I went out for my first diver hunt on Cold Lake last Friday. The first one was mainly to check gear including the boat blind I built. I spoke to the local CO last month about hunting on Cold Lake, he was very helpful and filled me in on the regs.
I was hunting from my 12 foot Princecraft with a 7.5 Mercury on the back. It was cold, -6 and the wind chill felt like -13. I ended up launching from a beach on the north part of the lake, my boat is light enough that I can drag it down to the water off the trailer and set it up at the waters edge.
After breaking ice at the edge I got out into about 15 feet of water and started setting decoys. I ran a mixed spread of oversized Goldeneyes and Canvasbacks set in a V with Ringednecks set at the base of the V in front of the boat. I also put out 3 honkers floaters for visibility.
I saw quite a few flocks of divers trading back and forth on the lack and the odd one would turn into the decoys. I ended up bagging a really nice drake Bufflehead in full plumage that I'm saving to get mounted.
I learned a few things on the hunt. My anchor which works well on the rocky bottom of Marie Lake isn't heavy enough for the sand bottom of Cold Lake, and I'm going to start running two anchors with snap hooks and floats like I did back east. I need to tether my decoy hook, I dropped it into about 6 feet of water and spent half an hour trying to retrieve it. I also need a better flag for hunting divers, my goose flag is too awkward in the boat and doesn't work as well as a straight black flag.
I'll be back out later in the month to try my luck again.
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