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Black Water Cats - Lake Winnipeg

ZacAttack0201

By ZacAttack0201
in Ice Fishing

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ZacAttack0201 Explorer

ZacAttack0201

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Just booked a mid-February trip to lake Winnipeg.  Will be my first time going for the greenback walleye so I did some basic research and went with black water cats guiding service.  I saw Ted Takasaki at Scheel's in Sioux Falls today and he had good things to say about Donovan who runs Blackwater Cats, but I'm wondering if any average joe's have had experience with this guide service?  I'm also curious about anyone's Lake Winnipeg stories in general.

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elkrivermn Community Regular

elkrivermn

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1 hour ago, ZacAttack0201 said:

Just booked a mid-February trip to lake Winnipeg.  Will be my first time going for the greenback walleye so I did some basic research and went with black water cats guiding service.  I saw Ted Takasaki at Scheel's in Sioux Falls today and he had good things to say about Donovan who runs Blackwater Cats, but I'm wondering if any average joe's have had experience with this guide service?  I'm also curious about anyone's Lake Winnipeg stories in general.

Remember, your fishing for pickerel!!  No such thing as walleye where your fishing :)

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Wanderer Grand Master

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13 hours ago, elkrivermn said:

Remember, your fishing for pickerel!!  No such thing as walleye where your fishing :)

 

They sure looked a lot like walleyes!  Always wondered why they were green but never really heard a particular reason.  I just assumed it was a regional phenomenon like most color variations.

 

I've been to Winnepeg once for the Greenbacks; a group of 4 fishing for 3 days.  We got about 150 iced that were between roughly 15 and 30 inches.  We worked our butts off for those fish and drilled lots of holes through 4 feet of ice to fish in 10 feet of "water".  We jigged a couple feet off the bottom and often raised the lure another foot to entice a fish that marked on the flasher.  By the time the hook was set, it was a fight of about 3 feet before trying to turn them up the hole.

 

It was a weird experience but fun.  Lots of great picture fish and a nice 4 fish limit to bring home.  Note - you will get checked at the Border if you choose to bring fish back.  

 

For us, we were glad we did it but on the 10 hour drive home we wondered if we'd be back.  I haven't been, which is another weird thing after being able to post those numbers.  Now, I'm not a walleye nut and we didn't get that 32 inch fish of a lifetime, so that probably plays into it some.  If I fished with a guide it would've probably been less work, so not as beat when considering a repeat.

 

I still might though.

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elkrivermn Community Regular

elkrivermn

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3 hours ago, Wanderer said:

 

They sure looked a lot like walleyes!  Always wondered why they were green but never really heard a particular reason.  I just assumed it was a regional phenomenon like most color variations.

 

I've been to Winnepeg once for the Greenbacks; a group of 4 fishing for 3 days.  We got about 150 iced that were between roughly 15 and 30 inches.  We worked our butts off for those fish and drilled lots of holes through 4 feet of ice to fish in 10 feet of "water".  We jigged a couple feet off the bottom and often raised the lure another foot to entice a fish that marked on the flasher.  By the time the hook was set, it was a fight of about 3 feet before trying to turn them up the hole.

 

It was a weird experience but fun.  Lots of great picture fish and a nice 4 fish limit to bring home.  Note - you will get checked at the Border if you choose to bring fish back.  

 

For us, we were glad we did it but on the 10 hour drive home we wondered if we'd be back.  I haven't been, which is another weird thing after being able to post those numbers.  Now, I'm not a walleye nut and we didn't get that 32 inch fish of a lifetime, so that probably plays into it some.  If I fished with a guide it would've probably been less work, so not as beat when considering a repeat.

 

I still might though. 

As big as the lake is there must be millions of fish in the lake. have a great time there ,be safe and catch fish!  Be sure to stop at the Forks in Winnipeg and have fish and chips at Fergies.

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DTro Grand Master

DTro

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Donovan is a great guy that stays on top of the bite and has a crew keeping you on fish they best they can.   Winnipeg is sort of like URL, get away from others and find the roaming fish.   Good luck on your trip and be sure to ask Donovan about the Red River Cats too.  ;)

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ZacAttack0201 Explorer

ZacAttack0201

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Just got done with  2 days with Blackwater Cat's guides Ryan and Brad.  First awesome guides, everybody we spoke too we outfished.  These guys know this lake and how to find fish.  Between 6 of us, everyone caught at least one fish over 28" and the biggest was a 31.5" greenback.  Had a great experience, I highly recommend the drive to Lake Winnipeg and I'd also recommend calling Donovan from Blackwater to setup a successful trip - both will be well worth it.  Here are pics of my dad's 31.5" and the 28" I caught.  Some great fun was had on the ice!

IMG_8922.JPG

IMG_4191.JPG

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ZacAttack0201 Explorer

ZacAttack0201

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23 hours ago, lungdeflator said:

Sweet!  Ill be posting a report from our 3.5 day trip over the weekend.  In the Canada section. 

 

Question for you.....we saw a Cadillac Escalade with tracks and a big walleye decal on it.....was that the Blackwater Cats guys?

 

Lungdeflator, it was not.  Our guides had GM pickup trucks and Donovan drives around a Toyota Tundra with a Blackwater Cat graphics.

 

Also, good luck fishing!  Hopefully the weather stays decent.  We had rain one of the days, but it didn't really change the fish bite.

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