Pigeon lake report

[Curtsyneil]

First off a 12 lbs white fish would beat the current alberta record which is 11 and some change I believe caught from buck lake. There’s no doubt that there’s 10 lbs whites in pigeon but very rare I’m thinking and without listing a picture with length on a bump board I have a hard time believing that your son caught that 10.5 lbs white. Just not credible imho with out a picture and why wouldn’t you get that fish stuffed considering it’s a trophy fish that’s only 1 pound off the current record. Seems fishy to me.

[Dom4]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for you. Let me preface this by saying I am not asking for GPS coordinates. I have some spots that I have had success in the past with whites however this winter I have had no luck at all. All I am wondering is are you in really deep water or shallow or sandy or weedy bottom?
I have always in the past had really good luck in around 5-8 feet of water and really sandy bottom but it doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

[Curtsyneil]

Originally Posted by Dom4

Hey guys, I have a quick question for you. Let me preface this by saying I am not asking for GPS coordinates. I have some spots that I have had success in the past with whites however this winter I have had no luck at all. All I am wondering is are you in really deep water or shallow or sandy or weedy bottom?
I have always in the past had really good luck in around 5-8 feet of water and really sandy bottom but it doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Go through the whole thread and read every post your answer is in the thread.

[fish99]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

First off a 12 lbs white fish would beat the current alberta record which is 11 and some change I believe caught from buck lake. There’s no doubt that there’s 10 lbs whites in pigeon but very rare I’m thinking and without listing a picture with length on a bump board I have a hard time believing that your son caught that 10.5 lbs white. Just not credible imho with out a picture and why wouldn’t you get that fish stuffed considering it’s a trophy fish that’s only 1 pound off the current record. Seems fishy to me.

Catching the new Alberta record is what i am after. I don’t post pictures anymore as some ass aways find something to complain about.

[Curtsyneil]

Originally Posted by fish99

Catching the new Alberta record is what i am after. I don’t post pictures anymore as some ass aways find something to complain about.

Yup I’m still not a believer. It’s funny that your after the alberta record now considering 3 years ago you didn’t have a sniff on how to catch a white in pigeon lake.

[fish99]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

Yup I’m still not a believer. It’s funny that your after the alberta record now considering 3 years ago you didn’t have a sniff on how to catch a white in pigeon lake.

Lol. Must be a fast learner

[Curtsyneil]

Originally Posted by fish99

Lol. Must be a fast learner

Well eventually every blind squirrel finds a nut.

[Hunter Trav]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

Well eventually every blind squirrel finds a nut.

You just have to know who to follow on the lake...

[Soiler]

Originally Posted by Hunter Trav

You just have to know who to follow on the lake...

😂 And that is why I switch the vehicles that I take out on the ice every now & then, just in case. Lol

[SNAPFisher]

Pigeon was rockin it yesterday. Quit at 5 on the ice and went home early even though the action was still hot. Saw all 3 year classes big, medium and small. Mostly small whites though. But hey, this ain't no healthy fishery

[RACKER]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

Pigeon was rockin it yesterday. Quit at 5 on the ice and went home early even though the action was still hot. Saw all 3 year classes big, medium and small. Mostly small whites though. But hey, this ain't no healthy fishery

Looks like ya had a great day even in a hurricane and a poor day on the fishing calendar. Just goes to show if you’re not out there you won’t catch anything. Nice work.

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

Pigeon was rockin it yesterday. Quit at 5 on the ice and went home early even though the action was still hot. Saw all 3 year classes big, medium and small. Mostly small whites though. But hey, this ain't no healthy fishery

Awesome, thank you for sharing. I only saw one blow past the hole on Friday but that is all. I guess like anything with time you will figure them out haha. It is nice to see different sizes of them coming out.

[-JR-]

Is there a spot to get on at Ma-Me-O Beach, and are there any ice shacks around there .

