For walleye, it’s the real deal on North Seal
Mike Jackson – Daily Herald
Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006
CLIFTON LAKE, Manitoba — Four or five of our group sat at the table in the main room, re-telling the day’s events in non-stop form. The rest of the cadre were in boats continuing the pursuit. While it was close to midnight, there was plenty of sunlight and enthusiasm left to recount the day’s activities. Many of us there just couldn’t get enough of the magnificent angling action here on the North Seal River. And, for the record, I have fished with him lots of times — close to home and in places such as Mexico, Costa Rica and in Canada — but I’ve never seen him so obsessed with keeping records of what we caught. “Him” is Spence Petros. Petros, guide Darrell Baker, myself and five more anglers in our group got a major taste of some of the finest walleye fishing in North America. And here is a direct quote from Petros after a week of cherry-picking Clifton Lake: “Our group caught over 1,800 walleyes with the biggest, average size catch I’ve ever seen.” Now, some of you may offer guffaws and sneers at those comments, but I guarantee it is 100 percent accurate.
Clifton Lake is part of the Gangler outpost camp chain connected to the North Seal River. It just opened last year, and when Ken Gangler called to tell me about the great walleye and lake trout angling, he could barely contain himself. We found rocky areas where every jig drop produced a double strike (that means two fish on at once — one per angler, of course). These weren’t small fish, but rather walleyes ranging from 3 to 6 pounds. And they attacked the jigs with as much energy as a medium-sized northern pike. Clifton Lake is a typical Canadian-shield body of water, with bolder-strewn stretches of long flats. Many of the rocky shoals lead to sand flats, and ultimately to steep drop-offs. Some shoreline areas feature vertical rock walls. Much of the North Seal River area is like this, all formed by glaciers.
Our newly constructed two-bedroom cabin sat on a slight, sandy hill. The camp itself is perched on a peninsula nestled in a sheltered mini-bay. Gone is that typical growl of a diesel generator. Instead, modern solar panels provide the electricity to live comfortably in this sub-Arctic environment. Instead of shore lunches, we all opted to have fresh walleye and lake trout filets for dinners on three different nights. Gangler provided us with maps, so it was relatively easy to find the deep water, where we found the lakers ready to attack our lures. And here is where record-keepers Petros and Baker did yeoman duty. “My totals are on the low side,” Petros said. “I know we caught more than 350 lake trout, and maybe I’m shy about two dozen or so.” We drifted and trolled for trout over 70 feet of water. Fish weights were approximated and released. I used a 3-ounce bucktail jig tipped with a Lindy Munchie grub, as well as some fresh, cut bait from chunks of whitefish that we’d caught. We dropped the jigs to the bottom and then worked our way up the water while snapping the baits in upward motions while simultaneously cranking. Our trolling passes were made with three-way rigs hooked to big Rapala deep-diving plugs and heavy Five of Diamond spoons. I chose to use a Lindy No-Snagg sinker because these setups were dragged over massive rocks on the bottom.
Clifton Lake is also known for its huge northern pike. But because the cabbage weeds weren’t up in the shallow bays, we didn’t find any monsters on this trip. We’d heard reports of pike in excess of 50 inches. The North Seal River is near the northern end of Manitoba, close to the Northwest Territories border. We flew from Chicago to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and overnighted there. Then we flew on Gangler’s charter plane to the main lodge on Egenolf Lake. From there, a turbo Otter float plane took our entire group and gear to nearby Clifton Lake for the greatest walleye fishing of my life. If you go Where: Gangler’s North Seal River Lodges,
Manitoba Contact: 866-51-LODGE
Best time to go: Now