Shore Lunch Is One of Canada’s Greatest Meals, and This Manitoba Lodge Nails It

Arriving at Eagle Nest Lodge and dining well from day one

Photos: Troy Lindner

Eagle Nest Lodge is located on the upper reaches of the Winnipeg River about 70 miles northeast of Winnipeg. Three generations of the Pedruchny family have owned and operated the lodge for more than 60 years, and the current owners, Shaun and Jessica (née Pedruchny) Jackson, treat guests like family, too.

Guests can either boat or fly into the property. My group flew in on a Cessna 208 Caravan, a rare amphibious aircraft that can take off and land on both ground and water, operated by Adventure Air. We took off from a runway at the air base in Lac du Bonnet and landed directly at the lodge about 15 to 20 minutes later, with clear views of the Manitoba wilderness throughout the flight.

After landing, staff brought our gear to the cabin while we settled in with shrimp cocktail and drinks outside the Eagle Nest Club Room. Located at the center of the property, the club room is where guests gather for a happy hour before dinner; made-to-order drinks include mojitos, margaritas, and piña coladas, along with specialty ales and lagers on tap. There’s also a gym in the upstairs loft, a pool table on the main floor next to the bar, and a hot tub on the patio.

Eagle Nest Lodge has six cabins with a total of 40 beds. The largest cabin, Dancing Bear, has five bedrooms and can sleep up to 12. The smallest, Sleeping Wolf, sleeps up to seven. Each cabin comes with two bathrooms, a full-size refrigerator, new mattresses and linens, satellite TV, a wood stove, and both heating and air conditioning.

Photo: Troy Lindner

Our cabin, Walking Eagle, sat on a corner of the property. The interior layouts vary by cabin, but each one has a patio deck overlooking the river. I was staying with three others: Ken, a writer and fly angler, and two people who run travel agencies and tour companies. We each had our own bedroom in the mid-sized cabin, which can sleep up to 10 guests. Our trip hosts, Elise and Marselle from Travel Manitoba, stayed in another cabin.

Fresh-brewed coffee arrived at the cabin each morning. The main lodge and dining hall occupy land with roots going back 200 to 300 years to the North West Company fur trade, and the room is decorated with fish mounts and historical finds, including an old musket recovered from the shoreline. There’s also a small tackle store on-site for bait.

Meals, not just shore lunch, were a highlight throughout my stay. Breakfast ranged from homemade waffles with fresh berries to a Southwest-style hash with eggs, potatoes, and avocado. Dinners started with a salad and fruit, followed by mains including prime rib, pork chop, and, on the last night, barbecue beef brisket. Dessert came every night: a berry tart the first, crème brûlée the second, and candied apple mousse on the last.

Chasing eater walleye for a shore lunch worth the trip

Photo: Troy Lindner

Guests travel to Eagle Nest Lodge to fish for smallmouth bass, walleye, and northern pike. I was the most excited about targeting walleye. Though the goal of many fishing excursions is to catch big ones, before shore lunch, the aim was to catch “eater” walleye, which measure around 14 to 17 inches and are the ideal size once filleted.

Ken and I fished together with our guide, Dawson, a short 10-minute boat ride from the lodge to a stretch known as The Oaks, where the current pushes up against a steep rock shoreline. This section concentrates small baitfish and brings the bigger predators, such as walleye. Seasoned anglers would call The Oaks a “community spot,” meaning a well-known or high-traffic area.

That morning turned into a friendly competition between my group’s three boats to see who could land one first, with someone pulling up a fish every five minutes or so. The bites here were not fast but consistent, and Dawson had great boat control in the river current to ensure Ken and I could make accurate casts. Most guests used salted minnows on a jig head, dragging it along the rock bottom. This is a near-guaranteed way to catch fish, but I prefer to use artificial baits, such as soft plastic minnow imitations called swimbaits. Most times, when fished properly, these can match or exceed live bait for getting bigger fish.

Photos: Troy Lindner

My first walleye was a low 20-incher, which was great for a photo but too big for shore lunch. Manitoba has specific size regulations for keeping walleye; for this stretch of the Winnipeg River, any walleye over about 17.7 inches must be released. But by the end of the morning, we’d collectively caught one eater walleye for everyone in our seven-person group.

The traditional shore lunch features fresh-caught walleye; fried potatoes, sliced into rounds or cut like fries, often with fried onions on the side; and baked beans (though I’ve also had shore lunch with lake trout or northern pike). Every lodge has its own version; Eagle Nest’s included walleye prepared two or three ways, fresh-cut potatoes, homemade tartar sauce, and breaded mushrooms, all laid out on a picnic table to self-serve. It was the first time I’d had breaded mushrooms at a shore lunch, and they made for a great appetizer.

Watching the guides work through each step, from prepping the fillets to plating the meal, made the whole thing feel less like lunch on a riverbank and more like a dining experience. Sometimes, I need a nap after a big shore lunch, but this one turned out to be fishing fuel, leaving me satisfied and ready for the afternoon fishing session.