Potential Alberta Fishing Newbie (from SE Ont) [Archive]

Snag

03-17-2011, 06:22 PM

Hello all!

This may be a bit long winded, but I've been surfing the web for hours on info and thought I'd ask some questions here.

I've recently been informed that I am likely going to be moving to Cold Lake, AB for work. This is happening in June-ish.

As an avid angler from Ontario (primarily targeting bass, pike, walleye and muskie) I am wondering what type of fishing I should expect in the Central AB region.

I have a 16.5ft sea nymph and a 30hp tiller, equipped with manual downriggers (for the odd laker fish out here).

I'd say 70% of my fishing here in Ontario has been largie and smallie fishing, with most my gear 6'6 to 7ft one piece M and MH action rods. Both baitcasting and spinning of course. I'm use to casting mainly, and flippin/pitchin.

I know there isn't much (if any) bass fishing in Central AB. What are the primary sport fishing species in that area? I've read about Lakers in Cold Lake but what size of pike do you expect in this region? And are there warm, shallow, weedy lakes to cast spoons, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits for pike?

Also, I presume there is plenty of stream fishing?

I have zero experience fly fishing, but some float fishing.

And do you recommend any references? I have already ordered the Central Alberta Mapbook. But I am having trouble finding maybe some magazines (with mainly fishing) to subscribe to, and other fishing AB message boards.

I'm my spare time I write a blog just for fun, not to get any traffic or anything but you can see the type of fishing I am use to: http://blog.snagthis.net. I admit I am very excited for this opportunity to experience what appears to be a place with so many bodies of water.. but its also intimidating being a primarily shallow warm water bass angler. :)

Thanks,

Christine

FishingFrenzy

03-17-2011, 07:11 PM

Where to begin.... hmmmm

Alberta has NO bass at all, no muskie either.

For warm water fish we have northern pike, walleye, perch, lake whitefish, burbot and lake trout (im probably forgetting something :))

Those are the fish you will find in cold lake area. Further south and west we have some world class trout fishing for rainbows, cutthroats, browns, bulls etc

Sounds like your going to be more into the fish local around Cold Lake. Im from Edmonton area so dont know TOO much about the fishing up there however i do know that there is some BIG lake trout in Cold.

M and M/H rods should work really well for that area. BASIC rundown of what fish like what:
Northern pike: Big spoons, crankbaits, spinner baits, buzz baits, jigs, baits, anything that move most days.

Walleye: Crankbaits and jigs work best for walleye out here. Also pickerel rigs from shore

Lake Trout: Never caught one but i know in Cold Lake some people have said buzzbombs and BIG orange or white tube jigs

Perch: Hard to catch in the summer but small jigs or bait usually work.

Lake Whitefish: Wire worms, small jigs

Burbot: Jigs or pickerel rigs with minnows at night

Hope that helps.

Jwood 456

03-17-2011, 07:23 PM

Welcome to the forum.

The type of fishing that is done alot in Central Alberta, is walleye fishing in the summer. Calling lake, Lesser Slave lake are among some of the best walleye fisheries in central AB. There are also countless other awesome walleye lakes in Central AB. The walleye fishing some days can be non stop action. Many anglers have different preferable techniques. The two most popular techniques are trolling a bait rig with, leeches, worms, or minnows. The other popular one is jigging a 1/4 ounce jig head tipped with a minnow. A 3 or 4'' soft plastic, curly tail, feather, and e.tc. jig plain or tipped with a minnow also seems to produce awesome results.

When winter fishing in the region, perch and pike fishing are common and so is the walleye fishing.

There are an abundance of lakes that hold perch and some of the remote back country lakes are loaded with jumbo perch (11'' + perch IMO). A popular tatic is to use a small 0.5'' or 1'' spoon tipped with maggots.Kastmasters and five o dimonds are popular choices. Small 0.5'' sized jigs tipped with maggots or a tiny plastic grub seem to produce great as well. White, green, orange and yellow seem to work the best.

When it comes to pike fishing,the odd lake in the region holds trophy sized pike(10lb+ pike IMO). The pike are usually caught on 5'' to 8'' herring or smelts. The trick is to leave them still and many pike ice anglers prefer to use a tipup. I use a 7ft summer rod though because I find it's harder for the fish to get off, I can detect light strikes easily and it's more sporty too IMO. If using a rod, and I made this mistake, you have to wait a while or until the pike stops running with the bait until you set the hook.

