Massive Lake Winnipeg Northern Wins January Contest

Congratulations to Darren Peters! His Lake Winnipeg, Master Angler Northern Pike action photo was selected as the winner of the January 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.

New Personal Best Pike on Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg’s South Basin is defiantly most well known for anglers hooking into their personal best walleyes. However, the monstrous North Basin of Lake Winnipeg is home to some of the biggest pike found in the entire body of water. It is for this reason, why Darren headed north to meet up with his buddy Daniel Stagg in Dauphin River, to head onto the frozen paradise of Lake Winnipeg at Anama Bay.

After a 45-minute snowmobile ride, these two anglers made it to their spot and set up camp for the day. Fishing with tip-ups paired with a quick-strike rig and cisco, as well as rattle baits on their active lines, they prepared for what proved to be a legendary day on the water.

When asked how the day was Darren mentioned how “in just 90-minutes of fishing we landed 6 fish over 34 inches with an average of a whopping 40 inches!” Both the tip-up’s and active lines proved effective throughout the day. However, the biggest fish of the day, Darren’s winning 42 incher, came on the tip-up.

What's Next?

Darren, being from Woodlands Manitoba, has mainly fished for pike, perch and walleye as they are all relatively close options for him. He mentioned, that pike are for sure his favourite species to fish for. However, in the near future, he is looking at heading up to Cranberry or Athapap in search of his first Master Angler lake trout.

Later this winter Darren is also looking at finishing off his cisco specialist badge, then heading to Cedar Lake for burbot, as well as the Whiteshell for crappies again.

Darren's Northern Life

Over the last few years Darren has mixed his love for fishing with his love for filming and has been creating fishing videos on YouTube for his Channel Darren’s Northern Life. Just this week Darren posted the exciting moments from this dream pike fishing day on his channel.

Master Angler Program

When I asked Darren, how long he has been fishing, Darren replied that he started fishing when he was young; but, it wasn’t until the last couple years, once he downloaded the Manitoba Master Angler App that he really got into fishing.

He mentioned how the app has really motivated him to get out of his comfort zone and travel across the province fishing for new species. Since downloading the app, he has already submitted 26 Master Anglers, including a specialist badge in both crappie and channel cats. With his 42-inch winning pike, it became his 10^th species submitted to Master Angler, earning him his gold badge.

Dream Season

“This season has been incredible, just this ice season alone I have been able to catch 12 Master Anglers.” Darren also brought up an amazing experience he had earlier this winter on Corstorphine Lake where he caught a personal best Rainbow Trout measuring in at 24.25 inches.

Darren is looking to keep this dream season going, as by the end of 2020 he is hoping to have 20 different species submitted into the Manitoba Master Angler Program.

How to Spend his $1000 to Cabela’s

To conclude our conversation, I asked Darren how he planned to spend his $1000 at Cabela’s. To that he replied, “It will be a toss up between an electric auger or a new sleigh plus some gear. However, I will be sharing the winnings with Daniel because he hooked me up with the spot.” A true judge of character, and we wish him the best of luck for the rest of the season!

HuntFishMB – Keevin Erickson

For more information about ice fishing in Manitoba visit our Ice Fishing page.

To watch Darren's YouTube video from this action packed pike fishing day Click Here

For more information about the Master Angler Program, visit anglers.travelmanitoba.com

*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.