Negative fish, tough driving conditions

Drewski Canuck · #1 03-19-2023, 05:42 PM

Was at Calling Lake on Saturday. Watched as a Warrior tried his best to drive a truck to VW Point. He was doing a good 80 km/h, and was throwing alot of snow as he broke a thick crust layer, until he powered out.

Access was only by sled for most of the lake because of the crust layer, and the frozen drifts.

The ice was still doable without an extension, but just barely. The bigger problem was the fish were somewhat negative. Lots of light hits, pickups where the fish had the hook and did not move until you jigged at which point they dropped the hook or were barely hooked in the first place.

Fishing to last light now means being on the ice to 9 PM, and there was no big bite at last light in front of the townsite.

The plus side is I met a neighbour, Ryan, who is also on AO. A prince of guy and Northwestern and I had a great visit with Ryan and his buddy!

I learned that there are river otters in the Rock Island River, which I was not aware of.

I popped over to Baptiste on Sunday and the drive on was fine at Whispering Hills, and the snow pack for some reason is only a few inches. There were small perch on the camera and even they were not at all aggressive.

Lets hope for a big finish for next weekend!

Drewski

ricky8fish · #2 03-19-2023, 06:14 PM

Thanks for the report Drewski! Was planning to drive up on Thursday +6C forecast. How far to VW point did your friend make before powering out? I would think the inflow of the Calling River. Should start to gather the fish, but that’s a Mile or two past the VW.

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Drewski Canuck · #3 03-19-2023, 07:41 PM

Eye balling it, I would guess a few miles if he came on at the Provincial Park. The irony is that a good set of tire chains could have made the difference.

That being said, I did high center on a frozen drift many years back on a 2 wheel drive truck with tire chains. All I did was spin the tires and chew through ice to the point where the rear differential was resting on the ice!!!

If the warm weather keeps up and there is a wind, the snow pack may drop but that creates alot of flood ice as well.

If you have a sled, that is the best bet right now.

Drewski

twitchjig · #4 03-26-2023, 08:33 PM

How was it this weekend ? any change in snow depth

ricky8fish · #5 03-26-2023, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twitchjig

How was it this weekend ? any change in snow depth

We could drive almost to where we wanted but if you leave the track it shovel time. No point going early nothing biting till dusk. That’s 730 -900 pm.

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Drewski Canuck · #6 03-26-2023, 09:06 PM

Fished Saturday with the terror of Thorhild, Northwestern!!

Dave had his holes cut and had a flurry of hits while I was still untangling my gear! He landed two smaller ones and then hooked up with something that was running hard and somehow took out about 10 yards of line before dropping the hook. He had 5 or 6 hits in a row and then the hole went dead.

Good thing he didn't bring his Wife with him or she would have showed up both of us!! That lady is a deadly fisherperson!!!!

The action would come in flurries. If there was a fish it was active, and there were roving bands of fish that would deliver a bunch of hits even after the bait was off. Some were at the upper end of the slot some under the slot, and a good number in the slot.

Secret was hole hopping to stay in the mobs of fish. When you got into a group it was fast, then it would die out until you got back into them. That might mean going 50 yards hole to hole. Then back through the holes to get back onto the fish.

We both agreed it was the best action of all winter.

As for getting around, on Saturday no one drove to VW point in a truck. Funny part was with the fog there was no one else at VW point either! We followed the GPS track in zero visiblity across the lake on sleds. The fog did lift as the day went on, but still no one came out other than F & W. Even at the front of the townsite it was very very quiet.

Maybe everyone was at the home and garden show???

Sunday was sunny and bright, but I was battling the assembly of a new BBQ so I did not fish.

Drewski

SNAPFisher · #7 03-27-2023, 10:25 AM

That is pretty crazy on the travel conditions. All the lakes I have been going to have been awesome for travel. Calling really is a butt kicker in that way.

Glad you guys got to get out and experience the end of season flurry!

Sooner · #8 03-27-2023, 11:54 AM

From the PP campground boat launch, how many km's is VW point? Always wanted to sled over and fish there but never have.

Slight derail and apologies. Mr Drewski, maybe you can answer a silly question, why does the Calling River never freeze over in the middle of winter? I have hunted 516 for over 20yrs and sled there each winter and that river is always flowing right by the lake where the highway crosses it. I have only seen it frozen over a few times in all those years yet if we hit it by cutline downstream on sleds, its frozen all the way to the Alpac rd.

SNAPFisher · #9 03-27-2023, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner

From the PP campground boat launch, how many km's is VW point? Always wanted to sled over and fish there but never have.

8 km as the crow flies.

Sea Hawk · #10 03-27-2023, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Fished Saturday with the terror of Thorhild, Northwestern!!

Dave had his holes cut and had a flurry of hits while I was still untangling my gear! He landed two smaller ones and then hooked up with something that was running hard and somehow took out about 10 yards of line before dropping the hook. He had 5 or 6 hits in a row and then the hole went dead.

Good thing he didn't bring his Wife with him or she would have showed up both of us!! That lady is a deadly fisherperson!!!!

The action would come in flurries. If there was a fish it was active, and there were roving bands of fish that would deliver a bunch of hits even after the bait was off. Some were at the upper end of the slot some under the slot, and a good number in the slot.

Secret was hole hopping to stay in the mobs of fish. When you got into a group it was fast, then it would die out until you got back into them. That might mean going 50 yards hole to hole. Then back through the holes to get back onto the fish.

We both agreed it was the best action of all winter.

As for getting around, on Saturday no one drove to VW point in a truck. Funny part was with the fog there was no one else at VW point either! We followed the GPS track in zero visiblity across the lake on sleds. The fog did lift as the day went on, but still no one came out other than F & W. Even at the front of the townsite it was very very quiet.

Maybe everyone was at the home and garden show???

Sunday was sunny and bright, but I was battling the assembly of a new BBQ so I did not fish.

Drewski

Drewski is so right about the action being hot and heavy. When the fish would turn on you did not even need to put on a minnow. They would hit the bare jighead.The only drawback is the ice thickness. I was barley able to get through without an extension. it sure felt strange to have the whole west end of Calling to ourselves.I am still hoping to get out one more time this week.

Drewski Canuck · #11 03-27-2023, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner

From the PP campground boat launch, how many km's is VW point? Always wanted to sled over and fish there but never have.

Slight derail and apologies. Mr Drewski, maybe you can answer a silly question, why does the Calling River never freeze over in the middle of winter? I have hunted 516 for over 20yrs and sled there each winter and that river is always flowing right by the lake where the highway crosses it. I have only seen it frozen over a few times in all those years yet if we hit it by cutline downstream on sleds, its frozen all the way to the Alpac rd.

If you get past the Two Mile Lake area it is in fact frozen, but the first part is moving at a good pace and moving water in volume does not freeze.

The fact that the Calling River has enough flow all year is what keeps the lake to a bearable amount of algae on the hot part of August. Every morning the water is clear as the algae layer at the very top shoots down the river to the Athabasca. In a high water year that little stream is really chugging along and keeps flushing out all the phosphate buildup to keep the water quality better than most Alberta lakes.

Drewski