Reed Lake 2024 – Trip report

Well our 2024 trip to Reed lake in Manitoba is a wrap. Overall it was another Great trip. We fished from 6/8 – 6/12. We had planned on fishing on Thursday the 13th but woke to rather high winds and decided to pack up and head home a day early to get in a few days of golf. The weather on day #1 was rather miserable to say the least. Temps in the low 40’s, Rather heavy rains, and a rather strong wind. After that the weather was rather good with several of the days being light winds and rather warm ( Upper 701’s to low 80’s ) only had one other day of fishing in the rain and it was rather light all day. We got lucky with the weather. When we checked in at the campground they said they had only had 2 nice days in the prior 2 weeks with lots of rain and winds. I was shocked to find the lake temps so cold on day #1 ( Mainlake temp’s was Mid 40’s ) This turned out to be both bad and good. The lake trout fishing was great and the big pike #’s way down. I’d rate the fishing as follows:
Lake Trout – Great
Walleye – Incredible – Truly world class
Pike – Excellent #’s but poor for big fish over 40″ – By far our worst year for big pike ever there.
The lake trout fishing and walleye fishing seems to keep getting better and better there. The large pike #’s seems to be really falling off. Got to wonder if there is a correlation between the change in the last few years. I think the big pike fishing is a timing issue. I think we missed the pike still in the shallow bays after spawning and prior to moving to their normal summer locations. Kind of a post spawn funk if you will. The good news is some of the larger ones we caught were all on lighter gear while fishing the lake trout and pike, so that made them a blast. I hate to think the sure #’s of walleyes a person with good side scan and or live scan skills could catch on this lake. The average size of the walleye is incredible as well. Lots of 23-26″ fish. Our walleye #’s were way up even though they were not in a bay that we normally do real well in yet ( Once again a timing issue I’d guess ) one cool thing was catching multiple species all at the same locations. Several times we trippled up with one having a Pike, another a lake trout, and the 3rd a walleye. Even caught a fair # of large white fish mixed in. We even managed a lake trout under the 26′ slot limit to keep and eat. Ended up boiling it in diet coke and water and dipping it in melted butter – It was yummy. Normally boil them in 7 up but forgot to bring any on this trip. The diet coke worked almost as good. We saw several bear on the drive up and home. Including a momma with a small cub and a cinnamon colored one that was way cool. One day while fishing around a small island we heard a crashing noise and looked up to see a doe and small fawn caribou swimming towards the mainland a fair ways away. That was also rather cool to watch. Was a little worried the calf would not make it but it did so just fine. I think at several points it actually climbed on the does back. We keep a fair distance away as to not bother them and effect their course to mainland. I guess its common for the caribou to swim to a island to have their calf’s to be safe from the bears and wolves and then swim back to mainland when the calf is bigger and stronger. As I have said in past post this trip is a Campground trip. Only one resort on the lake ( Grass river lodge I believe ) this is right next to the campground. I looked into the price there one time and it was Big $’s. Need to bring plenty of boat gas as the closest gas station is about 1.5 Hr’s away. No electricity at the campground either so good camping gear and a genarator is a must. Also no hot water so a cold shower ( Really cold ) only. Total per person expense on the trip each was probably less than 600.00 us $’s
Here are a few photo’s from the trip

Attachments:

1. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3827.jpg
   

2. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3811.jpg
   

3. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3814.jpg
   

4. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3825.jpg
   

lets try the photo’s again

Attachments:

1. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3825-1.jpg
   

2. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3814-1.jpg
   

3. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3827-1.jpg
   

4. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3811-1.jpg
   

a few more photos

Attachments:

1. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3849.jpg
   

2. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3828.jpg
   

3. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3833.jpg
   

4. 

   thumbnail_IMG_3836.jpg
   

one last group

Attachments:

1. 

   thumbnail_IMG_9138.jpg
   

2. 

   thumbnail_IMG_9166.jpg
   

3. 

   thumbnail_IMG_9160.jpg
   

Great pics! Sounds like a fabulous time. I know you’re holding it out a little bit, but that is one PIG of a whitefish. I bet she’ll smoke up real nice!

