How are the pigeon whites this year?

[Brodhead]

Hello all.
This goes out to anyone targetting or seeing whitefish in Pigeon lake lately. I haven't had a chance to make it onto pigeon since the ice hit so i haven't been able to check the areas that have produced in the past. So if someone could save me a few hours of drilling and legwork and at least share the depths they have been seen at I would greatly appreciate it. I enjoy the hunt so I'm not asking for honey holes (although a pm'd gps point wouldn't be unwelcome lol).

Ill be out tomorrow(friday) and some time this weekend if anyone wants a fishing partner or just a visit. Ill be chasing whites in the morning and trying to fill a couple walleye tags in the afternoon and I always enjoy meeting AO members.

Cheers,
Clinton

[SNAPFisher]

I have the exact same question. Might be another week though before I try Pigeon. Got to see some "new" water first :)

[Brodhead]

Well I found some... just haven't found what they're eating

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[SNAPFisher]

Well I found some... just haven't found what they're eating

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That is interesting...coordinates please :) J/k

I still haven't tried Pigeon this season yet. You are the 2nd person to tell me that fish are being seen so that is a positive. Only question I really have is how deep? Last year it seemed like they were only seen deep - as in 20 FOW of or deeper areas. I couldn't find anyone that was seeing them in less than 10 FOW last year...which was very frustrated for sure.

[3blade]

Iirc last year guys were running sleds way out to the deep spots and catching them on wetaskewin specials bounced on the bottom. Prevailing theory was the whites have learned to avoid the walleye plague.

[Brodhead]

18-26 feet. And I'll trade ya coordinate for coordinate lol. I typically only fish the south side as that is where I'm most familiar

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[pikeman06]

Can confirm I see them in 20 plus feet but they are well off the bottom guys. Good luck with that. They don't like the camera maybe because that spot they just passing thru I try to finesse the rotten bastards like I'm fishing gull and can get them to turn but they know what they want it seems and they refuse from five feet away. Tried lots of colors and bait and bait less etc etc. Caught big hawgs shallow a couple springs ago but it was March and if you didn't have the right hook you wouldn't even know they were there.

[chucklesthe3rd]

the whites are under severe pressure... hard to catch them, probably have to wait until 2019 before they bounce back hard.

[Bemoredog]

the whites are under severe pressure... hard to catch them, probably have to wait until 2019 before they bounce back hard.

Why will they bounce back hard in 2019? Honestly just curious because I don't understand.

It seems weird they're under such pressure even though the commercial fishery has been shut down... I mean, I'm probably being naive, but I would think they should be doing well. Hard to believe angling pressure has caused this... but again, I've only fished pigeon 4 times in my life and that's been in the last 12 months.

[Tcon]

Why will they bounce back hard in 2019? Honestly just curious because I don't understand.

It seems weird they're under such pressure even though the commercial fishery has been shut down... I mean, I'm probably being naive, but I would think they should be doing well. Hard to believe angling pressure has caused this... but again, I've only fished pigeon 4 times in my life and that's been in the last 12 months.

I personally don't know but maybe he was referring to predatorial pressure?

[SNAPFisher]

I wouldn't waste anytime on Chuck's post. Probably a fake account and has had several posts already pulled for ridiculous comments. Just someone with too much time on their hands....

I think I'll finally check Pigeon out and see if I find any shallow or deeper. I'm guessing only deep water like other have reported. Fingers are crossed!

[chucklesthe3rd]

Why will they bounce back hard in 2019? Honestly just curious because I don't understand.

It seems weird they're under such pressure even though the commercial fishery has been shut down... I mean, I'm probably being naive, but I would think they should be doing well. Hard to believe angling pressure has caused this... but again, I've only fished pigeon 4 times in my life and that's been in the last 12 months.

pigeion lake whitefish fishing is like for 3 or 4 years the fishing is good but then is dry for 3 or 4 years and then it's good then its dry and so on.

[chucklesthe3rd]

right now you can try using wire worms that are red or yellow or a fake scud

[Soiler]

pigeion lake whitefish fishing is like for 3 or 4 years the fishing is good but then is dry for 3 or 4 years and then it's good then its dry and so on.