When it comes to ice fishing for walleye, many of the popular summer walleye lakes are also fished for walleye in the winter. I don't think ice fishing for walleye is anywhere near as effective as fishing for them in the summer though.

Wish you good luck with fishing in Alberta.:)

nicemustang

03-17-2011, 07:43 PM

Welcome to the forum. Those northern boys are sure to help you out.

Dust1n

03-17-2011, 07:59 PM

welcome to the forum. over there you guys ahve bass are bass out here is the walleye and lots of em. we got tons of trout species in the streems and lots of weedy lakes and lots of clear lakes and tons of alpine lakes with marel bottoms. up there its good for grayling in the streems and pikeand lakers in the lake along with the waleye in central alberta but right now the burbot are on

Willowtrail

03-17-2011, 08:53 PM

Jwood 456

03-17-2011, 09:30 PM

Welcome to the AO.

Out by Cold Lake there are some pike/walleye lakes you can hit up not too far from the city. I used to fish Moose Lake by Bonnyviile. If you want your a short drive into Saskatchewan and the Meadow Lake Provincial Park. Lots of lakes in there with many different species.

Enjoy the move and the Lake Trout.

I remember fishing the lakes in Medow lake provincial park and it was a blast.:sHa_shakeshout: There was this one lake named Mistohay lake where the lake produced fair walleye fishing for walleye averaging 3lbs. One time when we were fishing for walleye there, I decided to temporarily swap fishing rods with my fishing partner. As soon as that's done my fishing partner happens to hook this huge fish that is pulling line off of the drag for a good bit. Then when we landed it and weighed it, it turned out to be a 15lb pike.Go figure that happened after we switched setups.:mad0030: :sHa_sarcasticlol: Sigh........... I guess that's just the lovely thing about "murphey's law" sometimes.lol

Anyway's there was also alot of small perch that we saw surface feeding and around the docks.

Snag

03-18-2011, 07:18 AM

Wow, thank you so much for the great info!

Those are the fish you will find in cold lake area. Further south and west we have some world class trout fishing for rainbows, cutthroats, browns, bulls etc

Are these fish in rivers or lakes.. or both? Is this fisheable from a boat?

I am confident I can land some walleye and lakers.. bows, cutthroats, browns not so much. But I am excited to learn.

I do want to venture outside of the local area as well, but figured I'd get my groove on first.

Is it hard to get a Sask license as well? The Alberta license system seems pretty simply. I will likely apply for it all once I get there (and have an address), hopefully it all comes in pretty fast.

Sask must also have some trophy pike. I want some 40inchers.. am I asking too much? haha

DarkAisling

03-18-2011, 08:31 AM

Welcome, Snag.

You will have your fishing license pretty much instantly. If you pay for it online, you'll be able to print it up immediately. If you purchase a license from Canadian Tire (or wherever) they'll print it up for you. You fishing license will just be a piece of paper. Your WIN card will be mailed out to you (you will need one of those, for $8), but you are not required to carry that.

A word of caution: my co-workers from Ontario are all none-to-impressed with Alberta's fishery (well, I'm from BC and I'm generally unimpressed, as well). It is quite a challenging fishery, and the numbers really aren't in an angler's favour. However, that doesn't mean you can't (and won't) enjoy yourself: you may just need to adjust your expectations. :)

Edit: Be sure the check out the Alberta Outdoorsmen Magazine :) There are some really great fishing articles.

Snag

03-18-2011, 08:40 AM

BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES

03-18-2011, 08:46 AM

Welcome to the second greatest place on earth .

Alberta has lots to offer but in the specific cold lake area holds some great oppurtunity for , Pike , Walleye , Lake trout , perch , whitefish , burbot . There are also some stocked trout lakes around that would have stocked trout in them most likely Rainbows.

You can also fish greyling , Sturgeon , brook trout , brown trout , brown trout , the list goes on , check out this website , all fish species in alberta .

http://www.srd.alberta.ca/BioDiversityStewardship/WildSpecies/Fish/Default.aspx

Geezle

03-18-2011, 08:54 AM

Wow, thank you so much for the great info!

Are these fish in rivers or lakes.. or both? Is this fisheable from a boat?

I am confident I can land some walleye and lakers.. bows, cutthroats, browns not so much. But I am excited to learn.

I do want to venture outside of the local area as well, but figured I'd get my groove on first.

Is it hard to get a Sask license as well? The Alberta license system seems pretty simply. I will likely apply for it all once I get there (and have an address), hopefully it all comes in pretty fast.

