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laker taker2
03-03-2013, 10:40 AM
Is the road in to wolf lake similar to siebert during the summer months? I've done the siebert road with a truck but now have a motor home and would need to launch a boat with it? Can do or a no way dude? Thanks

Bigwoodsman
03-03-2013, 11:45 AM
Is the road in to wolf lake similar to siebert during the summer months? I've done the siebert road with a truck but now have a motor home and would need to launch a boat with it? Can do or a no way dude? Thanks

The road to Wolf is better then the road to Siebert. High grade gravel, lots of twists and turns. IIRC the boat lunch had a cement pad and a dock, but that was several years ago.

BW

jeffrey929
03-03-2013, 11:49 AM
The road into and the launch are both quite good... The only thing is it is quite shallow at the launch itself

cube
03-03-2013, 01:42 PM
The road to wolf lake was just upgraded a couple of years ago.

The launch still sucks in that it is very shallow and you have to back in a very long way. The launch is also not level as it falls away to one side, hence, making it difficult to get the boat on the bunks especially in windy weather as the launch gets hammered with white caps pushing the boat to the downhill side. I once saw some very experienced guys with a very expensive Lund take 45 min trying to get their boat on their trailer in the white caps. They finally had to put 3 guys in the water to guide the boat on straight.

That being said you should probably give it a try. If you have a long over hang out the back you should be fine if there are no white caps.

You can also book your camp site in advance by calling the MD of Bonnyville. This would be a good idea as everyone else does and the best spots are taken leaving only the crappy spots. Found this out the hard way a couple of years ago and had to camp on some very unlevel very small spots.

As the fishing goes the pike fishing has collapsed but there are tons of walleye of all sizes. The only problem is they do not give out class A tags for Wolf and for all intense and purposes do not give out any class B tags either (only 65 in 2012). This leaves you with class C tags which is basically 3 perch sized fish.

One last point, If you are taking small children or dogs you may want to avoid Blue green algae season.

Please don't take this as negative as it sounds as it was not meant to be. I have camped and fish there before and will again in the future I just wanted to give some info before you had to make your decision.

Hope you have a great trip.

laker taker2
03-03-2013, 03:47 PM
Wow. Thanks for the great feedback all. Exactly what I was looking for. Pike collapsed? Seems hard for the little buggers to be fished out. Anyone know what happened there?

cube
03-03-2013, 04:08 PM
Wow. Thanks for the great feedback all. Exactly what I was looking for. Pike collapsed? Seems hard for the little buggers to be fished out. Anyone know what happened there?

My thinking is that it goes hand in hand with our mono species management philosophy in this province.

baptiste_moose
03-03-2013, 04:15 PM
My thinking is that it goes hand in hand with our mono species management philosophy in this province.

Well said

Safety D
03-03-2013, 05:47 PM
Wolfs a great lake !!!!

Levy
03-03-2013, 06:49 PM
I find big pike are hard to come by lately in Wolf Lake. Its hard for them to get big when most of them get hauled out at 63 cm. I saw my neighbour haul two pike over twenty pounds home one spring about fifteen years ago... Its gotten a little busier since then haha. We haven't caught one over fifteen in about ten years but we mostly target eyes even though its just Catch and Release.
For the pike I usually manage one over 8 lbs every time im there. My personal best walleye was caught and released in wolf 8 lbs 8 oz. Our friends who own the trap line on the south east side of the lake claim to have caught a few around 11 ibs. That was about eight years ago when the walleye population bounced back and not many people knew just how good the fishing was. I havent caught a walleye over 5 lbs in there in about four years now. Used to be every trip we would get at least one.

Nickwide
04-01-2013, 07:42 AM
That's funny I am a frequent to wolf (4-6 trips a year) and I have managed to pull a 17 pounder out each year for the last 2. They are not common by any means but can still produce large pike

cube
04-03-2013, 10:43 AM
That's funny I am a frequent to wolf (4-6 trips a year) and I have managed to pull a 17 pounder out each year for the last 2. They are not common by any means but can still produce large pike

As a 17 lb Northern is 20+ years old it does not mean that Wolf is still PRODUCEING large pike, as it could just be that those pike predate the current management philosophy. It would probably be as accurate or more accurate to say that Wolf in the past was a good Northern Pike PRODUCING lake.

