Pine Coulee Reservoir Trophy Trout Lake

[litwin]

The Alberta Fish & Wildlife say Pike and Walleye are not spawning on this Lake and want to get rid of them for their trout stocking program. I say they have found places to spawn, but have always lacked of a viable food source to reach good numbers in this Lake. The government has opened up this Lake for harvesting these fish, but rather than catching and killing them, I wanted to show you that there is a healthy spawning population there.

At least the stocking program will feed these fish for a few years if anglers don't keep all of the fat Pike and Walleye.

You can check out my latest video during the spawn.
https://youtu.be/CfuYpy_Lr3k

[AK47]

Nice video as always. I see nothing changed there since I fished it last time good 10 years ago, tons of small walleye despite 3 no size limit keeper allowance

[matt1984]

Without watching the whole video, what is the evidence of spawning? In the bit I watched I saw no eggs, milt, or juvenile fish. Every fish I've caught or seen from PCR have essentially been the same size and age from the original stock. The fish have shown almost zero growth rate.

I would agree they have a serious lack of food in the reservoir, and that is likely why they have been unsuccessful at spawning. Maybe the trout will be enough forage for the walleye to start to eat, and actually begin to spawn.

[Lastcast]

Good video. When is the last time they stocked walleye? I remember the initial stock more than a decade ago but wasnt sure if they have stocked since.

[TROLLER]

how was the boat launch?

[litwin]

The boat launch is in good shape; water is low, but going up a few inches every day.

[AK47]

Originally Posted by matt1984

I would agree they have a serious lack of food in the reservoir, and that is likely why they have been unsuccessful at spawning. .

Just wait until prussian carp will make its way into it... that will make them walleye and pike grow like on steroids.

[fish99]

Thanks for the video not much difference in walleye since the last time we fished it 4 years ago , small walleye one after the other.

[I’d rather be outdoors]

It’s kinda like they got fed or something…like stocking of a prey species actually helped the reservoir. Who knew? Almost like F&W should replicate stocking of prey (minnows) across others to increase available forage biomass.

Let’s hope they stock more trout :-)

[barbless]

Maybe they can do like they did to CVR many years ago. Some will remember when they decided to stock trout in there. From what I remember they also dumped a chit load of shrimp in there for them to eat. Well after a couple years these trout were humongous monsters. Little heads and enormous bodies. We are talking 15 lbs. plus. They were like on steroids'. I can remember pulling up some weeds and it was covered with shrimp. Have not seen or heard of any being caught for many years. Walleye, Pike the culprits??

[EZM]

Originally Posted by barbless

Maybe they can do like they did to CVR many years ago. Some will remember when they decided to stock trout in there. From what I remember they also dumped a chit load of shrimp in there for them to eat. Well after a couple years these trout were humongous monsters. Little heads and enormous bodies. We are talking 15 lbs. plus. They were like on steroids'. I can remember pulling up some weeds and it was covered with shrimp. Have not seen or heard of any being caught for many years. Walleye, Pike the culprits??

I am not sure specifically to CVR - and what is going on there, but one tough winter, and the shrimp dies off and the food disappears for trout who are experts at foraging for shrimp.

I doubt Pike or walleye are eating trout that big.

The other thing could be they stocked triploids (which grow fast and focus on eating with no spawning instinct as they are sterile). They will die off and without restocking you also end up with no trout in there after they reach maturity and die.

Again, not sure about CVR specifically, but there can be many reasons here to see what you are seeing.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by litwin

The Alberta Fish & Wildlife say Pike and Walleye are not spawning on this Lake and want to get rid of them for their trout stocking program. I say they have found places to spawn, but have always lacked of a viable food source to reach good numbers in this Lake. The government has opened up this Lake for harvesting these fish, but rather than catching and killing them, I wanted to show you that there is a healthy spawning population there.

At least the stocking program will feed these fish for a few years if anglers don't keep all of the fat Pike and Walleye.

You can check out my latest video during the spawn.
https://youtu.be/CfuYpy_Lr3k

Spawners are typically much larger in size - these look like a pre spawn sized age class to me.

There was also nothing on the anus or vent (which is right next to the reproductive organs) shows no evidence of spawning. This is very evident on spring walleye that are spawning. At least when I try stopping the video to look for this and see nothing like that.

They also need flowing, well oxygenated water that is relatively silt free (not sure if that is available on that lake). They also swim into the inlets quite a ways and spawn in restricted spaces and not out in the open lake or outside of the inlet. That would be the place to look. It does not look like you are in the right place to find spawners.