Sask must also have some trophy pike. I want some 40inchers.. am I asking too much? haha
Well, I can't speak for the Cold Lake area specifically as I've never fished around there, but I'm originally a Saskatchewan boy, and I'll say that if you get over to the Meadow Lake provincial park you can absolutely get yourself into some BIG pike! As Shelley mentioned, getting your Alberta and Sask licenses is quick and painless.

Also, as she mentioned, the fishing opportunities in this province are...different...

We have a lot of fishermen, and not nearly as many lakes as some of the other provinces, so everything is a little more stretched out. That doesn't mean that we don't have some great fishing opportunities in the province, but you might have to work a bit for it. Plenty of good times to be had though :) And if you ever happen to be down the Edmonton way, I'm sure a couple of us could get you out on Wabamun for some wicked pike fishing :cool:
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii181/GeezleHerps/031111_162300.jpg

iliketrout

03-18-2011, 09:47 AM

Hi Shelley,

My expectation is to atleast target new species (cutthroat) or species I rarely target (browns, etc.).

Also, I have my non-restricted FAC and my Ontario hunting license. Do you have to re-take your firearms in a new province? I suspect not since its a federal card. Do I have to re-take my hunting test?

Christine

Welcome to the forum!

You do not have to re-take anything. When you apply for a license you'll be asked if you've had a hunting license in other provinces before. You simply say Yes and you're good to go.

New hunters (if there are any coming with you) need to do a hunter education course through AHEIA - http://www.aheia.com/

Some other sites to poke around:

http://www.mywildalberta.com/home.aspx

http://www.albertaregulations.ca/

When you get your WIN card, this site is handy for applying for draws, buying licenses etc:

https://www.albertarelm.com/

mszomola

03-18-2011, 10:46 AM

Welcome Christine !

I've also moved here from ontario around last January. I've had a year to figure things out and i can share a lot including some places where you can hook up eyes and pike as well bass !! Yes thats right , you can fish bass here too but its 3 hours west of calgary . I'm a nut so i will make the trek often , its nothing for me i used to drive bay of quinte from london to our cottage often. I used to fish with York Bassmasters and i can almost completely relate to the type of fishing you had back home.

Few things to remember here ,

Barbless hooks , yeah i know its strange but its the law. You don't have to pinch all your stuff , but whatevers in the water cant be barbed. Licence system is a bit different , standard licence is good . Theres a few restricted lakes where you would have to obtain tags to keep fish , as they are recovering or improving fisheries.

Bass is all in BC , which is an awesome drive to experience and often time flys by fast when you get to experience the mountains. This year i had a few solid no bs 5-6lb largies on tie and invermere. Theres no smallies until you hit grandforks and they are small shallow , but theres some really decent ones around you just have to sniff em out on structure .

First lake i fished coming here was Traverse Reservoir , at Little Bow Provincial , which is a really really nice campground and launch. The lake has a chart on navionics if your using that , and tons of great contours and structure to fish. Decent Pike, Decent Walters , good numbers occasional duker.

If you would like , I often run into a friend of mine and his pops who bring their rig out often. if you ever want to tag along , bring your rig and we can get you started on some spots.

pm me if you want to exchange some contacts .

If you ever see a lone red and white skeeter bass boat on an fj thats me , you should still see ontario registration my boat licence decal .

Snag

03-18-2011, 12:44 PM

Wow, seriously thanks a lot folks. This is some solid info.

Basically what I am going to do is list all the lakes/species mentioned and when I get my handy-dandy central alberta mapbook in the mail, I'll start recce'ing the areas.

So all hooks should be barbless no matter what species targetting?

Geezle, I do plan on heading out to Edmonton as well. I'll have some friends out that way and to do some shopping. :)

SushiUnagi

03-19-2011, 12:17 AM

Welcome to AO!

- All barbless no matter what within AB
- No live fish as bait within AB
- Bait (dead) dependant on lake. Have to study if you are venturing to different lakes. Some allows all types of bait, some allows a subset, and others do not allow bait at all. Don't get caught for a honest mistake.

Geezle

03-19-2011, 08:00 AM

Geezle, I do plan on heading out to Edmonton as well. I'll have some friends out that way and to do some shopping. :)

Nice, well keep me in the loop for when you do head down this way :) And even if it's just a short trip down here, we could also get you out on the NSR (North Saskatchewan River) where there's the potential to catch almost anything...sturgeon included :cool:

Snag

03-20-2011, 10:56 AM

Is there a law too for using non-synthetic baits?