A triple of 3 different species is a trifecta! Have you tried baking the trout in tinfoil?

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Great pics! Sounds like a fabulous time. I know you’re holding it out a little bit, but that is one PIG of a whitefish. I bet she’ll smoke up real nice!

Some of those whitefish grow rather large in that lake. This was not even one of the bigger ones we have caught there. They do fight incredibly hard and do not give up at all.

Gregg Gunter wrote:

A triple of 3 different species is a trifecta! Have you tried baking the trout in tinfoil?

We had several Trifecta’s – doesn’t get much better than that. I have had lake trout campfire baked in tinfoil in the past. It is yummy that way as well. We forgot the tin foil on this trip so boiling it it was.

Sweet. I would be soooo jonesing to eat more lake trout on a trip like that. Weird that its hard to catch one small enough. They must protect the heck out of them there?

suzuki wrote:

Sweet. I would be soooo jonesing to eat more lake trout on a trip like that. Weird that its hard to catch one small enough. They must protect the heck out of them there?

Ya the average size there is around 30-32″. hard to get one under the 26″ slot. They are yummy. I could live with 2-3 meals of them each trip if we could get more to keep.

I’ve had fresh lake trout once. Fried just in oil (forgot the breading on our portage trip) tasted better than northern breaded and fried.

Netguy wrote:

I’ve had fresh lake trout once. Fried just in oil (forgot the breading on our portage trip) tasted better than northern breaded and fried.

I’d agree. I enjoy the lake trout better than either northern or walleye. Just a different taste. The lake trout from this lake in Canada taste far different than those I’ve had from the great lakes. Maybe due to these ones needing to be smaller size to keep.

You’ve been doing this trip for a while now so are pretty familiar with the lake. Are you still nervous of wrecking your prop/lower unit? I’d be real skittish on a new unmapped rocky lake like this. How do/did you go about learning it, just taking it slow?

Greenhorn wrote:

You’ve been doing this trip for a while now so are pretty familiar with the lake. Are you still nervous of wrecking your prop/lower unit? I’d be real skittish on a new unmapped rocky lake like this. How do/did you go about learning it, just taking it slow?

My Father has been going to the same resort/lakes in Canada for over 10 years now and comes back with a dinged up prop every time. Last week he also came back with a dinged guide on the side of his trailer. He claims it’s just part of the trip.

Greenhorn wrote:

How do/did you go about learning it, just taking it slow?

One thing you can do on unmapped lakes is use aerial images. Reed for example has some very good aerials so what I do on lakes like this is draw “contours” around any hazards where you can’t see the bottom anymore. Then upload these tracks into my gps units.

This is just a starting point for going into a new lake blind. Nothing will beat time on the water and years of experience. Calm, bluebird days are the easiest and safest time to go exploring new areas.

Here’s some examples of the Reed Lake aerials and some of the contours I’d draw… this is a little minefield just a mile or so out of the access.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2024-06-18-160056.jpg
   

2. 

   Screenshot-2024-06-18-160124.jpg
   

Great report and photos, Fishthumper! This trip sounds like a blast every year you report on it

That’s good advice – how do you go about putting on your gps unit? Is this something I can do on a Helix?

Greenhorn wrote:

That’s good advice – how do you go about putting on your gps unit? Is this something I can do on a Helix?

Been a minute since I’ve done it on a Bird but if I remember right I used the site https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/draw/ to draw contours and then download those tracks as GPX files. Then you have to convert the GPX files to Humminbird track files before uploading them into a Helix unit via SD card. I think Humminbird actually had a software that does the conversion from GPX to whatever file type it is that Humminbird uses.

