ON LAKE WINNIPEG, Manitoba _ We'd stopped to scan the horizon and consider our options for setting up to fish when the snowmobile I was driving flooded and wouldn't start again.
Rather than fight with the snowmobile, we decided to cut our losses and set up the portable house.
The snowmobile had decided for us: This is where we would fish.
Turns out the snowmobile made an excellent choice.
Two friends and I spent New Year's Day on Lake Winnipeg and had an absolute blast catching greenback walleyes.
What a great way to start the New Year.
Our destination on this day was Balsam Beach, a popular fishing spot on the east side of Lake Winnipeg about an hour's drive northeast of Winnipeg.
Reports were good, and the fishing we encountered definitely lived up to the hype. We didn't keep track, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the three of us landed upwards of 40 walleyes on the day.
There were no monsters, but pretty much every walleye was of the "perfect eater" variety. I landed big fish honors on the day with a walleye that measured about 23 { inches. That's far short of the trophies for which Lake Winnipeg is known, but considering we didn't have any intelligence on fishing hotspots and basically plopped ourselves down on a patch of ice hoping for the best, I'll take it.
