Cold lake 2012-2013
 

any info on ice yet at cold lake thanks cant wait to get out in late dec .a c&r from last year

I feel your pain! Nice lakers by the way; glad to hear they got to spawn again.

Hope we get to go wright away got new flasher it's your buddy with 3fingers lol

Was at French Bay 2 days ago. Not much ice yet. Probably be another 3 weeks or more.

Never fished lakers before. What test pound line do you use and what kind?

That is sure a beauty!

I use 14lb fireline crystal with a 6ft 17lb mono leader. When fishing deep water with a short rod ( sounds like the start of a joke ? ) you want to try eliminate as much line stretch as possible for best feel and hookset.

Water temp on cold is warmer than normal for this time of the year. Could be mid-late january by the time its safe for vehicles. For those with skidoos/quads might be able to get out earlier.

rumored reg changes
 

anyone know if the reg change is happening on cold lake for next year - curious what folks think about them?

A few more fish from last year
 

a few more lakers from last year.cant wait .

I have heard the minimum size will be going from 65cm upto 75cm next year on cold lake. I know 10cm doesnt sound like much but its going to be alot harder getting that laker to take home for the smoker!!

Cant wait to get out when she freezes over:)


Barbwire

Sask Regs have it proposed for next year (75 cms). i don't agree with it for a lot more fish will die when this regulation takes effect.

Not meaning to high jack this tread but it pertains to Cold Lake.

interested to hear reasoning why more fish would die??

Whats all this warmer talk on "cold" lake, go stick your thermometer in there and let me know when I can bring my tracked up UTV there and power mooch for some hard water LKTR's :snapoutofit:

I thinl he means that people will be catching and handling alot more fish trying to get a keeper now... the more fish caught and handled, the higher the mortality rate.... and bringing fish up to fast from the depths is not that great on fish.... or maybe he meant something totally different....... lol.

Bring fish up from 100 feet down too fast, handle them then put them back in the water. For sure there will be alot more that die. Seen perch, brought up from only 25 feet down, get the bends. I hait slot sizes and c&r. Too much mortality rate! Kills fish for no reason.

Here is a thought, lets put a slot size on white tail deer!
after you shot one, weight it, if it does not hit between 250 and 275 lbs, put it back! LOL

C&R , slot sizes, are a joke. If you don't want fish taken, CLOSE the lake.

cold lake is dead!

closing one species creates pressure on other species. Slot sizes have their uses and can be effective :rolleye2: closing entire lakes puts pressure on other lakes

Lake tout have the ability to release air from their air bladder when brought up from deep water. Since the majority of lake trout are under 75cm, almost all of the trout would end up being released, and all these undersize trout would be succeptable to the usual factors of mishandling or getting hooked deep. IMO, I think 75 cm minimum limit is a little rediculous because that's keeping lake trout that are 10 pounds plus and these trout are the spawners. As well, from my experience most of the fish I caught during my trips were in the 60-70 cm range so there's lots of fish to be caught and kept that are around the existing minimum size limit.

Although there is no shortage of laker's in the lake there sure is getting to be a shortage of big fish. Alberta will do the normal when it comes to Cold Lake, they will continue to let it get pillaged of big spawner's and keep throwing the aggressive smaller feeders back n until they eat themselves out of house and home and then get stunted and skinny and start to die off. Then they will sen in some university students to do krill surveys for 2 summers and they will determine the lake has been fished out and close it for 5 years and,,,, we start over again,, you know the same old same old..

It would be so easy to just put a slot size in, let people keep one between 45 - 65 to take home to eat and they are the aggressive feeders anyways and hard on the food supply. Throw the big trophy fish back in.. Thats what most of us that fish the lake regularly are after anyways.. laker's re one of the poorest eating fish there are especially the big fish,, utterly gross is what they are. But the smaller fish if cooked hard enough aren't bad.

But hey this is Alberta,, lets screw it up royally then fix it,,, right..

You hit it right on top of head Walleyes. This province is completely bass ackwards. Another good fishery going down the drain. Quick! everybody get out there this winter and keep all the big fish you can!!!

One day probably soon will be draw and tag

well said sad but true !

It would make sense to me that both provinces would work together on a new reg such as this for Cold Lake. What I'd like to know is the reasoning behind making the change. Is it because the biologists think that it is required in order to sustain a healthy population of lakers in the lake? Or, is it another backdoor job by Trout Unlimited to change the regs in the name of growing fish bigger to catch (aka "Quality" fishery).

Thought they were 75 last year... Good thing we kept 85-90 cm'ers only... Lol

Lake trout don't suffer from the bends, as long as you don't horse em in at mach 3 with a turbo winch, the bends does/do not affect lake trout! if you pay attention when catching one in the summer(harder to see in winter), you'll notice them put in a big effort on the way up to stop, 'dig there heels in', probably at about 25 feet below the boat or so, and if you're real lucky/observant you might see bubbles that they expel to rid there air bladders of all the expanded gases they've accumulated from rising in the water column, completely different from walleye or perch which can't expel those gases, notice the air sac coming out of the perch's mouth when u catch them in 25 feet,

Its ALIVE when i was there last !!!!!!

I have seen the air sack come out the mouth of trout also but not that often.

With the reg change maybe all the fish over 75 cm will be removed along with the genes to grow 75cm plus eliminating all the large lake trout we seek.
Seeing a fish over 75 cm will be very rare in a few years. Just a thought what does everyone else think?

Seemed to ruin all the walleye lakes with a large minimum size.

Getting back on topic.....I just got back from French Bay. It is totally froze over. Won't be long now!!!