Ya fishing a lake like this in Canada is rather risky to say the least. The guy I go with has over 20 years of experience fishing this lake and each year he still finds a few new danger spots. He has a crap load of GPS spots marked and most all of them are mainlake reefs or rock piles. To make matter worse is the water depth seems to change from year to year. Some places we can pass over in a high water year are exposed rocks the next year. I’d say the best bet is to go with someone who has been on the lake and do lots of marking danger spots. The next best thing would be to try and follow a few of the other boats on the lake. On this lake there is a resort right next to the campground. Each morning 5-6 guides go out from the resort. I’d say following them around would also be a good idea to at least get down some safe tracks. Like tswoboda said bright sunny days are a great time to explore a little more. Its often much easier to see the shallow reefs and rocks on these types of days. We travel rather far from the landing each day. If I was new I’d stay much closer to the landing and watch where others are fishing and maybe spend part of each day exploring at a rather slow pace. Once you get some safe routs down on the GPs things get much safer. Thats said have extra props and expect that getting s few messed up is more than a possibility. This year we brought 3 props and never put a nick in the original one. Other years we have came back with all three dinged up rather bad.

tswoboda wrote:

Here’s some examples of the Reed Lake aerials and some of the contours I’d draw… this is a little minefield just a mile or so out of the access.

There are a lot of Minefields like the ones shown all over the lake. aerial views like these sure are a GREAT starting point to mark danger areas. By the way these same area’s are also where some of the excellent fishing is. We know any waypoint we have marked that is off shore is a reef and a area to stay a decent distance away while running at higher speeds. most of the reefs we have marked with waypoints on all sides with a waypoint line running down the middle. On windy overcast days this really helps when fishing these spots as well.

That’s awesome Fishthumper, next summer I want to take a week off a do a Canada trip like that with the boys.

Assuming you guys make the drive in one day taking shifts? I don’t mind a long drive, but that’s stretching it for just me lol

B-man wrote:

That’s awesome Fishthumper, next summer I want to take a week off a do a Canada trip like that with the boys.

Assuming you guys make the drive in one day taking shifts? I don’t mind a long drive, but that’s stretching it for just me lol

My buddy use to drive the whole trip but these days we do trade off driving several times. I think from St Clould you could make it in close to 13 hrs. If the border crossing goes quick. And you only stopped for gas. I think our return trip took 13.5 hrs and that was with a fair amount of road work along the way slowing us down slightly.

B-man wrote:

That’s awesome Fishthumper, next summer I want to take a week off a do a Canada trip like that with the boys.

Assuming you guys make the drive in one day taking shifts? I don’t mind a long drive, but that’s stretching it for just me lol

B-man. A trip to Reed lake would surely be a dream trip for your 2 boys. Just be aware that its rather rustic and not much other than fishing to do in the area. There are several other smaller lakes in the area you could take side trips to if the wind is bad. We ourselves have never done so, but we have talked with others at the campground that have done real well on some of them. We talked with a camper who made a side trip to several lakes about 40 minutes away to fish Rainbow trout and they caught a ton of them with several of them being real large. they said all they used were small daredevils and small rapalas. I’m sure a small mepp’s would also work real well.

Great catch Thump, especially like the Whitey.

Which crossing do you use to get to Manitoba?

jwellsy wrote:

Which crossing do you use to get to Manitoba?

Pembina ND

Heading up tomorrow to the Flin Flon area (we have stayed at Athapap for the last 15 years). We decided to give Reed a try for a day, we always are targeting trophy pike and Reed looks like one of the best drive-to spots in the area. I’ve been doing my Google Earth research trying to locate any visible reefs from the satellite view and load the coordinates into my Humminbird. From the satellite I can’t see many reefs in the open basin along the south shore. Anyone with experience on the lake know if that area is relatively safe to run? Just trying to shorten the learning curve as much as possible since we may only be there for one day. Photo is my map with reefs marked that I could see on Google Earth.

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_1577-1.jpg
   

Shawn

Look at you messages and give me a call on my cell. Glad some info. to maybe help you and some areas to really watch out for.