Cow Lake; a fishing report and a fascinating case study

[smitty9]

Cow Lake.

In it's "heyday" (late 70's or 80's depending when you fished it), it produced trout upwards of 15 pounds. Rick (or Roger?) Crozier even had a tiger beetle pattern for that lake.

Fished it this past Saturday; I am mildly impressed. Rainbows averaged 3.5 pounds, not one under 3. A few pike.

Which fascinates me, because I don't remember in the 40 years of fishing this province where F&W or AEP or the ACA or any whatever organization embraced the stocking of trout in a lake (slough) where there is a viable pike population.

Now trout and pike co-existing is not unheard of, of course. One only needs to look at Lake Diefenbaker in Sask to see that possibility of pike-trout co-existence to the nth degree (30 pound trout).

But not here in Alberta.

So I am curious as to why AEP chose to dump some browns and rainbows (hey, let's get some tigers in there too!!) in Cow. And we're not talking about a few hundred brood stock either; its close to 246,000 trout in 2021 and 2022 alone (combined).

AEP must think that total "bombardment flood" of trout - including some in bigger sizes - might be enough for them to establish a foothold, and so pike won't eat /get them all. Maybe; it's one of Alberta's bigger stocked trout lakes, but it ain't no Diefenbaker!

From my perspective, it marks quite a significant change in fish stocking philosophy of AEP. Of course, this could be a one off experiment.
-----------------------------------------
Anyways, fishing wasn't that 'fast'. 8 fish hooked, 3 to the boat. Small spoons and rapalas caught the rainbows. I caught the pike on a fly setup (the "Lauder" rig, lol).

Have no idea as to the status of the brown trout or perch. I do know, that do to frequent winterkills, at one time Cow only had minnows. Then trout, then pike and perch, now both.

We'll see; this will be interesting!

I'd go while the getting is good. Shore anglers on Saturday - close to 30 of them - are taking their 5 trout a day limit (though most only caught a handful, but given the chance...).
Don't know why...buddy said the trout tasted like mud....

Smitty

[goldscud]

Did you see any trout eating at the surface?

[Don Andersen]

Cow Lake is a trout landfill. They got put the hatchery overages somewhere. Seems like a success. Lots of people using the lake. Far different than it was just a perch/pike fishery.
Maybe do the same stocking in Buck or Wab.
I was there Monday and landed 17 pike from 3>6 lbs and 3 rainbows from 3>5 lbs. All were landed on a CDN Brown mohair leech presented on a sink tip.
It was a decent day.
PS: the bug life has profoundly changed after perch invaded. Dragon flies/caddies are about gone. Saw one rise Monday.
Did see how fast 8” trout can go with a pike on its butt, WOW!


Don

[Xplorer]

Hey guys,

Never fished cow lake, best place to launch a boat? Are gas engines allowed?

I have a small zodiac, does it get rough/windy a lot?

Thank you

[Bushrat]

246,000 in 2 years? They're just feeding pike. The few trout that manage to get big enough the pike don't bother with them anymore because they got 10's of thousands of easier to catch hatchery trout dumped in every year.
Should be some nice fat pike in and some big cannibal rainbows.

Can trout spawn in there?
How big were the trout they dumped in there?
Seems like a lot of fish for not that big of a lake.

[Don Andersen]

Originally Posted by Bushrat

246,000 in 2 years? They're just feeding pike. The few trout that manage to get big enough the pike don't bother with them anymore because they got 10's of thousands of easier to catch hatchery trout dumped in every year.
Should be some nice fat pike in and some big cannibal rainbows.

Can trout spawn in there?
How big were the trout they dumped in there?
Seems like a lot of fish for not that big of a lake.

Typical stock rate is 250/acre. Lake is 2243 acre or 550,000 fish
Growth rate of pike and trout will be profoundly effected by perch.
Both perch and pike winterkilled bad a few years ago. Food resources rebounded. Rainbows grew. Saw thousands of small perch the other day.
Trout cannot spawn in the lake.

[Don Andersen]

Originally Posted by Xplorer

Hey guys,

Never fished cow lake, best place to launch a boat? Are gas engines allowed?

I have a small zodiac, does it get rough/windy a lot?

Thank you

Launching from the north end is free. From campground $20.
Winds from the SW or SE can make the lake rough.
Gas engines allowed. Some show up with 300hp.
Water skiers in summer.

[Xplorer]

Originally Posted by Don Andersen

Launching from the north end is free. From campground $20.
Winds from the SW or SE can make the lake rough.
Gas engines allowed. Some show up with 300hp.
Water skiers in summer.

Thank you Don!

[smitty9]

Originally Posted by goldscud

Did you see any trout eating at the surface?

Yes. Occasionally.

246,000 in 2 years? They're just feeding pike. The few trout that manage to get big enough the pike don't bother with them anymore because they got 10's of thousands of easier to catch hatchery trout dumped in every year.
Should be some nice fat pike in and some big cannibal rainbows.

Can trout spawn in there?
How big were the trout they dumped in there?
Seems like a lot of fish for not that big of a lake.

That's the interesting part; are they just feeding the pike? Time will tell. Every lake has it's own predator-prey dynamics, it would be interesting to see stomach samples of pike from that lake. As for your other questions:
* no, of course trout cannot spawn; it's a glorified slough
* check the stocking lists; sizes varied
* Relatively speaking - for an Alberta put and take stocked trout lake - it is one of the biggest lakes in the province. Again, I am speaking relatively, when compared to other waterbodies that trout are stocked in.

A bad thing ………………?

Don

It's bad thing that it is so susceptible to winterkill. That, of course, has its own pros and cons.

Ideally, you'd have a lake that would totally winterkill, zero pike, zero perch, restock with trout, spend the $$$$ to aerate. But mother nature and our bucket bios have other ideas...

Water clarity was pretty low, about a foot. Not sure if that is normal for this lake?

Don would know much better than me, as I have only fished it once. But yes, it's a slough, so the water clarity would be minimal.

[Pioneer2]

Still have tumours on their bodies?

[Don Andersen]

Originally Posted by Pioneer2

Still have tumours on their bodies?

Of the 30+ pike caught this summer, none seem infected.
Mind you, several years ago I was catching several hundred pike and only got one infected.

Don