[WayneChristie]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

First off a 12 lbs white fish would beat the current alberta record which is 11 and some change I believe caught from buck lake. There’s no doubt that there’s 10 lbs whites in pigeon but very rare I’m thinking and without listing a picture with length on a bump board I have a hard time believing that your son caught that 10.5 lbs white. Just not credible imho with out a picture and why wouldn’t you get that fish stuffed considering it’s a trophy fish that’s only 1 pound off the current record. Seems fishy to me.

pretty rude post, calling someone a liar. Ive caught whites over 10 pounds, in 2 lakes around here but that was years ago, Id bet there are bigger ones around now.

[SNAPFisher]

Made a back out this morning to Pigeon. No wind
From 7:45 to 10:30 a.m. it was constant action. Packed up and was gone before noon. 9 whites landed kept 2 and released the rest. One just shy of 3 lbs and one exactly 6 lbs. Got some bigger ones today but still seen a lot of smaller whites which is fine by me.

Hammerfest weekend is officially over and moving on to other lakes. Pigeon's been good this year.

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by RACKER

Looks like ya had a great day even in a hurricane and a poor day on the fishing calendar. Just goes to show if you’re not out there you won’t catch anything. Nice work.

Yeah, I was hoping to that they would feed before the temp drop and it seems it was the case. Really it was only slow from 10-11 a.m. but the rest was constant fish and sometimes frenzies where there would be 4-5 of them around. Crazy good!

[Alberta1994]

Anybody been on at mulhurst the last couple of days??? Conditions still seem favorable for driving out from the launch?? Thanks

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

First off a 12 lbs white fish would beat the current alberta record which is 11 and some change I believe caught from buck lake. There’s no doubt that there’s 10 lbs whites in pigeon but very rare I’m thinking and without listing a picture with length on a bump board I have a hard time believing that your son caught that 10.5 lbs white. Just not credible imho with out a picture and why wouldn’t you get that fish stuffed considering it’s a trophy fish that’s only 1 pound off the current record. Seems fishy to me.

The current record whitefish is not the biggest ever taken in the province. Just the last century. Long way to go to beat the biggest ever weighed.

In the early 1800's, about 1809 or 1810, David Thompson was at Lac St. Anne during the netting season. First Nations women served him three 5 lb. whitefish and were disappointed that he did not eat them all in one sitting. David weighed the biggest whitefish that was in the nets while he was there and the biggest whitefish weighed 18 lbs. He used a proper scale and had no reason to lie in his journals.

And your comment about mounting a big fish it's not always about mounting the fish. About 10 years ago I went to buy some whitefish from a man that was netting at Pigeon. I bought 50 whites for 75 cents each. He had a huge pike in the nets too. He sold me that pike for 10 bucks. It weighed 31 lbs. and 5 ounces. I took the pike home and proceeded to fillet the fish with no thoughts of getting it mounted. Would have made a tremendously nice mount but for me it was all about the meat.

[dragon]

Props to the guys fishing that had their ol' lady trained to run from the vehicle and take pictures every time they caught a fish. What's your secret?... not the fish... to get your wife to do that?

[Drewski Canuck]

Can the successful Pigeon Lake whitefish fishermen tell me if they are finding blood worms in the stomachs of the fish they are catching?

We had success on all variety of fish and big fish at Calling lately, and a perch barfed up a pile of 1 inch long bloodworms??? Very red to reddish brown and rather thin, so now we are trying to match the hatch on them to see if it works better than what we have been catching on so far.

Funny thing is the big white I caught at Calling did not have a pronounced hump on the back like the Pigeon Lake fish in the pictures. Just long, thick, and deep bodied.

I suspect that there is an Alberta Record swimming in there. But to catch them consistently is the puzzle.

Drewski

[dryflyguy]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

Pigeon was rockin it yesterday. Quit at 5 on the ice and went home early even though the action was still hot. Saw all 3 year classes big, medium and small. Mostly small whites though. But hey, this ain't no healthy fishery

I can smell this picture, the mix of fish and newspaper...bring up good memories!

Nice fish!

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Can the successful Pigeon Lake whitefish fishermen tell me if they are finding blood worms in the stomachs of the fish they are catching?

