Wabamun Lake: Where are the big fish?

[mrluke1]

I’ve been fishing Wabamun a fair amount this summer and all I seem to pull out are small pike and walleye with the odd medium sized walleye. I’ve heard from many people that there are still big pike in this fishery. Does anyone know what kind of structure I should be looking for? Is there a part of the lake that they like best?

[Fishwhere]

Uh oh - danger zone question...

Lots of previous posts on this same type of question here and then it leads to rants - myself included.

[RavYak]

There aren't that many big fish anymore. You can probably find the odd one but not like it used to be. To increase your chance you need to target them. Big pike are usually a little bit deeper and stick to structure more then small pike, they also prefer bigger meals so don't be afraid to throw larger lures.

[thorne]

Or just save yourself the hassle and go fish Sask. Still some nice pike there!

[kayaker]

The recovering population is mostly younger fish form the reestablishment efforts.

The FIN assessments graph age class distributions:

Wabamun: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/85ce...eport-2015.pdf

[HookedOnKokanee]

-- the big pike are still there, they didn't jump out on the Jasper Highway and hitched a ride somewhere

-- previous posts are on the money, BIG pike live in the deepest part of the lake during the summer, they can't stand warmer water, except to eat in

-- deep drop offs to great feeding locations are a place to start

-- pike from 10 to 20 pounds eat one or two Big meals and then sit and digest

-- many anglers do not realize home deep pike will go in the summer months, depths to 40 feet and consistently from 20 to 30

-- if you want some great tips, just go to the 2019 Albert Guide to Sport Fishing Regulations, that's the magazine that no one ever looks at?!

-- pages 102 to 103, written by Wes David, you don't have one it is online or go to Canadian Tire and pick one up

Tight Lines

doyle

[mooseknuckle]

Originally Posted by mrluke1

I’ve been fishing Wabamun a fair amount this summer and all I seem to pull out are small pike and walleye with the odd medium sized walleye. I’ve heard from many people that there are still big pike in this fishery. Does anyone know what kind of structure I should be looking for? Is there a part of the lake that they like best?

If you've been fishing it a fair amount.... then keep exploring. Not a huge lake. I've had some decent success this summer, when the small walleye aren't stealing the hook. Best this summer was 19lbs 4oz, couple in the 15lb range and half dozen over 10. And 8,000,000,000,000 walleye!!

[does it ALL outdoors]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckle

I've had some decent success this summer, when the small walleye aren't stealing the hook. Best this summer was 19lbs 4oz, couple in the 15lb range

A 19 pounder is pretty impressive, didn't think they still got that big in there since all the plants closing and the introduction of Walleye's, nicely done!

A little ff topic but at Lac St. Anne today and was really surprised at the number of big & fat Walleye's in there. The big fattys seem to be growing in numbers quickly.

[HookedOnKokanee]

-- instead of writing about it, I went and proved it this weekend

-- I am 60 years old now, but when I was 10 to 25 I chased nothing but big pike

-- started with my Grand Father talking me out in all the reservoirs around the Hat

-- during that time we caught big, I mean big pike, we were using braid back then but it wasn't called that, and many, many big pike were caught and the numbers

-- once I was fishing on my own, my attentions turned to walleye and kokanee, for the next 35 years

-- so I found myself down on Newell on the long weekend

-- most of the weekend was spent chasing the monster walleye in Newell

-- then on the last two hours of fishing before heading back to Red Deer (Sunday), I remembered this thread

-- so I looked at the wife and said, "we are going to fish for pike" she thought I lost my mind

-- anyways it was non stop for pike, using my own advice, as my grandpa taught me, as stated above and using the biggest Len Thompson lures you can get

-- I tried hard to stay another day but the wife said no way, even though so had the time of her life, anyone that fish for pike know how hard they hit when you are trolling, I forgot what a rush that is/was!!

-- Newell has as many walleye as any other lake, perch, whitefish and ling and this lake is fine

-- so the big pike are still in any lake, just have to know where to fish based on the time of year

-- at Newell, I found the drop that went from 50, to 40, to 30, to 20 and trolled in 17 to 9 feet of water adjacent to these drops, s-turns, speed up and down and snapping the rods ... just what grandpa taught me so many years ago

-- I think I am hooked again on pike, it was time to give the walleyes and kokanees a break anyways hahaha

[RavYak]

Um Newel isn’t Wab and no the big pike aren’t always in a lake...

I love how there are always random people on the internet that have never fished a lake that will argue it is probably as good as it used to be when all the people that used to fish the lake almost every weekend argue otherwise. You guys should go work for fisheries if you don’t already, you would fit in perfectly...

You can see the beginning of the decline when comparing 2015 netting, https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/85ce...eport-2015.pdf

To 2013 netting, https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/a273...eport-2013.pdf

I wish they would hurry up and net it again, guess they are waiting until the lake has a chance to recover.

[HookedOnKokanee]

-- it is comments like yours, makes other people not wanting to post anything

-- it appears that you have never, ever fished any real fishing tournaments except some kayak thing on the coast and locally

-- if you fished both the northern and southern walleye tournaments you would know the facts about fish populations and the density of the fish

-- at one of the southern reservoirs just after the tournament had concluded, fish and game were doing test netting in only ONE area of the reservoir

-- at the camp ground they were question, they said, "based on today's results they "government" will make a decision about this reservoir, and the netting numbers were lower than the year before"

-- the tournament anglers had no problem catching numbers of everything during the tournament, even though it was a walleye tournament, jumbo perch and healthy pike

-- want to guess where they were test netting?

-- prime spawning areas for pike/walleye/perch, not surprising they said the results were way down based on the netting that day, spawning took place months previous, any surprise?

-- don't believe what you read!

-- and I have fished Wab, do you think I post and make up stories, and yes I have caught big pike, you just have to know what you are doing

-- my best pike lures are between 6 to 10 inches long, about the same size as your kayak

-- next time you what to insult someone, do it in person, unless you are one of those keyboard warriors, continue on

-- save your words this is a rhetorical comment

-- thank you

[last minute]

Originally Posted by mrluke1

I’ve been fishing Wabamun a fair amount this summer and all I seem to pull out are small pike and walleye with the odd medium sized walleye. I’ve heard from many people that there are still big pike in this fishery. Does anyone know what kind of structure I should be looking for? Is there a part of the lake that they like best?

What is a big pike to you !!!!

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by mrluke1

I’ve been fishing Wabamun a fair amount this summer and all I seem to pull out are small pike and walleye with the odd medium sized walleye. I’ve heard from many people that there are still big pike in this fishery. Does anyone know what kind of structure I should be looking for? Is there a part of the lake that they like best?

The big Wabamun pike are back in 2002 ish. When the power plant gave those pike a 12 month growing season they got big, now that's over and the lake is just like every other over pressured lake in central Alberta.

Under normal conditions Pike this far north grow slowly, the only reason they ever get big is due to low fishing pressure.

[expedition]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

The big Wabamun pike are back in 2002 ish. When the power plant gave those pike a 12 month growing season they got big, now that's over and the lake is just like every other over pressured lake in central Alberta.

Under normal conditions Pike this far north grow slowly, the only reason they ever get big is due to low fishing pressure.

Well said