Alberta Walleye

[szomo.ca]

With the lack of bass in Alberta , i have moved forward and decided to finally nail this fish that for the life of me has always always been a difficult fish to catch.

However eventually with patience , and some good advice and all the techy gadgets within reach I finally have this going very well and even consider running in the SAWT ( Southern Alberta Walleye Tournament Trail ) Yes I am that excited about my new found sport fish which might very well be the most saught after fish , even more so then salmon and rainbows .

Theres a certain appeal to fishing walleye as far as i can remember welding a fishing rod. The typical observations , myths , what works what doesnt . Always was of interest to me because it was the one fish i could never go out and fish for with some success.

From my observations now ?

Personally I haven't really found the bite much better at night infact for me much worse. They most definetly are not in deep water at all times nore are they as light sensitive as people suggest. I have caught walleye on bright sunny days now in 7 ft of water or even less sometimes. In fact recently my outings showed the strongest bite around lunch hour and morning , with the evening going hit or miss.

Good depths for me seem to range around 11 - 18 ft , i look for structure and rock piles . I did catch a monster last year on Erie in the Sandusky BASS event on jagged rock piles and since then i realized that these fish can often be under our noses and go without a sniff of fishing pressure.

Trolling and down rigging seem extensive for walleye in my eyes . These fish dont fight like a smallmouth or a pike or muskiy. Unless you catch a 10 + and even so you might be dragging this fish around the lake before you realize its on.

Anyways , recently i made the trip out to Crawling Valley Reservoir in Alberta and had a few great outings. Caught lots of walleye and in fact managed to keep pike off my line entirely which sets a new high for me .


Anyways , attached are some photos , some of my trips i had to shoot the photos myself with an iphone so might not be the best.

[Woody]

Looks a nice Rod on the middle pic.

[cbiegel]

Looks like you're getting them dialed in. I wish we had them around here as so many people say they are one of the best eating freshwater fish.

[Clive]

CB - once you eat walleye you wont bother with fish like perch, bass and pike!

[szomo.ca]

The rod is a Shimano Crucial with a Sahara running 10 lb Suffix Flurocarbon line. I love Crucials with the split grip , my 3 fav combos all in spinning are a med hvy 6'8 for dropshot and rigs , a med hvy 7'2 for tubes and rigs, and a 6'2 for jerkbaits and flukes/ senkos etc .... many have multi purpose but they do tailor to specific fishing im doing and the action on all the rods is always superfast.

Yeah folks love walleye , we actually only have 800 lakes in alberta and alot of them are restricted with no limits unless you have a special tag which you get by lottery then its 1 tag per fish. Theres 2 lakes i know of off the bat that allow you to keep walleye , theres plenty more in alberta. Its just the ones that are completely closed off have some phenomical catch and release action to be had and ocassional 7 - 11 lbers are very possible ....

[Woody]

800 Lakes?...That's absolutely mental!...I can't even imagine the scale of the places you lot live in. :scratch_ones_head:

[araret]

800 Lakes?...That's absolutely mental!...I can't even imagine the scale of the places you lot live in. :scratch_ones_head:


Lol Woody, Manitoba has more than 100 000 lakes and Ontario has 250 000 lakes (who knows if wikipedia is correct >_>). It's all because of how Canada is shaped geologically. Most of them are unaccessible except through airplanes though, and the ones that are accessible are often heavily pressured. But then again, there IS a big choice of which heavily pressured lake you want to go to :yes:. There's almost always a dozen cottages on each lake, and a cottage usually means a fisherman.

I wish I could catch some walleyes. The last lake I visited had almost no walleyes, mostly lake trout and SM bass. Never had the chance to catch a big one yet (I had this funny catch with a 3/16oz little cleo, and this 5 inch walleye fry bit it - lol)

[Woody]

That many Lakes cant even register in my brain, spoilt for choice!

[pierre]

Damned! i think i've choosen the wrong country. In the near about the only thing you can catch near a river if yoy get lucky is a dengue fever or a simpson fish with three eyes.

[Sanj]

...a simpson fish with three eyes.



http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/862603--deformed-fish-found-in-lake-downstream-from-oilsands?bn=1

[araret]

...a simpson fish with three eyes.



http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/862603--deformed-fish-found-in-lake-downstream-from-oilsands?bn=1


Doi!!! I am majoring in Mineral Engineering at U of Toronto. I might actually take a co-op term in the oil sands this year... dunno how much I wanna go, now that the lake and river is so polluted (cause I do eat my catches).

[cbiegel]

Sounds like you are perfectly positioned to look into just these issues. I totally understand that academic studies are pretty carefully focused but I say you fish your local area and do some of your own testing.

[jwm]

Nice walleye Martin!

Araret, I saw that story and if thats in your field it would be a pretty awesome thing to do co-op or not. Even if it meant you couldn't eat your catch.

[szomo.ca]

Pick and choose your lakes , im making due with my options. There is a pretty interesting history in Alberta for Bass fishing though !

Early on they attempted to stock some lakes with small mouth bass ... the problem was sometimes the water temperature would not make it to 65 until mid summer sometimes never and this would pretty much eliminate a proper spawn . This would eventually kill off any populations which would reside and the fish just dissapeared.

Though there is rumour that 1 lake in alberta just happened to retain its bass and even produce some good sizes. Its called Island Lake and its near Edmonton. People claim its been winter killed , even of its pike but some say they still exsist, who knows !! I'd bet my money that some of these lakes in Southern Alberta could most definetly hold bass but they dont play that game around anymore.


The lakes i fish look pretty darn clean , it depends where you go but theres no doubt the river system might pick up alot from the city on the south side. Only thing is , would it be any better or worse then the detroit river ? probly not that polluted ...