cypress Hills area at the End of May

[Calloway99]

I was just wondering if anyone had any information regarding fishing in the Cypress Hills area?
My brother in Law and myself are heading there to do some fly fishing at the end of May and I don't have much of a clue as to where to fish.
We have the bellyboats and will probably be camping there for the weekend.

Any advise, tips or recomendations would be awesome.

Thank folks.

Sean

[owlhoot]

There are 2 trout lakes in the hills, Reesor lake has rainbows and Spruce coulee has brookies, both are nice lakes surounded with trees, just outside the hills is BullsHead resorvoir a trophy lake with some very large rainbows, limit there is one fish.

[aulrich]

Two summers ago I camped a few days up there Reesor was pretty consistant, did not have any luck on spruce (the CO even said it was hot and cold), never fished bullshead (the wife did not want to leave the park). If you tent camp and don't need power the spruce coulee campground is nice, (alittle bit of a cary to get your stuff in). Reesor was nice too I think it can handle rv's. Elk water has your usual paved hell rv park nice enough butjust not natural

The last 5 years I have done the majority of my deer hunting down there I do like it there and the park is one of those semi out of the way gems.

[lippy]

Originally Posted by Calloway99

I was just wondering if anyone had any information regarding fishing in the Cypress Hills area?
My brother in Law and myself are heading there to do some fly fishing at the end of May and I don't have much of a clue as to where to fish.
We have the bellyboats and will probably be camping there for the weekend.

Any advise, tips or recomendations would be awesome.

Thank folks.

Sean

Reesor Lake and Spruce Coulee are both within the confines of Cypress Hills Provincial Park. Reesor Lake has a fairly small but nice campground and Spruce Coulee has a campground that is tenting only. Fishing in Reesor is generally good but for some reason the fish have declined in size over the last while..don't expect to catch anything over 14 inches..and if you do it's a bonus. Spruce Coulee is a small but very nice lake to take a B.B, canoe or pontoon on..(no prop motors allowed).The lake is stocked with Brook trout
and walleye were accidently introduced several years ago(we won't get into that one!) There is a very nice tent only campground there and a camp kitchen. Bullshead resevoir is about a 35 minute drive from Reesor and has had special regulations for a few years. Fishing is very good for large rainbows if you have the right flies/lures There is also Michelle Lake about 20 minutes south of Bullshead that is usually good fishing for rainbow.Michelle and Bullshead are outside the park and there aren't any trees around the lake and little protection from the winds.I have fished all four lakes in one day ..just to say I did it and caught fish in each one....have fun!

[Calloway99]

Thanks guys. Sounds like we have a few good options. We camped down there about three years ago and we stayed at Elkwater, but into the back campgrounds that are more natural. We had our tent trailer, but there were still a lot of trees there. Didn't get any fishing in as we had a bunch of really small kids, but I always wanted to get back there to try some of the lakes.

Is there any good stream fishing down that way?

Sean

[aulrich]

Allegedly Battle creek has lots of small rainbow's, but the part I saw was more of a big ditch with lots of under brush. I did not find it too fishable.

[MuleyMonster]

No stream fishing unless you count battle creek that runs out of Reesor. Expect to catch 4-8 inch trout. Good for the little kids but not much for supper. Reesor has a lot of suckers in it which has caused more competition for the trout and has reduced the size they get to. Until they kill off the lake (not going to happen) the lake will be the way it is now. Spruce is coming back after they killed it off trying to get ride of the walleye as mentioned before and from what I hear the fishing has been good but the size is not there yet. Should be able to get some around 14-16 inches by the summer. Your best bet would be Elkwater in the morning if you are looking for some pike. You can keep any size and are good eating but not that big. Once the day is warm you will be fighting 50 boats so best to get your fishing done in the morning.

As a side note it would be great to get Elkwater changed to a Trout lake as it would be awsome but that is not likely going to happen in my lifetime. Too much effort and people like the way it is. Good luck a let us know when you are going to be coming and we can update you with how the fishing is.

[fishman]

Abiut 5 years ago i watched fishing show on cypress hills and the guy was fishing some private lakes and catching huge rainbows and they fished some small river and were catching brookies.........i always curious about this area but in live in whitecourt so i figured it was quite a drive....but was in the back of my mind to make it there after reading this post left me confused on the information i had recieved..........tell me more please

[MuleyMonster]

Fishman,

The brookies I have no explanation unless they were fishing the back of Spruce where the water comes in but I would not call it a river by no means. As for the rainbows they were probably fishing a couple of private ponds that are just outside the park. They have been catching rainbows up to 15 pounds out of the one pond. A few members on this forum have fished them but I have not had the pleasure yet. Not sure how you get on or how much it costs to fish those ponds.

[fishman]

Originally Posted by MuleyMonster

Fishman,

The brookies I have no explanation unless they were fishing the back of Spruce where the water comes in but I would not call it a river by no means. As for the rainbows they were probably fishing a couple of private ponds that are just outside the park. They have been catching rainbows up to 15 pounds out of the one pond. A few members on this forum have fished them but I have not had the pleasure yet. Not sure how you get on or how much it costs to fish those ponds.

thanks for the reply muleymonster

i did some surfing on the net and came up with a website saying that thier was stream fishing for brookies,browns and cutts.....like i said i have never been in this area so kinda at your mercy.......what i was mislead into it sounded really good and another website said fishing private ponds for $250 a day a minium of three days bookings....humm sounds like a scam to me i kinda like to maybe book one day not three

[MuleyMonster]

Originally Posted by fishman

thanks for the reply muleymonster

i did some surfing on the net and came up with a website saying that thier was stream fishing for brookies,browns and cutts.....like i said i have never been in this area so kinda at your mercy.......what i was mislead into it sounded really good and another website said fishing private ponds for $250 a day a minium of three days bookings....humm sounds like a scam to me i kinda like to maybe book one day not three

Wondering what website you were looking at because if there is stream fishing I would love to do some.

Thought I heard $100 per day for those private ponds but not sure as I said before never been there even thought it is only 15 minutes from my house

[fishman]

http://www.flyfishingstillwaters.com/tripCypress.asp
http://www.virtualsk.com/maps/ecoregions_11.html

[lippy]

Originally Posted by fishman

thanks for the reply muleymonster

i did some surfing on the net and came up with a website saying that thier was stream fishing for brookies,browns and cutts.....like i said i have never been in this area so kinda at your mercy.......what i was mislead into it sounded really good and another website said fishing private ponds for $250 a day a minium of three days bookings....humm sounds like a scam to me i kinda like to maybe book one day not three

I am sure they were referring to the streams on the Saskatchewan side of the Cypress Hills. There is a trout fishery on private land on the south side of the park. I believe the landowners don't let any one in there that they don't know and they manage it as a trophy fishery..which is why they don't let any "strangers" in there. I think that there is a guide or two that have exclusive access and it is not a scam ..there are monster trout to be caught in that lake..depends on what you are willing to dole out to get into the action.