Slump Breaker PHOTO GALLERY
1700 Pro Sport Fishing Boat $20,000. 2 Trips to Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas $400.00. One Fishing license $22.00 3 trips prior to may 20 2007 and ZERO fish. I was getting ready to give up and sell all my gear on EBay if I didn’t start catching fish. I will admit that the weather in southern Alberta has been less than perfect this spring. My son Jake and I have been on three trips prior to Sunday and have not caught a fish!!
I know it’s early in the season and fishing with kids adds some challenge, but I knew I had to pick up some fish or I was going to lose my fishing buddy. For kids, it’s a lot to do with catching and not so much about the fun of fishing. He is extremely good for his age and will spend long hours in the boat, as long as he has something to eat. They say, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” and this is true for kids like Jake as well. But I was starting to notice he was loosing motivation in spending a slow day on the water.
Sunday morning we left Calgary and headed for Pine Coulee west of Stavely. The Weather was cloudy and cool. I figured we might get out there and have to come back home due to rain. We arrived at the lake around 11am, the wind was calm and scattered clouds graced the blue sky all day. We started out drifting across a structural reef that goes from 25 ft of water to 13ft. I had a 3/8 jig head and a 4 inch plastic minnow on Jake’s rod, and I was bottom bouncing a Custom worm harness with a 6 inch plastic worm attached. We drifted this excellent piece of structure 3 times and nothing!
As We went around the corner and fished a point 25ft of water to 10ft in depth, We drifted off the first pass with a hit on the worm. Jake was busy eating potato chip’s so I started a quick retrieve with his rod and BOOM! Fish on! I passed the rod to Jake and hollered “reel em’ in Jake” and he proceeded to retrieve in our first fish of the day. The day got better and better with jigs and 4 inch plastic minnows being the hot ticket. We spent about for 5 hours on the water and it didn’t matter, what a day, fast or slow the fish hit the jig. Close to the end of the day I figured we would troll for some pike. Again I used 4 inch minnow by Rapala and didn’t pick up any pike but got 4-5 more walleye.
We got off the water around 4pm and we were both happy. I encourage you to head down to Pine Coulee; it’s an amazing fishery with the fish being relatively the same size. I’ve been here 2-3 times and had great results. I think it’s a great place to go with new people or if you need to break a Slump! All the best and keep your line tight!
Written By Ted. E. (Edited by Bowriverblog.)
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No baitfish in pine coulee- you can use smelts though- just for the future in case you ever get checked.
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Thanks John for the heads up on the regs here, I personally do not fish here as the fish are to small for me to make the drive, but I will pass this info on to my fishing friend who wrote the article for me. Happy fishing to you John, Mike.
John,
Your right on the bait issue. I should have stated 4″Â Berkley gulp minnow. my mistake. I’ve acually never used bait in Alberta. I’m actually finding alot of these plastic bait fish are as good, and sometimes out fish live bait. This year on my yearly trek to Lac Suel in Ontario, I’m thinking I might not buy a single minnow. I’ll let you know how that works!
Ted E.
hi how meny burbot are u aloud to keep i am going ther and in the rages they say there is only pike and waleye i no theres lots of burbot there plzz email me at jacob.pfeiffer@hotmail.com
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Jake I just asked my buddy over at the master angler how many Burbot you can keep and he said up to ten.
I hear they are yummy when cooked right,
Thanks,
~Mike.