An interview with world class pike guide Phil Wiebe from his home in Selkirk, Manitoba. With 3 plus decades of guiding under his belt, Phil has guided and appeared on many notable television shows and films about chasing pike and has guided many IGFA world record pike in a variety of classes.
Phil Wiebe (left) hoists another quality pike for a very happy guest
What is your name and where do you call home?
“My Name is Phil Wiebe and I’m from Selkirk Manitoba”
How long have you been guiding?
“I’ve been guiding for 32 years”
Where have you guided over the course of your career?
“I spent the first 5 or 6 years guiding in northern Manitoba and thereafter in northern Saskatchewan”
How many pike do you think you have handled over the course of your career, how many over 40″, how many over 50″?
“That’s a difficult question, I’ve been on Wollaston Lake for the
past 25 years and 40” pike tend to be very common, but I have seen 11 over 50” come into the
boat. I’m quite certain I remember every one”
What drove you to become a fishing guide, was it hard to break in and start your guide career? Any major influences?
“I grew up in a fishing family and started with spending summers in northern Manitoba as a kid.
My uncle, Corky Peterson, was a lodge operator and a well known outdoorsman in the area. This is
where I got my start, sporting a Johnson spincast, undoubtedly matched with a buggy whip rod
and some ghastly department store monofilament. This was also my introduction to flyfishing as
my Uncle would guide the occasional “fly guy” who at that time would have been considered
urban, haughty types in these parts. However; my Aunt did seem interested in this and did take
up fly fishing herself, mostly for the Lake Whitefish which were very plentiful and a whole lot of
fun on a fly. She was quite eager to teach all of us kids as much she could, but it was largely a
self-taught thing for me.”
When did you first start guiding fly fisherman, was it much of a transition from guiding conventional fisherman?
“I didn’t start guiding fly fisherman until I started at Wollaston Lake and it was already an
established thing there with guys like Larry Dahlberg having been regulars up there for some
time. We also had an Orvis affiliation so I had the opportunity to fish with people like Mark
Bressler and Tom Evenson among many others. These guys were a great wealth of knowledge
and allowed myself and all of our other guides to take steps forward to becoming better fly
fishing guides. It was a steep learning curve for us, transitioning from just “chucking wads of
feathers” to learning the finer technical details of fly fishing.”
What differences exist in how you approach guiding fly fisherman compared to a conventional gear angler?
“Seeing that we fish primarily from boats, the major factor for success is our boat control. You
could be on the best spot with the best flies and it won’t matter if you can’t present it properly to
the fish. So when determining where to fish, the primary factor is wind and being able to situate
the fisherman in a way that will allow us to catch fish. We will typically fish wind blown bays and
spots where we can slowly work our way in keeping the wind at the fisherman’s back. Using
conventional tackle will give you more freedom with your boat control as you can simply
approach fish from anywhere and still be able to reach fish.”
Do you have a favorite style or time of year for chasing pike on the fly? Does your style or approach change through the season as the fish transition spots?
“The classic answer is that you fish whenever you’ve got the opportunity to do so, but that being
said, there are specific times when pike are easiest to catch. In most parts of the pikes range
that would be 1 or 2 weeks after spawn when they go on their heavy feed. Another great time is
late summer/fall when they do a similar heavy feed to prepare for winter. It is worth stating that
in the northern part of the range like Wollaston Lake that all gets compressed into 11 weeks, so
there is never much of a drop off in fishing. Our fish tend to stay relatively shallow for that entire
period and the bite is consistent.”
What are your thoughts on floating, intermediate and sinking line and the roles they play through the season? Do you use one more than the others? Overlining?
“We probably use floating lines 75% of the time, although there are some situations in mid
summer where we will want to get down around 6-10 feet in order to get to the fish. By and large
we do like to sight fish however; even if just to add to the experience. Overlining one weight is a
good idea in my opinion. That will give you more flexibility to throw some heavier bugs when
needed, without making any major changes to your gear.”
Do you have an approach to what flies you choose based on time of year, conditions, weather etc.
“In general it seems that you we use larger flies as the season progresses. Of course there are
exceptions, but I like to start in the early season with smaller to medium streamers, primarily
baitfish patterns, bunny leeches etc. In essence we are matching the baitfish hatch as it grows
throughout the season. By late summer we may be using some larger flies, as large as 10” long
or more. As for color, it’s almost too unpredictable to guess, so trying a variety of colors every
day may be the best approach. If you want to go by the “rules of thumb” dark day-dark color,
bright day, bright color seems to work very well.”
What have been some of your top producing flies and the situations where you might prefer one over the other?
“At Wollaston Lake Lodge the guides do have some proven favorite flies that consistently
outproduce most others. These would include the bigeye baitfish patterns in natural shiner
colors, the northern magic, the bunny leeches just to name a few.”
Strip set or trout set?
For our type of fishing we find the strip set to be far more effective, just as in salt water fishing.
There are a few reasons for this, perhaps the most important one is that when you miss the fish,
you still have a fly in front of him as opposed to pulling it away and having to re-cast.
Phil Wiebe (left) and Mike Lembke, owner/operator of Wollaston Lake Lodge pose with a plaque commemorating WLL winning the prestigious 2018 Orvis Endorsed Lodge of the year.
