we were out saturday evening in the wind and sunday morning. wind kept us from catching too many as we couldn't sit over the ledge but would get a double header every pass just about. sunday morning wind was less and two if us manged about 40 in 4.5 hours. we got off the lake at 1130 AM and they were slowing. there were in a bit deeper water than a few weeks ago. two were just over the 75cm minimum and one was 85

Are there any perch accessible in cold lake this time of year ?

Be up Sunday to Friday site F114. Blue tracker targa , anchored with orange ball. Stop and say hi

I'll just miss you, I get there next Saturday for 4 nights. Pretty sure I've talked to you before anchored over by Garnett. Good luck out there

i'm hoping on heading up Aug 9-12 if it stops raining

will be up that way first part of august blue crestliner say hello or fish on.

Looks like rain the first week in Aug Second week looks better. SO FAR!

Can someone please make the wind go away ! Lol. Going nuts in the campground !

Had a good morning. Fished 8-1130 , my son, daughters boyfriend and father in law. Biggest were 79 , 82 and 84 cm natural drop , not pinched tail . Landed 34 total. 90-107ft on jigs

fish99, I'll be there tuesday aft until Friday noonish. Blue Crestliner flying Canadian flag. Good luck.
Doug

Nice haul, looks like you guys have cold lake down eh. Jigging them is a blast (kind of odd as I hate jigging for walleye)

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Wednesday was slower , none over but 25 in 3 hours .....And then Thursday rolled around. Dead calm and couldn’t get bit on our spot so moved down the lake and caught a few. BIG change and not sure what it was ! Might go up for Sunday if things work out

I’ll be there aug 25-29, hoping for some good weather. Any tips for fall lakers or will it be the same as any other time of year? I’ve only fished the lake once and it was this past may.

I prefer to jig on structure but there was lots of suspended fish around the sask border , 50-70ft in 100ft. Pretty much the same , mark fish and work them

To easy. I’ve got good electronics to help me find them and have a few spots I found last trip. I’ll double stack the downriggers and troll around until I find what I’m looking for and what they want to hit.

I know it depends on the lures being run and their respective action but what speed do most of you troll them at? Last time I seemed to have the most luck around 2.2mph but I’m open to opinions.

2.9mph

I'm heading up on thursday now.
Any one have any reports on how they did on the long weekend,would be great to here before i ship out .

Fishing was great, no keepers but lots of fish. I came home Friday afternoon, trolled different depths (40 to 100), barbless spoons. Going back Tuesday to give jigging a try, never done that for lakers, any tips? :test:
Doug

What colour were they hitting on ?

Boat launch looks like a scene from jaws when all the boats are leaving the harbour , or mr bean launches a boat !

JR, I don't think color mattered just depth and speed. That being said, 5 of diamonds, blue and silver wobblers, white and red, ruby eye, Canadian Wigglers worked too. Water was too rough for the kicker at times so used the big motor and caught some at over 3 mph. I didn't get anything over 72cm though, my wife and I do mostly catch and release anyway. Going back tomorrow to try our hand at jigging a bit but we mostly troll.
Good luck.
Doug

Was out on the long weekend and caught a ton of fish at all depths, but the bigger ones were definitely deeper, like 95-105 ft. The Most people i have ever seen by far on the lake for sure.
I have some huge concerns though. Why not make this lake like Calling lake and have a small 10 cm slot size like 50-60 cm and keep 1 fish.

The number of fish we caught was awesome and they were all fat and happy which is great, but the lack of the big ones is alarming.
What are we doing keeping these big mature fish that taste terrible compared to a 3 - 5 lber.

There was a great read on Calling lake and why the slot works so well to sustain a lake on here a few weeks ago.

the biggest we caught was 74cm and several at 68-71. They were all fat with little heads so not old fish by any means.

the other thing I thought of is mortality, we hooked 3 different fish in the eye, and all of my Laker hooks are barbless luckily. a couple more had gill damage because of the hook was taken deep on the strike. I even went to a single hook set up and missed a few but it worked fine.

I talked to probably a dozen other groups who mostly had 20 plus fish afternoons and not one of them had caught a keeper the whole long weekend.
Great fishing and weather on an excellent fishery and even had 3 folks with me who had never fished for lakers and never seen a Down rigger, so that was so fun.
anyone else experience the same thing?

Tight lines all!

I have never found the color of lures to matter much either. Like you said depth and speed and I think the shape of lure (spoons/cranks) are all key before color. When one spoon/crank is always catching the most fish people assume it is the color when usually it is the vibration that it puts out as they usually "feel" (lateral line)the lure, often before they see the lure.

I have noticed a definite difference with color while fly fishing trout. Size, speed and depth is still important but color seems to be pretty important as well especially with chironomids and scuds. May also be because they are fished very slow to stationary which limits vibration and gives the trout a good look at the presentation.

fished july 30 thru august 3 unbelievable action and water conditions we jigged for the most part. the lure would not hit the bottom and fish on , none stop for over 3 hours at a time and spot, when it got slow we would troll to the next spot at 2.8 mph. on the first 2 days we had to 2 fish each day over 75 cm but did not keep any . we found the bigger fish deeper . they seemed to school in size groups, we would get into a 8 to 10 lb school, this was the best fishing since we have been going to cold lake . one smaller fish in the 2 - 5 lb class would better to eat then the 12 plus lb you now need in order to keep. lucked out on the winds this year that was out of the norm as well.

I am all in favour of slot size ,but it is going to get fished out in a few years again.
So to have a slot size you are going to have a tag system for those fish .

Mortality is huge on summer caught lake trout. It's a shame to be yanking trebles out of their eyes and throwing back bleeders. We've all seen it and done it. Don't you all think if it was just one small one and you are done it would save the guys looking for the keepers from cycling thru dozens of fish and invariably killing a few anyways. Screw the tags there's gotta be a better way. When will they ever realize that protecting the bigger breeding walleye pike and Lakers is smart cheap conservation instead of killing them all then wonder why there is no recruitment after its too late?

This just comes down to it again, us, regs are out there but we regulate us.

Slot size, limits, keepers not keepers doesn't mean you go hog wild legally "catch your limit but limit your catch" was a boat sticker I use to have on the the ol'canoe!

I just enjoy the outdoors, fishing, hanging out, can of beans and a tin of sardines satisfies me....if the horse fly's cooperate!:sHa_sarcasticlol:


Oh yeah I also went to single hook barbless for lakers, miss a few, catch a lot, and I believe don't injure near as many as I use to when first trying to catch them :sHa_shakeshout:

I also place a lower emphasis on color versus getting the lure to the target depth, to target speed they like and, of course, the lure's action.

Colour seems to be the last thing I consider.

Anybody been up to the Marineau? I'm guessing the water levels are higher this year than previous years.

fish99, did you have an umbrella on your blue Crestliner at Cold Lake end of month. I saw a couple jigging north of the pp launch. Went back this past week, C&R fishing was awesome as usual, biggest was 73cm 100fow.