Spring!

Spring is here. In many parts of the U.S. you would never know it! Up here though, it has been very even weather. Sunny days and calm winds. It is still freezing at night but the ice out should be normal to slightly late. Fishing season in NW Ontario does not start this year until a week later than last year so we have some time to breathe yet.

We have been up to Red Lake a couple of times already and the snow is almost gone. The lakes are quite solid yet but that is normal for this time of year. Rena and I are heading to Red Lake next week. The 2011 season is almost upon us!!

Back in Manitoba though, the spring run off is heading to Lake Manitoba with much force. Already saturated ground last fall and a moderate amount of snow means full creeks in the spring. It will be awhile before the farmers are able to get on the fields around here.

In the spring, the fishermen who fish on the lake in the winter set up on the tributaries and drainage systems with trap nets to catch the suckers as they run in the spring. A very abundant fish in Lake Manitoba, suckers are the only fish allowed to be caught and taken to market. Northerns and walleyes are occasionally caught in our net but they are just let go over the side to go on their way, to do their business up stream. As with any spawning fish, water temperature determines the time when they head up into the current to spawn. (The spawning in Ontario around our camps can be anywhere from 2 weeks to a month later than Lake Manitoba.) With the cold nights lately we have not caught any fish yet, after only one night.