From the SRD Netting Data

Year Count avg length Max Length
2011 30 617 996
2008 56 639 1022
2007 65 590 944
2006 80 573 940
2003 106 616 906

I could be wrong but I see a declining pattern. I also believe that if the walleye numbers had dropped to just about 1/4 of their original number, as have the pike, an immediate and complete stoppage to harvesting would have been put in place. Instead to this day they still have open limits on pike while they have for all intense and purposes keept the walleye fishery closed (very little open tags). (sorry the table looks fine before but looks jammed together after submitting)

Levy
04-03-2013, 09:25 PM
Excellent stuff cube. Thats exactly what i would have guessed was happening with the numbers and quality of pike angling I have seen over the last ten years. Wolf Lake in my opinion has excellent Trophy Pike producing potential like many of the larger lakes in the region but will likely never be managed as such. Too many people need to freezer burn fish on a regular basis for that to happen. I wish they would just try catch and release pike fishing or tags on a couple larger lakes and see how the size distribution and numbers change over ten years.

cube
04-04-2013, 09:31 AM
Excellent stuff cube. Thats exactly what i would have guessed was happening with the numbers and quality of pike angling I have seen over the last ten years. Wolf Lake in my opinion has excellent Trophy Pike producing potential like many of the larger lakes in the region but will likely never be managed as such. Too many people need to freezer burn fish on a regular basis for that to happen. I wish they would just try catch and release pike fishing or tags on a couple larger lakes and see how the size distribution and numbers change over ten years.

I believe we have one such preseidence, that being Wabamun. Not that it was initaited by fisheries management. It would be indeed nice to see some other lakes tried but my guess is that they too would have similar results as Wab if they are large enough. Of course this sounds like going back to past years when they had trophy lake designations and you needed a special licence to fish them (eg Seibert used have such a designation) . Something again I would not be against.

Safety D
04-04-2013, 10:10 AM
100% agreed Cube. To many lakes getting dead now

Levy
04-04-2013, 07:55 PM
I believe we have one such preseidence, that being Wabamun. Not that it was initaited by fisheries management. It would be indeed nice to see some other lakes tried but my guess is that they too would have similar results as Wab if they are large enough. Of course this sounds like going back to past years when they had trophy lake designations and you needed a special licence to fish them (eg Seibert used have such a designation) . Something again I would not be against.

May lake also had that designation. I haven't seen a pike over 8 lbs in that lake in about 15 years. Granted i don't target them much or fish it as much as Wolf. I have seen a few walleye around 6 lbs come out of there but once a again zero harvest limit on walleye. My uncle owns the trap line on May and we have a 24 lb pike from 30 years ago on our wall from there.

I talked to the local fisheries Biologst Jordan about pike management tactics after starting a petition to get Siebert lake changed to a catch and release pike fishery. It sounds like there are a few organizations in Alberta that do all the string pulling but he has the final say in what goes on in NB1. The feeling i got was that if we wanted to see change we would have to infiltrate and destroy the current way of thinking from within these organizations haha.
I don't have a perfect memory but if i remember correct he gave me an example of how a recovered previously collapsed walleye fishery (Garnier lake was the example) could now sustain controlled tag harvesting. I guess he suggested this at a yearly meeting they put on to inform the public. Cabin owners, locals and club members were highly supportive of the opinion "its open harvest or closed harvest at Garnier". From the sounds of it they were taking too kindly to his suggestions of controlled harvesting. Its not just the management its likely the people at these meetings who have a big impact on the state of our fisheries. Unfortunately not many people care to learn about the resources they are harvesting or how to make sure they are managed properly for future generations to enjoy.