Lol, What?
I've fished for whites here all my life... I've never seen a swing in the whitefish fishing every few years.... I ran into a native guy who was pulling his net a couple weeks ago, Around 60 whitefish (ranging in size from 2-7lbs) and 3 little pike & 2 little walleye. I'd say the whitefish population in Pigeon is healthy & going strong. Theyre just like any other fish, just got to know where to start looking for em & a little bit of luck in being there when they're feeding.

[Red Bullets]

According to a study at Pigeon lake in 2012 whitefish were the second most abundant fish in the lake. Over a 2 day walleye study with 8 test nets totaling about 60 meters in length, with nets in the water for 24 hours maximum... there were 204 whitefish caught. 343 walleye, 1 northern pike and 25 perch. (table 1 in document.)

An interesting read. I know the study is almost 5 years old but the lake hasn't changed that much. Just the age groups have matured. Tables 9 thru to 12 are the age groups which are fun to interpret applying to now, 4.5 years later. Looking at Table 10 there should be a bigger population of 5 and 19 year old whitefish in 2017.

http://aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/fisheries-management/fall-index-netting/fall-index-netting-summaries/documents/PigeonLake-FallWalleyeIndexNetting-2012.pdf

The whitefish have always been there the past 50 years I've been fishing there. The bigger whites eat more minnows. Maybe time to rethink what hooks to use. Wireworms and wetaskiwin specials might not be what the bigger whites want.

[SNAPFisher]

According to a study at Pigeon lake in 2012 whitefish were the second most abundant fish in the lake. Over a 2 day walleye study with 8 test nets totaling about 60 meters in length, with nets in the water for 24 hours maximum... there were 204 whitefish caught. 343 walleye, 1 northern pike and 25 perch. (table 1 in document.)

An interesting read. I know the study is almost 5 years old but the lake hasn't changed that much. Just the age groups have matured. Tables 9 thru to 12 are the age groups which are fun to interpret applying to now, 4.5 years later. Looking at Table 10 there should be a bigger population of 5 and 19 year old whitefish in 2017.

http://aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/fisheries-management/fall-index-netting/fall-index-netting-summaries/documents/PigeonLake-FallWalleyeIndexNetting-2012.pdf

The whitefish have always been there the past 50 years I've been fishing there. The bigger whites eat more minnows. Maybe time to rethink what hooks to use. Wireworms and wetaskiwin specials might not be what the bigger whites want.

Yeah, nice read and thanks for posting it! That is interesting about the age classes.

Also, whites mostly ranged from 21-23 inches. Sounds pretty accurate to me. And, finally, someone caught a perch over 12 inches at Pigeon :lol:

[Soiler]

I grew up catching decent perch in Pigeon. Could always find em deep back then. But it's been a long time since I've even seen 1 in Pigeon.

[SNAPFisher]

I grew up catching decent perch in Pigeon. Could always find em deep back then. But it's been a long time since I've even seen 1 in Pigeon.

I still see the odd one or few in shallow. Biggest may have been 7 inches. Hope the survivors are good breeders...

[Drewski Canuck]

The biggest "pressure" on Pigeon Whites is the Summer Kill.

Last few years its been pretty bad, but when you see dump trucks used to haul the rotting fish from the shore, and the size of the dead whites, it gives you an idea of how many and how large the whites are in there.

By the way, all the dead fish are from oxygen deprivation, and not disease. When you see one of these things, you realize the potential, as a lot of them are huge. However, the stink is incredible when they are piled on the shore in the hot sun. That is the problem with Pigeon and a lot of our other "bowl" lakes. Too much Algae.

Drewski

[Penner]

The biggest "pressure" on Pigeon Whites is the Summer Kill.

Last few years its been pretty bad, but when you see dump trucks used to haul the rotting fish from the shore, and the size of the dead whites, it gives you an idea of how many and how large the whites are in there.

By the way, all the dead fish are from oxygen deprivation, and not disease. When you see one of these things, you realize the potential, as a lot of them are huge. However, the stink is incredible when they are piled on the shore in the hot sun. That is the problem with Pigeon and a lot of our other "bowl" lakes. Too much Algae.

Drewski

x2 however it's not the algae directly it's the lower O2 levels that's getting the whites. Doubt there will be any recovery unless water quality can be drastically improved. I'm leaning more towards extinction than recovery based on my observations.

