Wild&Free
12-13-2012, 03:13 PM
Despite the beautiful weather up here this week I was only able to get out fishing twice this week. Had an alternator go bad on me which cost me a day. I hit up two different stocked trout ponds in the area.
On Tuesday I went to Spring Lake near Valhalla center NW of Grande Prairie. Weather was pretty bad that day, wet snow all over. Pulled an older gentleman off the snowbank on the way into the lake and he shared with me some information on the bottom structure of the lake and some of the good spots. I went out from the boat launch and to the left, he stayed a little close to shore. We both did fairly well. He limited out on brookies in an hour and a half and caught a couple rainbows in between. I did okay too, I iced 5 brookies and 2 rainbows in 2 hours and had a few more get off at the hole and lots of action the whole time I was there. Nothing of any real size, most were 10-12 inches, few were 12 or over though. Apparently the lake wasn't stocked in 2011 and it had a hard winter last year, though my new fishing partner for the day said he has caught some good size trout at that lake in the spring.
Warm weather and wet snow there was some minor flooding going on that day, but no free water just wet slush, maybe 1".
Today I headed the other direction to Stoney Lake north of Fairview. Was a cold morning but the forcast was for a chinook and warmer weather. I had all my cold weather gear with me so I wasn't worried. Hit the lake at 9:30, got my sled and gear out of the truck and started heading down. They haven't plowed into the boat launch and they left a nice push pile on the road down too. Snowmobiles recommended to get down that way. I dragged my sled down the dike through knee deep snow and out onto the lake. Heading out to my usual spot I suddenly sink 6 inches. The whole lake FLOODED! No tent in this much water, but I didn't let that stop me, I eyed out a nice high spot in the snow and headed over. Broke through the thin crust and opened a hole in the snow and drilled through 12" of clear ice with 2" of white on top. Not to mention the 4" water on top of that.
Now, flooded lakes are no joke. That's a tremendous amount of extra weight on that ice, plus insulation. I had heard no movement from the ice from my disturbance of dragging my sled around, nor drilling a hole. I settled in, setup my stool and quickly tipped over sideways in the slush and fell over. Well, fun stuff. Dig out my shrimp bait my hook and drop down 8' fow to bottom. Pull up about a foot, maybe more and wait for oh, 20 seconds and bam fish on. This went on for about 20 minutes, landing 5 nice little brookies.
Hands were a little cold from all the fish handling so I lit a smoke and took a short break to warm up. Threw on another shrimp eventually and dropped it down the 6-7 feet or so only to have my bobber scream under the ice instead of setting up on top. I quickly set the hook and this fish screams line off. Hearts pumping, bloods flowing I get this fish to the ice and all I see is back! This thing is a pig! It goes for one more run before settling in under the hole. I play it a bit get it nose up and it rushes out the hole, gets off and gets lost in the flood water around my hole. I scoop it up and toss it aside and let the adrenaline warm me up and settle me out.
http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u631/Wesley_Buie/IMAG0105_zps43d7f27e.jpg
16 3/4" Length, 9" Girth. The other two I hooked deep. 11 Brookies on the ice for the day, with a half dozen lost and lots of action all day.
On Tuesday I went to Spring Lake near Valhalla center NW of Grande Prairie. Weather was pretty bad that day, wet snow all over. Pulled an older gentleman off the snowbank on the way into the lake and he shared with me some information on the bottom structure of the lake and some of the good spots. I went out from the boat launch and to the left, he stayed a little close to shore. We both did fairly well. He limited out on brookies in an hour and a half and caught a couple rainbows in between. I did okay too, I iced 5 brookies and 2 rainbows in 2 hours and had a few more get off at the hole and lots of action the whole time I was there. Nothing of any real size, most were 10-12 inches, few were 12 or over though. Apparently the lake wasn't stocked in 2011 and it had a hard winter last year, though my new fishing partner for the day said he has caught some good size trout at that lake in the spring.
Warm weather and wet snow there was some minor flooding going on that day, but no free water just wet slush, maybe 1".
Today I headed the other direction to Stoney Lake north of Fairview. Was a cold morning but the forcast was for a chinook and warmer weather. I had all my cold weather gear with me so I wasn't worried. Hit the lake at 9:30, got my sled and gear out of the truck and started heading down. They haven't plowed into the boat launch and they left a nice push pile on the road down too. Snowmobiles recommended to get down that way. I dragged my sled down the dike through knee deep snow and out onto the lake. Heading out to my usual spot I suddenly sink 6 inches. The whole lake FLOODED! No tent in this much water, but I didn't let that stop me, I eyed out a nice high spot in the snow and headed over. Broke through the thin crust and opened a hole in the snow and drilled through 12" of clear ice with 2" of white on top. Not to mention the 4" water on top of that.
Now, flooded lakes are no joke. That's a tremendous amount of extra weight on that ice, plus insulation. I had heard no movement from the ice from my disturbance of dragging my sled around, nor drilling a hole. I settled in, setup my stool and quickly tipped over sideways in the slush and fell over. Well, fun stuff. Dig out my shrimp bait my hook and drop down 8' fow to bottom. Pull up about a foot, maybe more and wait for oh, 20 seconds and bam fish on. This went on for about 20 minutes, landing 5 nice little brookies.
Hands were a little cold from all the fish handling so I lit a smoke and took a short break to warm up. Threw on another shrimp eventually and dropped it down the 6-7 feet or so only to have my bobber scream under the ice instead of setting up on top. I quickly set the hook and this fish screams line off. Hearts pumping, bloods flowing I get this fish to the ice and all I see is back! This thing is a pig! It goes for one more run before settling in under the hole. I play it a bit get it nose up and it rushes out the hole, gets off and gets lost in the flood water around my hole. I scoop it up and toss it aside and let the adrenaline warm me up and settle me out.
http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u631/Wesley_Buie/IMAG0105_zps43d7f27e.jpg
16 3/4" Length, 9" Girth. The other two I hooked deep. 11 Brookies on the ice for the day, with a half dozen lost and lots of action all day.