Spawning is limited to a 10-14 day period (I'm not sure when the video was taken) but in Southern Alberta - it may have happened close a two to three weeks ago coinciding with the opening season (starts right after) where you typically find spawned out fish (larger females with flat stomachs and very obviously red vents.

They spawn according to water temp. And that's why the season opens later the further North you go typically in watersheds that they want to protect.

Respectfully - I believe you may be mistaken. For all those reasons and more I can get into.

Aside from this, the best evidence would be finding and identifying the correct age classes of last years hatch (4"-5"maybe), and the presence of new hatch a few weeks from now (1")and correctly identified as walleye fry.

[AK47]

Originally Posted by EZM

Spawners are typically much larger in size - these look like a pre spawn sized age class to me.

"In 2000 and 2003, Pine Coulee Reservoir was stocked with walleye with the objective of creating a sustainable walleye fishery.

Sampling of stock levels since then have shown that the walleye population of Pine Coulee Reservoir has not established itself. That is, the growth rate has been very slow and there has been no population increase due to walleye born in the lake. The stocked walleye are now nearing the end of their lifespan"
https://www.alberta.ca/south-saskatc...nt-survey.aspx

So they were stocked 20 years ago yet remained same tiny size? Or could it be that these little guys are offspring of original stocking program? Weird that there is so many of them even after 6 years of keep 3 no size limit and tons of people fishing and keeping them. You would think that little reservoir close to Calgary with 3 keepers allowed would be fished out by now - which is obviously not. So what is exactly happening there?

[slough shark]

Cvr trout died off because of age while at the same time pike made their way into the lake, once pike were established they gave up on trout and started stocking walleye. At least that’s how I figured it went from timelines etc… now pine coulee walleye are a different story, I think they are aging out and dying because they aren’t spawning (or at least spawning in great numbers) pike are spawning I believe so now with the much lower walleye numbers I’d expect more to be making it into adulthood so I’m guessing that’s where this is going. I’d like to see them use this time to try and establish baitfish (perch, whitefish) because I’m guessing once pike numbers are growing a lot faster they will end up being the dominant fish because I doubt a ton of trout will get large

[madatter]

Originally Posted by barbless

Maybe they can do like they did to CVR many years ago. Some will remember when they decided to stock trout in there. From what I remember they also dumped a chit load of shrimp in there for them to eat. Well after a couple years these trout were humongous monsters. Little heads and enormous bodies. We are talking 15 lbs. plus. They were like on steroids'. I can remember pulling up some weeds and it was covered with shrimp. Have not seen or heard of any being caught for many years. Walleye, Pike the culprits??

They probably died of old age.....or cardiac arrest
Several people I know caught the big ones,they were so big they literally had no fight in them,just pulling in a big weight.

[Frank_NK28]

Based on what I see in your video I would say there is definitely a self sustaining population of walleye in there. There were many waterbodies in Ontario where the average size spawning walleye was 4 years old and 30-35 cm in length and catching a larger fish was uncommon. Ni****ing was one of them for many, many years. It's only the past few years producing bigger fish up to trophy sizes since the introduction of shortened seasons, restrictive slot limits and very reduced limits plus an introduction somehow(likely from bait pails) of spiny water fleas which created a boom food supply for the perch which also started growing to jumbo sizes. The walleye in turn took advantage of the booming perch population and prey heavily on them growing to larger sizes as a result.

[calgarygringo]

I have several old style photos of those big footballs we used to catch. I have never seen another place with fish looking like those trout. We always expected a trout ot 2 over 10 lbs or it was a bad day fishing.

Originally Posted by madatter

They probably died of old age.....or cardiac arrest
Several people I know caught the big ones,they were so big they literally had no fight in them,just pulling in a big weight.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by AK47

"In 2000 and 2003, Pine Coulee Reservoir was stocked with walleye with the objective of creating a sustainable walleye fishery.

Sampling of stock levels since then have shown that the walleye population of Pine Coulee Reservoir has not established itself. That is, the growth rate has been very slow and there has been no population increase due to walleye born in the lake. The stocked walleye are now nearing the end of their lifespan"
https://www.alberta.ca/south-saskatc...nt-survey.aspx

So they were stocked 20 years ago yet remained same tiny size? Or could it be that these little guys are offspring of original stocking program? Weird that there is so many of them even after 6 years of keep 3 no size limit and tons of people fishing and keeping them. You would think that little reservoir close to Calgary with 3 keepers allowed would be fished out by now - which is obviously not. So what is exactly happening there?

