Walleye in Coal?
 

I was out fishing today on Coal and I had 2 fish swim by that I swear looked like walleye. And no I didn’t have a drop of alcohol in my system. I saw them on camera about 8 ft away. The water wasn’t the clearest so I’m not sure what they were. We have caught some big suckers out of there but it didn’t look like those and these looked around 3-4 lbs. if anyone has noticed any weird fish in there can they post it.

Two years ago I could of sworn I saw walleye in the camera also. Friends of mine were convinced what i saw were suckers. I never did get anyone to comment on it when I asked . I saw the white spot on the tail.

Spent many hours with a camera in old coal lake and personally never saw any wallies but havent been there for 3 years now do maybe it's a recent thing. They are definitely in dried meat tho and it's very possible they found a way into coal. I fished the north end exclusively. Did you figure you saw them up on the north end?

There are perch in Coal, a big perch might look like a walleye at a distace, they are related species and both have that fin with spines on their back, though a perch's is less pronounced.

Thanks for the feedback. I have caught a lot of perch in there but these fish were longer than any jumbos I’ve caught. Hopefully I will catch one or get a better look at em. I’ve only fished the north end.

How is the ice on Coal, any 3/4 ton trucks driving on, looking at tomorrow to go

I drove on there 3 weeks ago with my diesel. Must be at least 18-20” by now. I came in on the north end.

There could be walleye in coal. It connects to the battle river. Not sure how they would climb the dam though. Don’t think there’s a fish ladder.
While we on the topic, perch in dried meat? Regs say so. I’ve never seen or heard of perch there. Anyone else?

There are a ton of suckers in Coal

My family has had a cabin at driedmeat for like 50 years....I remember grandpa telling me in the 80s they would catch perch....but I've never seen any in the 30 years I've fished there....mind you I'm usually too busy peeling pike off to really notice lol. I've heard people say there are walleye upstream of the dam and in driedmeat as well....but again never seen it.

I’ve seen walleye caught in driedmeat. A few times.

I figured there were.....I've just never caught one or seen first hand. Guess maybe next time I'm down there I'll see if I can find some.

The walleye migration to the lake from the river would be same way the Perch transplant bucket brigade seems to work.

30 some years ago, mid 80's, I took my kids tobogganning on the Coal Lake hills and while they played I chopped a hole in the middle of the lake. No one else was fishing the whole north end of the lake. No old holes anywhere either. I dropped a small minnow shaped rubbertail down to the bottom in about 6 or so feet of water. 30 seconds of my hook being in the water and I had a 13 inch perch on the ice. In 20 minutes I caught 8 or 9 perch that were 12 to 13 inches. Kids got bored so we went tobogganing. I went a few times after that and caught smaller perch but never hit big perch another day like that first time. A decade later more and more people went there and fished it out for big perch. Also gets hit with blue algae in the summer once in a while. Remember seeing dead fish and birds along the shore. Big 20 lb. dead pike and lots of dead perch.

I wouldn't doubt there would still be a few big perch in Coal. Key word - "few" The lake did have good sized perch so the potential is there.

Thanks for the update