I'll be spending a lot of time pinching all my barbs lol. Is that the same in BC and/or Sask?

tacklerunner

03-20-2011, 11:56 AM

:sSig_welcome2:

FYI the link to the AB Regs are the 2nd thread at the top of the page.

RE: Bait, you will need to learn the difference between "baitfish" and "non baitfish". First there is no live fish for bait allowed in AB. Minnows are "baitfish". Smelts, herring, anchovies, sardines are commonly used as "non baitfish" as they are not native to our waters and typically come from salt water. Minnows are commonly used but are "baitfish". Fish as bait is used mostly for non-trout species with the exception of Lake Trout.

You will often see the following under the regulations for a particular lake.

"Bait but not baitfish allowed" This means no minnows but other non baitfish, worms, grubs, maggots, powerbait etc is acceptable.

All streams in BC are single, barbless hooks. Some lakes are barbless in BC, some are not. Salt water is also barbless for Salmon.

Barbs are generally legal in Saskatchewan but frankly, most of us just use barbless hooks every where because we are so used to it and it easier on the fish and also easier to get a hook out of your hand or head or arm...;)

Certain areas require additional licences and are listed as "classified waters" (mostly in BC). Also Parks have special rules too. In some possession of LEAD weights etc. is banned yet some are not barbless even in AB.

These are the basics but the bottom line is you really need to know your regs inside out before hitting a body of water. Just have to read up a bit. Or once you are here, start a thread asking about the lake you want to fish. Not only will you get top shelf people helping you out, people will go as far as giving you GPS coordinates, depths, lures etc to help you. Often this is done via the PM (private message system) on the forum to avoid telling the whole world your secrets.

Hope this helps.

Photoplex

03-20-2011, 12:21 PM

Is there a law too for using non-synthetic baits?

I'll be spending a lot of time pinching all my barbs lol. Is that the same in BC and/or Sask?

No barbed hooks ever. Only need to pinch the barbs for any hooks you have tied on your line. I have hundreds of hooks in my tackle box, and only a few are pinched (ones I've used before).

Bait bans (organic) exist on some waters, and not others. Some waters ban them at certain times of the year. Also, where there's a bait ban, this includes synthetic baits with scents/attractants.

If you do head over to BC at any point, bear in mind they are even more restrictive on fishing practices. No barbs. No Trebles. Bait bans in many more places.

The Alberta Regulations (for fishing, hunting, trapping etc) are all available online (http://www.albertaregulations.ca/). The fishing one will obviously give you the lowdown on regs for any body of water you're interested in. Cold lake:

Cold Lake
 May 20 to Mar. 31 – Lake Trout limit 0 from Sept. 15 to Nov. 15,
and 1 over 65 cm from May 20 to Sept. 14 and from Nov. 16 to
Mar. 31; Walleye limit 3 over 50 cm; Pike limit 1 over 63 cm; Perch
limit 15; Lake Whitefish limit 10; Burbot limit 10.
 Apr. 1 to May 19 – CLOSED

Shmag

03-20-2011, 08:08 PM

Welcome to the forum, and eventually Alberta

You will make great use out of your 6.6-7ft medium rods here. May of been posted already but pick up a Barry Mitchells Alberta fishing guide. He has every lake in alberta in this guide, it has species and size of what that certain lake would hold, and rough directions that would get you close. All his info is not 100% but its a good guide to follow...tight lines!!!

Snag

07-28-2011, 09:30 AM

So I posted this a long ass time ago but finally the dates are confirmed. Aug 29th I'll be living in Cold Lake, Alberta.

Just in time for fall fishing. :)

Lakers still open that way?

What's the best fall fishing in that area.. everything?

Geezle

07-28-2011, 10:28 PM

Well I guess I'll wish you an early welcome to the province :)

I still don't know a lot about Cold Lake, but a couple of us are going up there this weekend, so we'll see what we learn from that trip. Got out for a day trip there a couple weeks ago and it went okay, but we're hoping for more numbers this time around.

I'm sure the laker fishing should still be good in the fall, though I'm sure that one of the Cold Lake vets will chime in and either confirm that or tell me I'm wrong! :lol:

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii181/GeezleHerps/Phone%20pics/070211_175901.jpg

DarkAisling

07-29-2011, 03:49 PM

Well I guess I'll wish you an early welcome to the province :)

X2!

WayneChristie

07-29-2011, 04:23 PM