. Most lakes would not yield much under those conditions, it’s a testament to the quality of the water here we were doing this well. We worked our way down the NE arm looking for bays and neck downs that mimicked our morning spots. The thing that stuck us was everywhere we stopped we caught fish, and on a bad weather day we felt that boded well for the rest if the trip.  The other thing that struck us, or should I say we struck ,was a reef, yes the low water had claimed part of our prop in a spot that would normally not be a hazard. First day, it was a learner!

At the end of the first day we wound up with 30 small Pike,  4 32-38 inch  Pike and a bunch of Walleye caught incidentally casting for Pike. It could only get better.

We awoke Sunday to less wind, warmer temps and the promise of some sun later in the morning, it felt like a better day was at hand. We both looked over the big lake map posted on the wall in our room, we liked the other side of the lake, lots of bays, cover and not a long run. We headed for a bay that had a nice rocky neck down entrance that split into two bays, left and right.  We followed the rocky shoreline and turned right, that turned out to be huge decision. We caught smaller fish all along the shoreline, then made a move out into the middle of the bay. There we found darker sand bottom, 5-6 feet of water and 47 -48 degree water temps, the Pike hairs on the back of my neck were standing up! Immediately we started to catch more fish and better sizes.  The Doctor was working, so were Williams Wobblers and #6 Vibrax. Then Steve said, Brett this is a good fish. It bull dogged to the bottoms and ran, we were both excited to finally get it into the cradle, a solid 42″ fish! That was followed up a short time later with healthy 45″ fish, our biggest of the week. We felt good that we had found some big girls, and conditions were still not optimum. We noted the darker sandy bottoms held fish, light sand did not, and these are the subtle differences you learn over the course of a week.  Over the rest of Sunday we worked our way around the west side of the lake, 6 different bays, they all held fish. The amount of follows was staggering , it seemed like almost every cast we had curious Pike giving us a look-see.

Monday through Friday – we spent a lot of time exploring new locations and picked up 4 more 41+ Pike, 30 more 32-38 inch Pike and dozens of solid well built Walleyes that were crazy enough to bite on everything from a 4.5 inch / 1oz Doctor Spoons to Storm Flatsticks that were 7+ inches long. Every evening we would head to the river at the Northwest end of the lake. Drifting from the opening of the bay to a few hundred yards down the river we would  consistently pick up 30 Pike every night along with a handful of Walleye, all this in  just 90 minutes. All told for the week we were close to 350 Pike, it was a solid trip.

I have a few general comments about Dunlop’s Lodge. The food was excellent.  Jerry’s Chef has a Culinary degree and it shows. The fishing in Waskaiowaka is excellent.  The numbers of smaller fish is insane.  The number of trophies is also very good.  If you put your time in I believe everyone in camp managed multiple large healthy 32-40 inch Pike and numerous 41+. Some guys managed multiple 41+ with the camp best being 2x48s and a 46. We are not bragging, but the dockhand said Steve and I fished more than anyone in camp, our 6 Master Anglers was the best total of any boat, and our three busted props showed no guts, no glory!

 For the money Dunlop’s Lodge gives you access to very good fishing with comfortable lodging and great food.  I highly recommend the overall experience.

Brett