Dunlops Lodge 2017 – Water- Water Everywhere!

It is always exciting to start planning the next year’s trip in the Fall.  I usually start in September and October and review websites, brochures, and consider the next trip. After several conversations with my fishing buddy (Ryan) we decided to give Dunlop’s Lodge a shot the 3rd week in June 2017.  On the surface Dunlops is an AWESOME deal at $2300 unguided or $2900 guided.  You are getting access to great water in NE Manitoba.  The lake is large.  Really more like 2 big lakes linked by a channel.  Then throw in access to Hale Lake through the Little Churchhill River.  On top of the big water you get newer boats, nice 40hp Mercs, Full American Plan, Wifi, and 24×7 power.

Here’s the catch the lodge’s charter flight leaves out of Thompson MB.  This is ~900km North of Winnipeg and we had decided to drive up.  So we flew up to Winnipeg Thursday evening.  Then drove the 7-9 hrs north to Thompson Friday.  Then spent the night in Thompson and had to get up at 430a to drive over to the charter terminal.  The cost of the added travel items breaks down like this:

• Thursday night in Winnipeg – $120
• Car Rental for 8 days – $400
• Gas for 1800km drive – $240
• Friday night in Thompson – $100
• Extra Food for the travel – $100

So the added costs are around $960 / 2 or around $450 each.  The flight to Thompson from Winnipeg is an option too.  It goes for $400-$600 RT.  The real cost of the trip is closer to $3000 ea plus the flights to / from Winnipeg.  This is still a decent deal but you are getting close to the price range for a lot of different lodges.

The travel to Winnipeg was smooth on Thursday.  We got up Friday am had a casual breakfast then drove over to the Cabelas in Winnipeg.  I wanted to buy our Manitoba fishing licenses ahead of time to save a bit of time at the lodge.  I have always absolutely loved this store.  On a past trip they saved the trip with some large floating jig heads that really rocked at Hawk Lake Lodge.  They also stock just the right lures for fishing Northern Manitoba pike fish and I was sure I needed a few more lures.

The best thing I can say about the drive up was that it was boring.  I could talk about the lack of places to eat.  Think Subway…Lack of rest stops.  None.  Limited gas options.  Buy it when you see it.  Anyway…That’s enough on the drive.  Next time I will fly.  The Friday night in Thompson was uneventful.

Saturday morning the flight into the lodge was right on time and as the engines changed pitch indicating our landing I looked down at the lake.  RHUT RO!  The water was high, very high, so high I was pretty sure I could see 4-5 ft tall bushes barely sticking out of the water.  My heart sank to my boots.  UGH!  This was going to be an interesting week.

We landed right at the lodge.  The runway is maybe 300 yards from the lodge.  We deplaned and walked down to the lodge for a quick breakfast.  The food was good but all we really wanted to do was rig up at our cabin and hit the lake.  We ate quickly, rigged up, and headed down to the boat.  The first thing we noticed was the boat was pulled up onto a lawn area.  The  docks weren’t in due to high water.  The dock hand helped launched us with more than a little effort and off we went.

The first bay we tried was called Gator bay.  Ryan started out throwing a spinner bait and I tried a swimbait.  We started in the back of the bay and started working the shoreline around to our left.  NOTHING.  We motored our way back to the back of the bay and started working around to the right.  NOTHING.  I switched up to a spoon.  My buddy also switched it up to a small spinner.  Finally after about an hour we had a fish.  Overall it turned out to be a good day.  As the sun got higher and the water warmed up so did the fishing.  We wound up the day with around a 100 fish.  Not counting the crazy evening walleye bite which turned out to be a blast.  Jerry post on his website regarding his walleye fishing is this “How many do you want?”.  That is totally true.  We sat in the river with pink VMC Jigs and Pink Powerbait tails and hammered 30+ walleyes in 2-3 hours.  Here is what we learned.  Higher water temperature really helped the bite.  We needed to fish SLOW as close to the flooded shoreline as possible. Like I said earlier this was going to be a bit of a challenge.

We worked the lake hard while dealing with less than great weather.  After two days of generally mild 65-75F the weather really turned and we dealt with 45-55F highs and lows in the 35F range with constant rain and overcast skys. The worse the weather got the closer to the brush and the slower we needed to fish.

Overall we did quite well.  I’d say during the first couple of positive days we easily averaged 100 pike.  We finished with 5 Manitoba Master Anglers.  We fished walleyes 3 nights and average around 30-40 walleyes p/n in 3 hours.  At one point I caught a walleye on 5 casts only to be bested by Ryan with 8 straight casts.  I also lost a BIG pike on a jig while walleye fishing.  Make sure your jigs eyes fit through your leader snap lock.  I couldn’t get the jig on the leader and it cost me a really nice fish as I fished walleyes without a leader.  The slower (cold front) fishing days were more like 30-50 pike a day while fishing 830a to 500p.  Our biggest fish was a 43 inch pike.  We raised two others that would’ve gone 46+.  While we were in camp we saw 3 legit monsters 46+ caught by the guys there  that week

The hot lures for us were:

• Silver Johnson minnow with a chartreuse skirt and white 6 inch twister tail
• Savage Gear 4Play Swim and Jerk with a Firetiger Pattern
• 6 in Money Minnow and Big Hammer Swimbaits
• XRap Subwalk in Bone and Ghost fishing on the surface
• Blue Fox #5/#6 with a orange or chartruese blade
• Gold Storm Flatsticks 6 1/2 in size

 

If you do decide to drive make sure you stop at Pisew Falls.  They are incredible. 

I am going back to Dunlops in 2019.  I know there are a lot of big pike in there and I am excited to find them!

Take care!

Brett