Cross-Canada III: Prairies

 With limited options due to the covid pandemic, Alex and I set our eyes to the west once again. This time, we focused more on backroads and catching some of the few realistic fish targets I had left.As usual, the trip started with a crazy run to get us across Ontario and into the prairies where the fun could begin.

The first, albeit short, stop was at a small river in Manitoba where I had seen sampling reports of Bigmouth Shiner, one of the few remaining fish I had yet to catch from the prairie provinces. The stop proved successful and I quickly located a school of the Bigmouths mixed in with Common Shiners and Creek Chub. We had been driving for about 30 hours straight at this point and still had a few hours left to go, so I quickly took some photos, released the fish, and we were back on our way.

Bigmouth Shiner

Having caught the shiner, we continued on to the Saskatchewan border and made camp for the night. Over the next couple days, we blazed across the rest of the prairies and enjoyed some scenic backroads with incredible scenery and cool wildlife. We visited towns with crazy names like Manyberries, Vulcan and Climax, and checked out interesting protected areas throughout.

Red Rock Coulee

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park

Pronghorn (Antelope)

Unfortunately, there weren't many more fishing stops before we hit the mountains. That being said, we did take the time to go back to Lethbridge to try for a stocked population of sterile Grass Carp. They are considered an invasive species in most of the rest of Canada, but are actually stocked in some ponds there for weed control. Last year, I fished the same spot and actually found some fish, but couldn't convince any to actually bite. This year, they were still shy and spooky, but I finally made something work after a couple hours of chasing fish around, resulting in this beautiful specimen. It was one of the harder fighting fish I've come across and probably pulled me halfway across the lake!

Grass Carp

I'm gonna skip over our travels through the Rockies for now, and keep all the prairie adventures together. We didn't visit too many more scenic areas on the way back, but I was able to take some time to go fishing in the Assiniboine River in Manitoba. I maintain that Manitoba has some of the best roughfishing in Canada, and this session was no different.

Bites came quick and I was soon experiencing the best Shorthead Redhorse fishing I ever had. Size was nothing crazy, but the shear numbers was awesome. There were other species mixed in too, such as Goldeye and Channel Catfish.

Goldeye

Shorthead Redhorse

The roughfishing was great, but I will admit I was really here for a shot at two new lifers: the Flathead Chub and the Silver Chub. I was using small hooks and I was given some local intel that both species should be present. I was getting lots of small bites and eventually I managed to make one stick, my lifer Silver chub!

Silver Chub

I never was able to catch a Flathead Chub, making it the third trip across Canada without success for this species, but there's always next time! I'm not sure when I'll have time, but I'll get some blog posts up from the AB/BC portion of our journey soon.

Pebble Beach, Marathon