We had success on all variety of fish and big fish at Calling lately, and a perch barfed up a pile of 1 inch long bloodworms??? Very red to reddish brown and rather thin, so now we are trying to match the hatch on them to see if it works better than what we have been catching on so far.

Funny thing is the big white I caught at Calling did not have a pronounced hump on the back like the Pigeon Lake fish in the pictures. Just long, thick, and deep bodied.

I suspect that there is an Alberta Record swimming in there. But to catch them consistently is the puzzle.

Drewski

I'm sure there are some blood worms and this should be the norm for most lakes but for Pigeon it is all freshwater shrimp. They are packed full of them and likely because that is the predominant food source. So it is a bit of anomaly in that regard. Shrimp must be very high in calories

If I was on any other lake where I didn't know what they were taking yet, for sure I would be using a san juan worm (blood worm) imitation to start. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction.

[Curtsyneil]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Can the successful Pigeon Lake whitefish fishermen tell me if they are finding blood worms in the stomachs of the fish they are catching?

We had success on all variety of fish and big fish at Calling lately, and a perch barfed up a pile of 1 inch long bloodworms??? Very red to reddish brown and rather thin, so now we are trying to match the hatch on them to see if it works better than what we have been catching on so far.

Funny thing is the big white I caught at Calling did not have a pronounced hump on the back like the Pigeon Lake fish in the pictures. Just long, thick, and deep bodied.

I suspect that there is an Alberta Record swimming in there. But to catch them consistently is the puzzle.

Drewski

I’ve caught a bunch of whites from pigeon with worms in the stomach and it was a mixture of red, green, brown, teal looking color wire worms. But as of lately no worms in them just shrimp I also think the ones that had the worms in them were more bottom feeders than mid column feeders.

[lakerman]

I fish a paticular lake that you can't see down 2 feet with all the shrimp, the fish are literally throwing up the buggers, I have shrimp jigs its time to drink the kool aide.

[Drewski Canuck]

I'm glad that the whites are on at Pigeon. Used to be 100,000 pd commercial quotas on whites on alot of Alberta lakes.

Thinning out the whites is a good idea when there is no commercial netting any more. Do not feel bad about keeping some whites if you go out. They are great on the table, and very prolific spawners.

The freshwater shrimp will make the fish great tasting and are an incredible forage base.

Drewski

[pikeman06]

I got my limit in an hour and a half on Monday. A little deeper than I prefer to fish, but filled the smoker with 10 nice whites. Almost too fat and greasy, but not complaining. Sent my buddy to the same spot and he went 2 days without a fish. Go figure.

[SNAPFisher]

[Curtsyneil]

I’m not surprised to hear that the lake was on fire from the middle of January till February. I’ve always thought January was the best time for pigeon whites specially when they hit the basin to put the feed on, simply the best fishing all year. I’m also not shocked to hear a guy gets a limit in one day and the next couple days buddys go out with little to no success. When the bite goes hot for 3 weeks straight it’s just a matter of time and when there biting you best get out there. 2 years ago the numbers where great also but I have not seen the lake this hot since April fishing was still happening for those extra 15 days. Even heard from a buddy that guys were catching perch in the basin. Tight lines.

[pikeman06]

Originally Posted by Curtsyneil

I’m not surprised to hear that the lake was on fire from the middle of January till February. I’ve always thought January was the best time for pigeon whites specially when they hit the basin to put the feed on, simply the best fishing all year. I’m also not shocked to hear a guy gets a limit in one day and the next couple days buddys go out with little to no success. When the bite goes hot for 3 weeks straight it’s just a matter of time and when there biting you best get out there. 2 years ago the numbers where great also but I have not seen the lake this hot since April fishing was still happening for those extra 15 days. Even heard from a buddy that guys were catching perch in the basin. Tight lines.

Never seen the lake so clear, caught them on bare brass castmaster and 2 on the small white jiggin Rapala.
Gave my buddy my exact riggins and spot and he didn't even mark a fish for 2 days!

[Unregistered user]

Originally Posted by fish99

Lol. Must be a fast learner

100% correct.