Winnipeg River - Seven Sisters to Slave Falls, Part I

The inviting waters of the Pinawa Channel on the Winnipeg River

The road into Pinawa is toll-free Provincial Highway 211, which crosses the turbulent Winnipeg River just downstream of the Seven Sisters Falls Dam. The road takes you to town before it ends at the Pinawa Channel, again on the Winnipeg River, near the leaky and picturesque Old Pinawa Channel rock dam and the beautiful waterfront golf course.

Back where the Winnipeg River passes beneath the Highway 211 bridge, it flows northward many kilometers past Lac du Bonnet, Great Falls and Powerview, and reaches Lake Winnipeg.

Upstream is the Seven Sisters hydro-electric generating station. There is a large reservoir, a man-made expansion of Natalie Lake with dikes on either side of the dam. Beyond the lake is the town of Pinawa and its marina with docks, an excellent free public boat launch and nearby beach, sundial and the cozy Pinawa Motor Inn. From there, three channel routes lead up the Winnipeg River to many more bodies of water before reaching Slave Falls Dam, another hydro powerhouse.

The hotel in Pinawa is within view of the marina and has plenty of parking space for guests with vehicles and trailers, making it a suitable staging area for a great Winnipeg River adventure.

Seven Sisters Falls dam on Natalie Lake

Natalie Lake

West of the marina in Pinawa, there are deep narrows with a formidible current. A power line crosses the Winnipeg River within view of Pinawa. It's a popular area for walleye fishing, albeit a tough place to get a jig down. These narrows lead to Natalie Lake, perhaps the least visited part of this dam-to-dam segment of the Winnipeg River.

For those who plan a safe journey to Natalie, there is a spectacular view of the Seven Sisters dam, sparse boat traffic and fishing for walleye, goldeye and northern pike. The dam is impassible to boat traffic.

Natalie is a little less accessible for boating than it might seem on a map. It has shallow areas that boats have to navigate around and there is no public boat launch on this part of the Winnipeg River. Being a fairly large body of water, it can get rough on windy days. Much of its shoreline is a dike which straddles the Seven Sisters dam so, as you might expect, there are no cottages on Natalie. But for the adventurous, its isolation and size makes it a special place.

Sylvia Lake

South of Pinawa, and tucked behind an island of granite and trees named Furey's Island, Sylvia Lake is a quiet introduction to the Whiteshell Provincial Park. Having no road access, it currently has no cottages. Sylvia's seemingly still waters belie the fact that the Winnipeg River feeds a torrent of water to it through Sieg's Narrows, a deep rocky curved passage from Eleanor Lake.

Enjoying a day on a bay in Sieg's Narrows

Many people take to fishing off the granite shores of Furey's Island. The bottom structure of Sylvia's outlets make good walleye habitats and Sieg's narrows is another favorite fishing spot. The grassy southwest corner is a goldeye spot.

Sylvia is known by water skiers for being calm on its sheltered southwest shore when most other lakes in the area are too rough for the sport.

Eleanor Lake

Eleanor Lake is a long, deep body of water. It has a rocky north shore, a marshy west shore around Big Creek, and is skirted by Highway 307 and cottages on the south. There is a lodge on its southeast and the public beach of Otter Falls Campground lies on its east shore. This is the first campground on the west end of the Whiteshell Provincial Park.

Stretching from the campground to the north shore is the remnants of an old dam once used to divert water to the now-dismantled Old Pinawa Dam's powerhouse. The Eleanor Lake dam was blown up with dynamite in 1949, but not completely. Much of the surviving parts of the dam were eventually submerged by higher Winnipeg River water levels, so care must be taken when boating in the area to avoid the structure. Locally, it is known as "Diversion Dam". The old control gate for the dam is still visible on the north shore.

The marshy shores of Eleanor can be good for northern pike and goldeye fishing. The lake has also produced massive sturgeon, but they are truly a once-in-a-lifetime catch.

Margaret Lake

A Margaret Lake bay seen from Otter Falls beach

Upstream of and adjacent to Diversion Dam is Margaret Lake where Otter Falls Resort and Otter Falls Campground are located. The resort has a restaurant, store and public beach. Just across the highway in front of the restaurant is a public baseball diamond and volleyball court. The campground has washrooms, showers and the public beach on Eleanor.

English River is a small tributary to the Winnipeg River and an excellent place to see wildlife, catch fish and have a secluded dinner on a pontoon boat. It's near Otter Falls, on the east side of Margaret (north of the rapids).

Otter Falls is a shallow area that sees the full flow of the Winnipeg River. Now a powerful rapids, it once resembled its name before water levels were raised by dams. Otter Falls is open water year-round.

Margaret Lake is an important water hub on the Winnipeg River having a significant amount of current that can be seen on many surface areas. The water not only flows out of the lake over Diversion Dam on the west, it also flows to the north via Sharky's Channel and Pinawa Channel. These three water routes are an unusual feature of the Winnipeg River and they eventually converge in the Pinawa area.

The deep, rocky, fast water areas on Margaret Lake are good walleye fishing spots. The shallow bay at the mouth of Sharky's Channel is good for northern pike and goldeye fishing. Otter Falls is a walleye haven and drift-fishing the rapids has been a successful technique.

Sharky's Channel

From Pinawa's marina, instead of travelling to Margaret Lake via Sylvia, Sieg's Narrows and Eleanor, there is a narrow channel to the east of Sylvia that takes boaters directly to Margaret. This shortcut, known as Sharky's Channel, is characterized by fast water, submerged rocks and a rock dam at Margaret that has an arrow sign and chute that boats can navigate through. Informed boaters take a specific route through Sharky's to pass through safely, using their experience, a guide or a good navigation map/GPS with depth contours (something that every boater on the Winnipeg River should have).

Through Sharky's, Otter Falls is only 4km or 2-1/2 miles from the Pinawa Motor Inn.

Sharky's Channel, Margaret, Eleanor and Sylvia lakes surround a land mass known as Carter Island that's easily visible from Pinawa.