[pikeman06]

Boy the day that pigeon lake whites go extinct we better hang our heads. They used to ship them to the bloody queen and new York and Boston and sell them in the best restaurants if you check out the history. If we screw up a lake that size and with that volume of water in a matter of a half century that's pretty dang sad. Classic example of spoon feeding wallies till they eat every last shrimp and ruin the whole ecosystem but point the finger at anythIng but the obvious.

[Penner]

Boy the day that pigeon lake whites go extinct we better hang our heads. They used to ship them to the bloody queen and new York and Boston and sell them in the best restaurants if you check out the history. If we screw up a lake that size and with that volume of water in a matter of a half century that's pretty dang sad. Classic example of spoon feeding wallies till they eat every last shrimp and ruin the whole ecosystem but point the finger at anythIng but the obvious.

The obvious thing is that you are ill informed.

[pikeman06]

Another catch and release, pay for tag and pay for stocking supporter. Yup those millions of runty wallies didn't hurt a thing did they. If the whites could stay and feed where they belong they wouldn't be nosing around in water with no oxygen or subject to temperature fluctuations. Go yank a hundred wallies out of 25 feet of water a day and probably kill 15% of them, but throw them all back. That's a sound management and conservation practice bud.

[Penner]

Another catch and release, pay for tag and pay for stocking supporter. Yup those millions of runty wallies didn't hurt a thing did they. If the whites could stay and feed where they belong they wouldn't be nosing around in water with no oxygen or subject to temperature fluctuations. Go yank a hundred wallies out of 25 feet of water a day and probably kill 15% of them, but throw them all back. That's a sound management and conservation practice bud.

Dude go take a boat ride on the lake mid August... there is no safe haven and there isn't a spices of fish in that water body that has anything to do with that.

So what's your management and conservation solution?

[pikeman06]

How about quit introducing million upon million of mid level predator fish and then worse yet protect them. You don't think that the minnows and game fish fry as well as the invertebrates don't clean the water and serve a purpose in the ecosystem of a lake? The balance is way off and the perch are all but wiped out the pike are gone because the walleye fishermen had to keep something. The big clouds of minnows are a thing of the past. They keep things in check too Penner.

[Penner]

Kids were netting plenty of minnows and invertebrates in the shallows this past spring. Freshwater clams are of particular abundance. Don't think your minnows and invertebrates are going to help with the habitat destruction or be able to filter out the lawn fertilizers, agricultural fertilizers, or livestock run off within the watershed. It has been happening for years unchecked for that matter. From my observations its actually getting worse as a few farmers upstream adjacent to Pigeon creek have cleared trees/shrubs in recent years right to the waters edge for cattle access.

Not sure about you but I'm way more excited to catch 50 2-3lbs Walleye in a outing then I was catching 50 4-6" Perch. It would seem that the general population tends to agree with this also as from my viewpoint the use of the boat launches at Pigeon were dead 20 years ago and are fully loaded now-a-days.

Well there's one thing we might agree on. Selective protection of a singular species in a water body doesn't work. Seems like SRD is starting to figure that out with stricter regulations of Pike along with the Walleye in select water bodies including Pigeon.

[pikeman06]

Well glad to hear the minnows are there again. And glad to see we agree on one thing anyway Penner. Bahaha. I just miss the old pigeon with the 2lb perch and the smaller shallow whitefish that weren't so complicated and the nice big Jacks that we seemingly sacrificed for a fish that we can't eat but we can catch in the triple digits but if you pay they let you eat 3 after you pay them money. Just don't like the whole idea and I see it again in wab. We are entitled to a well worded argument on this forum and I see your points that need to be addressed as well.

[Penner]

Well glad to hear the minnows are there again. And glad to see we agree on one thing anyway Penner. Bahaha. I just miss the old pigeon with the 2lb perch and the smaller shallow whitefish that weren't so complicated and the nice big Jacks that we seemingly sacrificed for a fish that we can't eat but we can catch in the triple digits but if you pay they let you eat 3 after you pay them money. Just don't like the whole idea and I see it again in wab. We are entitled to a well worded argument on this forum and I see your points that need to be addressed as well.

I do not like the tag system either however without a "real" province wide stocking program for all game fish species I don't see another way of how SRD can scientifically regulate/control the yearly harvest. Noting that it is certainly not an exact science.

As for the money thing, as long as it stays "reasonable" and the fee is to recover admin costs or goes back directly into SRD for conservation or policing I'm okay with that.

Good debate.