Coal Lake Updates
 

Wondering if anyone has been to Coal Lake recently and how it went for them?

Searched the forums, found mostly everyone recommends it, but been a lot of recent posts stating that it is slowly dying away or not much action anymore.

Any updates from anyone who's been there this year?

Thanks

also what part of the lake have you been successful in?

I have fished Coal lake a few times this year, from shore (near the water treatment plant) and from a boat. Always have success catching but have never caught anything of legal size. I have casted from the boat and trolled spoons, near the shoreline. Mostly fish the south end of the lake but briefly explored the north end the other weekend and had luck there too. But if you're looking for sizeable pike, this is not the lake. At least in my experience.

I fish there lots. Caught a lot of fish! I think one was of legal size. None the less always had good luck never been skunked. But I haven't been there this year yet.


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Been there a couple times this year. Agree. Lots of 2 lbrs.

Is the water still low? I had high hopes for that lake producing trophy fish again when they changed the pike regulations but that hasn't seemed to be the case. Is it winter killing or what? That lake put out some really nice fish up into the late 90's.

There was enough water to spill over the spillway all spring. Haven't been there in a couple weeks now. Never seen any signs of winterkill. I watched the ice go out on the lake and never seen any floaters or fish on the shores.

I think lefty put up some pics of a good winterkill of suckers a few years ago.

Last winter a guy caught a 20lbs pike out of there. The odd big one in there. I had one that was putting up a good fight, had my drag set for the small pike. He grabbed the hook and ran hard bye the time I got the drag set it got off


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Yah suckers and pike was pretty aromatic then too. I haven't been out there this year yet.

Will easily catch 50-100:1 hammer handles to keepers out there. Almost every fish caught that meets the size requirements are kept....many that do not meet the requirements are kept too.

LC

When I fished it, its such a long lake that very few kilometers of it really got fished all that hard. In the spring though, it seemed like just about every pike in the lake would run through the culvert under the highway at the north end to spawn. We'd fish the biggest deadbaits we could find under a bobber and I can remember evenings where we'd land a half dozen pike over 10 lbs in just a few hours. Eventually everyone figured this out and within a few years of people lining the north end shoulder to shoulder all spring the big fish were gone. Sad that they haven't been able to make a comeback, if they haven't done it by this point then they probably never will.

Yup gotta say I agree. There was a wicked 10 lb or 35 inch pike year year class about ten years ago that got hit hard. They were nice thick agressive pike that would have been the ones to protect but we could keep three so lots of us did and they pretty much gone.

X2, the perch fishing used to be pretty good in that lake in the late 90's too....

I had the boat out at the south end on the 3rd and was pulling in hammer handles pretty steady, was my best day numbers wise this year so far.

The odd one in there still. Never caught one but had one chase my hook.


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