st. anne report june02/03, 2007

[wildman]

put some time in on lac st. anne this weekend...
arrived at my bro's cabin in the afternoon on saturday. fished from 4:00-7:30pm. the 'eyes were nuts!!! we landed 20-30 of 'em in those few hours. they were hitting EVERYTHING and we found them in all depths. 25-5ft!!!! only saw 4 wee skinny pike.
due to a BIG storm approaching, we left the water well before sundown
and that's when we met the world's most retarded boaters!!!!
these 3 BIG adults (obvious fast food enjoyers) and a really, really tiny BABY launched their 8' tiny boat with a 2 hp motor into the oncoming storm while there was a line of us getting OUT!!! the driver then proceeded to try filling his engine on the boat, spilling gas all over the place!!! meanwhile, they left all their doors on their vehicle wide open!!!
well, they never got the engine started, the white-caps blew them into the neighboring reed-bed, and they ended up draggin the boat thru the weeds and taking it out!!!! all with a weeks-old baby in tow!!! unbelievable!!!
the next day we were happy to see a hot sunny morning!!!
went out to one of our fav. spots and saw a COOL sight!!! as we started to fish, we saw dozens of fish breaching just deeper than us.
thinking they were whities, i started to toss wireworms at them. my buddy just whipped his jig into the frey. he instantly nailed a WALLEYE!!!
it was 28 deg. c. and high sun and there was a school of eyes on the surface!!!!! we pursued and hit a few more.
it was COOL!! they were beaking the water with their dorsals like sharks!!!! we saw that they were decimating a school of 1/2" perch minnows less than a ft. below surface!!! super-cool to witness!!!
the rest of the day, we got half a dozen 'eyes and 2 pike. much slower than the day before. took 1 67cm pike for dinner.
lots of fun. can't wait for NEXT weekend!!!
cheers, gw

nice report "G" . pretty crazy stuff with the baby. So how did that pike taste? pretty clean meat after filleting?

[wildman]

hey NDN!!!
yeah the pike are great!!!
bonless they are just as good as 'eyes!!!!
in the dead of mid-summer they get a little soft in our small, local lakes tho...

nothing cooking them Crispaaaaaaaaay cant fix. you planning on starting to flyfish the RDR in July?? I got word Dave Jensen doesnt think it will clear up till end of june.

[wildman]

YUP!!!!
i'll be there many, many times this season!!!
i generally always miss the PRE-runoff opportunity and go lots in fall.
i intend to hit 'er as soon as it's worth it tho. gw

yeah, being so close its hard not too. lets plan a trip. gotta love those RDR Rockies. Prince and TNT P.T. are my fav on that water. hope to break 20 inches on a brown trout this year out of there.

[~Octane~]

thanks for the report man..might go there this weekend and try for the whites. Even see anyone catching any?

[wildman]

hey ndn.
i too need to break the 20" mark. got an 18"-er last year and that is my best to date. i also am a huge fan of the whities!!! they are a blast!!!
we should probably take the octane dude too!!!
ps. hey octodude,
we saw zero whities last weekend. the school of jumpers i hoped were them were 'eyes. you may be better off at pigeon???
cheers, gw

[~Octane~]

An RDR trip would be sick, I bet those big rockies fight HARD! Ya i might be better at pigeon, but its farther then st anne, mabey even wabamun?

[happy perch fisher]

u sure those where perch minnows the could of been walleye. At lac la nonne i seen tons of them from 0.5cm to the 5 cm range. But considering i have'nt caught a perch out of there for 6 years and i have'nt heard of anyone catching them either. So they must of bin walleye. I also have'nt heard of anyone catching perch out of lac st anne in a long time. There both simalar lakes and they both messed up by the closing of the walleye.

[wildman]

hey octane,
since when do we choose where to fish based on what CLOSEST!?!??!?
yer never gonna break any provincial records that way!!!

ps. hey H.P.F.
we KNOW they were perch minnows 'cuz the 'eyes we caught were spitting them out when we picked them up. been fishing for over 25 yrs. i can tell the diff. between a yellow and green perch and a walleye.
ps. we caught perch while going for whities in both pigeon and st.anne last winter. they were small but they WERE perch.

[fishmonger535]

sounds like some good fishing. good to hear that your catching perch again.. maybe pigeon will start to recover more now that some of the walleye are being taken. and what is with hpf.. anytime anyone mentions perch. he says they are not.. just cuz he cant catch em. i was at pinehurst this past weekend. it was very slow. a few pike, harldy any walleye by anyone.. but one guy was trolling through six feet of water by us. and he was nailing perch like mad.. wnet over and saw them. he had some nice ones. so we tried, but the school had moved off.. we did manage a 9 lb. pike and a few 6's ..

[happy perch fisher]

while it sounds kinda strange that people have'nt caught perch there for along time but suddenly u catch them. Are u 100 percent they where perch not walleye because when they little like that its hard to tell.

[~Octane~]

lol, I dunno wild, ill go to pigeon anyday over st anne, but Wabamun is just as good, best pike fishery in Alberta still Do you have a boat?