Yes spawners are "typically" much larger .... so it could well be most of the fish in there are grossly stunted. This, in of of itself, will not make these fish sterile (although they will certainly be far less "viable" meaning capable of laying the same amount of eggs, having as many eggs "live", etc...)

The only way to know 100% is to sample the ages by otolith extraction and analysis (remove ear bone and count the age rings) .... that would definitely tell you how severe the stunting is.

It would NOT be unusual based on the density in this lake (as I see the same happening in Wabamun up here). I wouldn't be surprised, but I can't back it up with scientific evidence as I have not read if a study like this has been done, for this lake specifically.

I am, however, assuming someone did the study and provided that same data to fish and wildlife and, as a result, they concluded they are not spawning successfully.

Again, I have no evidence to say either way specific to PCR, I am just pointing out the "evidence" provided in the video is not "evidence" and, in fact, NOTHING, in that video shows evidence of spawning. In fact, it shows contradictory indicators.

[I’d rather be outdoors]

Originally Posted by EZM

Yes spawners are "typically" much larger .... so it could well be most of the fish in there are grossly stunted. This, in of of itself, will not make these fish sterile (although they will certainly be far less "viable" meaning capable of laying the same amount of eggs, having as many eggs "live", etc...)

The only way to know 100% is to sample the ages by otolith extraction and analysis (remove ear bone and count the age rings) .... that would definitely tell you how severe the stunting is.

It would NOT be unusual based on the density in this lake (as I see the same happening in Wabamun up here). I wouldn't be surprised, but I can't back it up with scientific evidence as I have not read if a study like this has been done, for this lake specifically.

I am, however, assuming someone did the study and provided that same data to fish and wildlife and, as a result, they concluded they are not spawning successfully.

Again, I have no evidence to say either way specific to PCR, I am just pointing out the "evidence" provided in the video is not "evidence" and, in fact, NOTHING, in that video shows evidence of spawning. In fact, it shows contradictory indicators.

Give it a try yourself next spring and judge. Regardless, they should keep dumping more trout in there!

[fish99]

In Lake macgregor after they first stock walleye the spawning males were very small and milking when caught on

[Smoky buck]

Ok after 20years since it was stocked realistically there is some level of spawning. Size of fish is not really the best indicator unless you are finding really small fish because as mentioned in another post poor growth rates can create stunted but viable populations

Stunted size but viable population are not uncommon and there is many examples throughout different species and regions

But producing eggs and milt also doesn’t mean there is successful spawning. Fish will go through the stages of spawning even if they can’t do so successfully.

Now if you can find large numbers of small fry that would show a lot more in the argument of viable spawning

[buckman]

Seems to me that the more trout they stock the bigger the spawning, and viable Pike population will get.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by buckman

Seems to me that the more trout they stock the bigger the spawning, and viable Pike population will get.

Trout are definitely a high fat high protein forage fish much better than perch

[buckman]

I love fishing for big (10 lb+) Pike Pine Coulee may become a place to find them soon.

[calgarygringo]

Why wait they have always been in there. Used to fish there occasionally and either catch or see people holding up a pike at their shoulders and the tail almost touching the ground.

Originally Posted by buckman

I love fishing for big (10 lb+) Pike Pine Coulee may become a place to find them soon.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by calgarygringo

Why wait they have always been in there. Used to fish there occasionally and either catch or see people holding up a pike at their shoulders and the tail almost touching the ground.

There are big pike in many locations that are commonly fished but they just don’t get caught that often

Big pike are older, pickier and often smarter than most give them credit though

I know of 20lbs plus pike caught out of a lot of waters that are not known to hold nice pike

[calgarygringo]

Yup.....and we dont tell either.

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

There are big pike in many locations that are commonly fished but they just don’t get caught that often

Big pike are older, pickier and often smarter than most give them credit though

I know of 20lbs plus pike caught out of a lot of waters that are not known to hold nice pike

[roper1]

We fished Pine Coulee today. First time ever. Had the little boat so no water depth but trolled the edges along the weeds. Caught 9 pike & 6 walleye in 3 hrs, nothing big

[dewalt18]

Originally Posted by roper1

We fished Pine Coulee today. First time ever. Had the little boat so no water depth but trolled the edges along the weeds. Caught 9 pike & 6 walleye in 3 hrs, nothing big

How were water levels?

[slabm7]

Originally Posted by dewalt18

How were water levels?

We fished at PCR on the weekend, no issues launching. Water was a little low but manageable.