Pine Coulee Report

[Evil69]

Earlier this month I got a few messages about Pine coulee from folks looking for some info. It's a lake I don't normally fish so when my group this morning brought up the idea I figured why not give it a try. I had been on McGregor last night and caught 50+pike and walleye so I was up for the change of scenery and desperate to catch a keeper Ling.

The snow was blowing fierce and the drive in from the south end was rough to say the least. We arrived at first light and after digging a truck out of the ditch next to the entrance of the camp ground we loaded up our sleds. The gate is locked so no driving on to the lake, bummer, so much for our annual Family fishing day pancake breakfast on the ice.

We hit up a few promising spots in front of the camp ground and further south near the rocks that had produced some fish for the other members of our group earlier in the fall. We researched on Navionics for some saddles and structure that looked like prime walleye and burbot areas. We hit depths from 30 FOW to 5 FOW in sand, rocks and a weed bed looking for anything that swims. We tried an assortment of lures, jigs and bait but to no avail. After 7 hour between 4 guys with 3 cameras and 2 flashers I can report we saw ZERO fish. Yup nothing.

So the pine Coulee experiment was a bust for me. We saw some great looking habitat for walleye but I think they may have accomplished the goal of fishing that lake out....sad it only took 6 months. I know 90% of the fish are in 5% of a lake but we should have seen something. If you've had any success there I'd love to hear about it but for me that was my Last fishing trip to pine Coulee until the rainbows are established...in 2022.

I normally like to include pics with a report but really, who wants to see pics of snow and sunrises lol

Tight lines everyone and I hope you had a great Family Fishing Day Weekend

G

[calgarygringo]

So did you see any of the 30k stocked trout in there?

Originally Posted by Evil69

Earlier this month I got a few messages about Pine coulee from folks looking for some info. It's a lake I don't normally fish so when my group this morning brought up the idea I figured why not give it a try. I had been on McGregor last night and caught 50+pike and walleye so I was up for the change of scenery and desperate to catch a keeper Ling.

The snow was blowing fierce and the drive in from the south end was rough to say the least. We arrived at first light and after digging a truck out of the ditch next to the entrance of the camp ground we loaded up our sleds. The gate is locked so no driving on to the lake, bummer, so much for our annual Family fishing day pancake breakfast on the ice.

We hit up a few promising spots in front of the camp ground and further south near the rocks that had produced some fish for the other members of our group earlier in the fall. We researched on Navionics for some saddles and structure that looked like prime walleye and burbot areas. We hit depths from 30 FOW to 5 FOW in sand, rocks and a weed bed looking for anything that swims. We tried an assortment of lures, jigs and bait but to no avail. After 7 hour between 4 guys with 3 cameras and 2 flashers I can report we saw ZERO fish. Yup nothing.

So the pine Coulee experiment was a bust for me. We saw some great looking habitat for walleye but I think they may have accomplished the goal of fishing that lake out....sad it only took 6 months. I know 90% of the fish are in 5% of a lake but we should have seen something. If you've had any success there I'd love to hear about it but for me that was my Last fishing trip to pine Coulee until the rainbows are established...in 2022.

I normally like to include pics with a report but really, who wants to see pics of snow and sunrises lol

Tight lines everyone and I hope you had a great Family Fishing Day Weekend

G

[Evil69]

Nope,not a single fish of any species, we did see lots of small crayfish and freshwater shrimp. I did however hear from a friend this evening who fishes there a fair bit and he says he caught a 5 lb pike in January with two rainbows in its stomach, I can't confirm this as I have not seen a picture to prove it but I've known him a few years and he's not the Bovine excrement type.

[calgarygringo]

I dont doubt there are many pike and walleye enjoying lots of the new food in there. Finally gave them some real food to eat.

Originally Posted by Evil69

Nope,not a single fish of any species, we did see lots of small crayfish and freshwater shrimp. I did however hear from a friend this evening who fishes there a fair bit and he says he caught a 5 lb pike in January with two rainbows in its stomach, I can't confirm this as I have not seen a picture to prove it but I've known him a few years and he's not the Bovine excrement type.

[James Henry]

My son and I went there a week ago with the same results. We fished starting at the boat launch and worked out way north for about 500m fishing different depths. We could see the bottom up to about 12' and never saw a fish the whole day, even tried our go to spots.
Hopefully it was just barometric pressure, sorcery or some other simple explanation.
Tight lines guys
JH