There are still big pike in Wabamun...
Well, you could say our trip didn't go "as planned'.
Me, Jeff, and his girlfriend Emma all went out for a trip to the Athabasca this weekend. Ended up getting skunked(!!!) at the river, which was shocking but on our way back we figured we would throw a line in at Wabamun to catch some 15" walleye and at least get the skunk off the trip. Well, let me tell you the most unexpected thing happened! We ended up catching a BIG pike in comparison to the new Wabamun average. I won't say exactly how big so please tune into the video to see the actual scaled weight and measurement on video! This one could eat the ones we caught in our last Wabamun video. Most people I talk to other than a select few are CONVINCED the big pike in Wabamun are dead. Well, lemme tell you, there is at least ONE healthy momma slough shark swimming around still! She was released fully healthy, ready to be caught again! So screw what others have told you, if you have the right gear/knowledge of the lake (as well as some luck!), you can still catch big fish in Wabamun. PS: Screw you wind! |
Went to Athabasca river this morning , skunked as well , windy cold miserable.
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yeah I meant Athabasca river, haha not "the athabasca" and it wasn't so bad yesterday when we were there but the wind was horrible today I agree.
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Where may the aforementioned video be observed?
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it will be awhile yet before the video is rendered, we literally just got back today!
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What? No teaser/spoiler pics :)
Good for you! I have a reliable source at work who laughs at what some are saying on here about the Wab decline. He boated the usual amount this year including one well over 20 lbs. I'm glad to see someone else prove otherwise. Look forwards to the vid. Congrats and cheers! |
Yeah, I would post a picture but it would be a complete spoiler.
This post was more to just re-assure people that there are definitely big fish in Wabamun if you know where to look and have a bit of luck! I definitely believe that the pike fishery in Wab is definitely on the decline, this fall out of almost 100 fish landed combined between me and others on two different trips, we caught maybe 5 pike and only one was worth mentioning which is the beast that you will see soon! Hopefully they find a way to cooexist with the Walleye and the Pike are fewer but bigger overall. I doubt that will happen but it would be a dream come true IMO. It will be interesting to see how big the Walleyes in there get as well, already landed a few decent ones. |
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Imagine near the same quality of fishing as it is now but instead of catching 14 inch walleye you were catching 24+ inch pike and 30-40 inchers being a regular occurrence. That is what wab used to be like. Anyone claiming it hasn't changed must be smoking some pretty strong stuff or has only fished it the last 3 years... |
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It will be interesting to see how big the Walleye get, especially if they open up a tag system and people can start harvesting some of the massive amounts of 43CM ones, it will leave more baitfish in the lake hopefully increasing overall size. Opening tags for Walleye on Wabamun would also help ease pressure on Pigeon Lake! PS: Walleye fishing at Pigeon is the best its been in years IMO, last time I was there earlier this month I caught 10 walleye in just a few hours and 8 of them had to be 20" or more, all with healthy bellies instead of skinny & sick looking. The tag system there is working perfectly, keeping the population in check preventing overpopulation, while making sure the lake doesn't get completely fished out and increasing the average size. |
No more talk till the the video is rendered. Hurry up I don't have all week.:)
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might be the biggest waste of time post of the year
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There are some even bigger ones, I caught a 26.5 incher a couple years ago but those are just rare larger fish that got transferred from Ste. Anne. |
I love this thread .....
A couple things - first of all, most guys, at least from I've read, or contributed to on this forum say that pike numbers and health are on the decline and that larger and healthier (bigger) pike have also declined within that lake. Nobody said, at least not in any threads I've read, or recall, that they were "all dead". How is it, that most of us would catch a few 5-7 lbers everyday, often catch one or two 8-12lbers in a day and occasionally (on average every second trip or so) catch a fish or two in the mid to high teens and now you can't do that. We used to catch 100 pike a day - now you can't do that. Is it because you need to be a expert master angler superstar? or is it because the rest of us are not as good as we used to be? or is the fishery, legitimately, in decline? Congratulations on your big pike. Let's see the picture. |
Yup I could hardly sleep last night. Come on man let's see this monster pike from wab. I got things to do. Bahaha. Did you vote NDP?
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I apologize, this post probably could have waited until the video was ready, Jeff currently has a backlog of about 5 videos worth of footage to get through!
We were definitely busy this fall but the videos will be rolling out over the next few weeks here. Included will be some NSR fishing, Abraham lake area, Pigeon, and of course Wabamun. Sorry for jumping the gun but its nice to at least open discussion about the fishery in Wabamun. Loving everyone's feed back ! I guess to make this thread less useless, I will share a bit of strategy with you all. My hint on how to find the big female pike right now on Wabamun, find rocky/pebble bottom. The whites should be spawning and the big girls chase them up onto the rocks while packing on the pounds to survive the winter while their eggs develop. That also gives you a hint as to what I caught the pike on! Always a good idea to use lures that imitate what your target fish is eating. :-) |
As for the Walleye sizes at Wabamun, you really gotta get through the numbers to find the larger 20+ ones, and yeah I figured they were transplants for St Anne & Isle Lake.
I hope that a tag system is started next season at least for the 43CM class, it won't hurt the population at all to have a sustainable & control walleye harvest at Wabamun. They have absolutely exploded in that lake! |
It's all good to me and I appreciated the heads up post. Some members just like getting their panties in a bunch. Look forwards to the vid. Good point on what the big girls might be interested in :)
On the Wab and tag system, you would have to logically think that was an end state as to why the introduced walleye there. However, it is still in that zero retention period with public health concern on water quality. I haven't heard of any change to that unless someone on here has more up to date info? |
I heard the local natives are planning on netting the hell out of the wallies this winter as soon as the ice is thick enough. Maybe it won't be too late like pigeon for the other species to come back. Have at er boys.
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There are numerous publicly available reports on the water quality at Wabamun and the ones the year after the spill pretty much showed that the spill was not a factor anymore. There are still slightly higher amounts of PAH in the sediment compared to other lakes but that is because of the coal in the area and the coal burning in the nearby plant and it was that way before the spill as well. I believe the lake remained zero retention for the first few years just in case but then it was later left zero retention because it was considered a trophy fishery and due to its close proximity to the city. From one of the sources you can find, from 2008 Quote:
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Is the video of the giant pike ready yet?
I enjoy seeing your vids looking forward to seeing the big pike |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a87nQfFIO_s
It's not quite the giants you used to get back in 2011 but she's big for what I'm used to nowadays! Hoping to get an even bigger one this ice season :-) |
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