12 Months of Master Angler August Winner
Congratulations to Rylan Young! His Master Angler northern pike action photo was selected as the winner of the August edition of the 12 Months of Master Angler photo contest. He has won a $1000 gift card to Cabela’s along with a pile of awesome HuntFishMB gear.
Rylan caught this gorgeous Master Angler northern pike on the Nelson River in Manitoba’s Northern Region. An employee of Manitoba Hydro, Rylan recently moved to the area from Winnipeg and now calls Paint Lake home. “It’s pretty cool to be able to fish all kinds of places up here after work or even out my backyard whenever I want”.
This fish was the first ever Master Angler submission for Rylan, “I just started getting back into fishing since I moved up here. I’ve never really caught anything that I could submit although I did catch some big channel catfish during a trip to Lockport a few years ago.” His wife actually helped/encouraged him to enter his recent trophy pike catch. “I guess I’ll have to get her something nice out of the prize too,” he laughed.
Rylan admitted that he wasn’t even targeting northerns when he caught the toothy predator. “We were going after walleyes on the public dock after work when this guy bit my line. I caught it on a simple jig and twister tail.” He shared that his co-worker Matt Dela deserved some of the credit as he was the one who netted the fish for him as well as snapped the photo, “I guess I should buy him something nice as well. One new jig head maybe.”
This 42.25-inch monster beat Rylan’s previous personal best pike by over four inches. He plans on hooking into more of these giants through the ice with the help of a new ice auger, “I think I’ll spend most of the gift card on ice fishing gear. It’s also time to retire my manual auger and get a gas or electric model to cut through the thick March and April ice up here.”
HuntFishMB – Eric Labaupa
For more information about the Master Angler Program visit our Master Angler website.
For more information about fishing for northern pike in Manitoba visit our Northern Pike page.
*Protect Manitoba’s water and resources. Stop aquatic invasive species. For more information on how to do your part visit the Sustainable Development AIS page.