Pelican Lake On Blast (But for the right reasons)

Markosky on my mind.

EDIT!!!  Since publishing this story I've found out that the province doesn't stock Triploids, and Markosky's are in fact triploids.  Still a cool story, even if I was out in left field.

It must be pretty clear by this point that I’m a trout addict. Always have been, since I was a little kid. Don’t take this the wrong way, there’s nothing wrong with those who fish for walleye regularly. I just don’t get the hype around a species that’s so plentiful, easy to target and fight like a dead log. Walleye eat well, and at least they’ve got that going for them ;-)

All rainbow and brown trout are stocked in this province, as are most brook trout. It’s the reality of the waters found here. There simply isn’t the spawning habitat for wild fish to exist. Most other provincial jurisdictions maintain most of their stocked trout fisheries as catch and keep. Large fish in easily accessed lakes are the exception, not the rule. However, here in Manitoba were lucky to have a handful of lakes that have regulations to promote catch and release, allowing trout to obtain some pretty impressive sizes. To me there was nothing better than catching a large dark coloured up buck rainbow in April and may as they prepared to go through the motions of spawning. Something I did regularity, until recently.

There’s been multiple subspecies of rainbow trout stocked into Manitoba's waters. East slope and Gerrard rainbows are two that come to mind. These fish look and act like normal trout, and they’re what I grew up fishing for. However, there’s been a shift towards hatchery raised triploid rainbow trout in the last ten years give or take. These fish are not what you find in nature. They’re created in a

Ten years ago colored up rainbows like this were the norm.

process that adds a set of chromosomes, thus rendering them infertile. These fish don’t look or act like a traditional rainbow trout. They’re a drab silver, football fat and don’t seem to be obtaining the high end size that other natural subspecies of rainbows used to. High end fish, that I used to catch regularity, are now a rarity. I miss those days and have been yearning to catch some “real” rainbow trout.

A couple of years ago I began to hear rumblings of a local municipality that was going to try a different subspecies of rainbow trout in a couple of lakes found there. Eventually I learnt it was Roblin/Shell River, and they were raising Markosky rainbows. “Markosky trout” are named after the local who raised and procured them. Long story short with the blessings of Manitoba sustainable development the RM stocked 170 mature Markosky trout between both east and west goose lakes. Each fish was tagged, and new regulations that fish 18 inch and up had to be released were put on the lakes to protect them.

Recently I was curious on how these fish were faring and checked in on east goose lake using the search function on Manitoba’s Master Angler app. I was blown away with what I found. Multiple catches of large, properly colored up fish had been entered into the records. Some of these fish were pushing the size that I consider high end. Right around the same time I checked the MA app, a good buddy messaged me to make some plans to go fishing. Todd Winters is a well known fly fisherman within Manitoba, and ties up some of the most amazing flies and custom hair jigs. He just happened to be feeling the need for trout as well. Plans were made to head to the Goose Lakes for March 15th.

We started out on West Goose. There had been fewer Markosky trout stocked into it’s waters, but the lake was notorious for holding some monster brown trout as well. We set up on a little inside corner with a weed bed. In between the weed bed and shore was this beautiful little pocket of gravel bottom, classic rainbow trout structure. Todd and I set up from five to twelve feet deep and waited. The bite was slow, we had a few bumps on our jigging rods and one scrappy 15 inch rainbow came to the surface on my dead stick. At lunch we decided to move over to East Goose.

This lake was a completely different beast. Gone were the prominent weed beds and pockets of shoreline gravel. Instead what we found where we set up was a large muddy flat, which I knew at certain times can be just as productive. The day was sunny and cool, but I knew the dark bottom on this flat would warm up the water and trigger an afternoon bite. Todd and I set up our offerings from six to ten feet deep and waited things out.

My first bite came an hour later on my dead stick. The jaw jacker sprung and held the fish for a few seconds. But, the fish popped off just as I arrived on scene. I quickly reset and headed back over to my jigging rod. Dropping the hook down I then closed the bail on the reel and picked up the tube jig.....and was met with a crushing strike.

Catch enough trout and one just “knows” when a fish is large. I knew this was a special fish pretty quickly. Over the next few minutes I was met with massive head shakes and awesome drag peeling runs. I was excited already, but was pushed over the edge when a large hooked jaw dark head rainbow trout came to the top of the hole. I had caught a Markosky, the green tag behind the adipose fin confirmed it. The fishes health was paramount in our minds however. So we did a quick grip and grin, measurement and I attempted to get the tag number. With no such luck I decided to release the fish.

My day was made, but Todd needed a Markosky. He was running his custom line of hair jigs, jigs that I knew worked, but hadn’t been seeing much action. Well, his goose egg was broke about 15 minutes later when his jaw jacker sprung into action. The battle was much the same as my fish, massive head shakes and long runs. But the outcome was the same. Todd iced a trophy Markosky, got some great photo’s for his jig line, then slipped the colorful buck bow back into the lake.

The action was pretty consistent after this point, but mostly the younger triploid rainbows the province had stocked. I had hooked up on another large fish, but a frozen drag left me with both a broken line and heart. Todd had been playing with a new line of balanced leech patterns that he felt should work in both open and frozen waters. Todd had been letting the wind push against his line to add a bit of action into the fly, and his rod almost shooting down the hole was the action he was looking for! This fish fought extra hard, but Todd still iced him like the wily veteran he is. The usual grip and grin ensued followed by a quick release.

At that point it was time to go home. We had done what we had set out to do. As previously stated, I love fishing and catching large trout. It’s nice to know there’s now a couple lakes where I can go to catch the type of fish that I grew up on, true rainbow trout that would haunt the dreams of any angler.