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Old 07-09-2017, 06:33 PM
Sarah-Mae Sarah-Mae is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: St Albert, AB
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Default Lacombe Lake Dog Park Experience - Stocked Trout and Surprises

Lacombe Lake Dog Park is located in St Albert and the lake in the park is stocked almost annually with rainbow trout.

Here is mine and my friends surprising experiences with a lake that has been a lot of fun and one I recommend for families who want to get their kids interested in fishing.

The location itself is very accessible, with a large parking lot, benches, picnic tables, an indoor shelter with clean and stocked washrooms. These features are what makes it so nice to take young kids.
The lake is fenced in a lot of areas to keep the banks stable, but there are enough areas to fish from that you don't have to wait for others to move. The spots are easy enough to get down to the waters edge when you go to land your fish as well.

There is a fountain in the middle of the pond which helps aerate the pond. On Canada day at around 1-2PM the fountain stopped and since being back their once (July 3rd) it was not been back on. I plan on phoning the city about the issue as I assume it changes the fishes behavior and makes them very lethargic from the lack of oxygen.

This is an off leash dog park so expect dogs to come up to you when you're fishing. As long as you're not fishing where the "beach" area for the dogs is (it's clear where this spot is) then you shouldn't have dogs coming into the water where you're fishing. This is not a guarantee and has happened to us but without any incident.
Do keep your tackle box CLOSED. Dogs love the fishy smell and will lick your spoons, spinners, lures and powerbait covered hooks when given the chance!

The water here is fairly murky because of the sediment the dogs will kick up in their area. I don't find it that bad when I wear some polarized sunglasses.

Their is stocked rainbow trout but there are at least 3 large koi like fish (an orange, mostly orange with black spots, and an off white) along with some very bright orange/reddish goldfish we have seen once. There is at least a pair of muskrats that call this little lake home along with a variety of bird life. People have started bringing their kids down to catch crayfish along the shore as it begins to warm up.
Their are a number of small fry and I believe some decent sized trout fry right now as well.

At times you will find dead fish along the bank, either from being poorly hooked and left behind, killed by birds, etc. This is not every time and the fish look healthy enough for stock fish.

I've been fishing at this dog park four times over the course of a month during a few times of day. We have caught and released almost all these fish, other than a couple that got foul hooked. We have managed to give those to others fishing in the area.

Most of the fish caught we don't measure/weigh as they are 12 inches or smaller. The times recorded are approximate. All fish I have recorded here are just what was landed. There were plenty of almost's every time we went.
My friend did catch his personal best rainbow trout in this pond!
Here is a breakdown of what we caught and when.

June 12th, 2017
Me: 7:55PM, small rainbow trout
(we arrived at around 6:45PM and stayed till around 8:45PM)

June 15th, 2017
Friend: 8:30PM, 4lb 16in rainbow trout
Friend: 8:50PM, small rainbow trout
Me: 9:10PM, small rainbow trout
(we arrived at around 7:45PM and stayed till around 9:45PM)

July 1st, 2017 (HAPPY CANADA DAY! Fountain stopped at 1-2PM)
Me: 9:40AM, small rainbow trout
Me: 10AM, small rainbow trout
Me: 10:35AM, small rainbow trout
Friend: 2PM, small rainbow trout
Me: 2:40PM, small rainbow trout
Friend: 4:10PM, small rainbow trout
(we arrived at 9AM and left shortly after our last fish as it started to storm at this point)

July 3rd, 2017 (No fountain still)
Friend: 7:38PM, small rainbow trout
(We arrived at 7:30PM and landed this guy right away, we stayed till 8:45PM as we didn't even get a bite after 8PM)

Here is a picture of my friend's personal best caught at the park!


So this is our experience with this small lake. We have really enjoyed ourselves and will continue to visit it as it is so close to home. We hope that the fountain gets fixed soon.

If you've fished here how was your experience? It's not a super exciting place to go fishing by any means, but do you think you'd check it out?

Last edited by Sarah-Mae; 07-09-2017 at 06:49 PM. Reason: Added Photo of Fish
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Old 07-09-2017, 07:00 PM
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Timidhc Timidhc is offline
 
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Location: Red Deer, Alberta
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Not an exciting place with Trout that big?!?!
I can only imagine the fight he put up if you were using light tackle for those smaller rainbows. I'll definitely be checking it out before the summers over.
If you see me fishing say hi. Ill be the guy with a go pro strapped to his forehead lol.
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Old 07-09-2017, 08:14 PM
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EZM EZM is offline
 
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Location: Edmonton
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Great post. I hope most people can take their kids out and teach them the love of the outdoors. These places are great for that but it seems like a shame to me some of these great little spots become a family feed festival. I hate seeing a half dozen people pulling buckets and buckets of fish out of a little pond (despite it being 100% legal to do so).

Keep one and eat it - I support that.

Either way - a word of advice - be careful how much info you share on specific locations (especially those in or near the city) - sometimes the internet can have a dramatic impact on the fishing pressure. I've seen 2 lakes go from quiet great little fisheries into shoulder to shoulder people destroying the lake within a season of a post similar to this.
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Old 07-09-2017, 08:36 PM
Sarah-Mae Sarah-Mae is offline
 
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Location: St Albert, AB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Timidhc View Post
Not an exciting place with Trout that big?!?!
I can only imagine the fight he put up if you were using light tackle for those smaller rainbows. I'll definitely be checking it out before the summers over.
If you see me fishing say hi. Ill be the guy with a go pro strapped to his forehead lol.
That was the most exciting trout! Generally it's pretty chill fishing but that day was intense! Literally the day before we bought that net and thank goodness! We needed it!
Lol, I'll say hi for sure! It's hard to miss someone with a go pro strapped to them. ;P
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Old 07-09-2017, 08:44 PM
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Talking moose Talking moose is offline
 
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Great report!
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Old 07-09-2017, 08:53 PM
Sarah-Mae Sarah-Mae is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: St Albert, AB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EZM View Post
Great post. I hope most people can take their kids out and teach them the love of the outdoors. These places are great for that but it seems like a shame to me some of these great little spots become a family feed festival. I hate seeing a half dozen people pulling buckets and buckets of fish out of a little pond (despite it being 100% legal to do so).

Keep one and eat it - I support that.

Either way - a word of advice - be careful how much info you share on specific locations (especially those in or near the city) - sometimes the internet can have a dramatic impact on the fishing pressure. I've seen 2 lakes go from quiet great little fisheries into shoulder to shoulder people destroying the lake within a season of a post similar to this.
Thank you! I can see your concern but generally people are not keeping the fish the times we've been there. A lot of people don't catch any fish either so I'm not too worried.
The lake is filled in part by run off from the storm drains and dog grunge so I'd say most are not too keen on eating the fish there. We even had other locals warning us not to eat the fish. Like you said, one to keep and eat is fine.

Yeah, I was concerned about that as well. I would love if more of the lakes in this area were stocked so we weren't stuck to one location inside the city other than the Sturgeon River which is only fishable in parts. Maybe people will manage to destroy this spot but I hope not.
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Old 07-09-2017, 08:53 PM
Sarah-Mae Sarah-Mae is offline
 
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Location: St Albert, AB
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Originally Posted by Talking moose View Post
Great report!
Thanks! Hope to have more in the future!
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