Author Topic: April trout (Read 3473 times)

slicktrick · « **on:** Apr 04, 2015, 08:00 PM »

Going for some April trout anyone have any information on ranger lake herd it winter killed, second choice is burtlane

ran7ger · « **Reply #1 on:** Apr 04, 2015, 09:25 PM »

tried pear today. looked dead...again.

canada · « **Reply #2 on:** Apr 04, 2015, 11:33 PM »

guy in town catches some in 10 but he said wasn't great either.

sedge or dog??

sandman66 · « **Reply #3 on:** Apr 05, 2015, 11:20 AM »

Quote from: slicktrick on Apr 04, 2015, 08:00 PM

Going for some April trout anyone have any information on ranger lake herd it winter killed, second choice is burtlane

You heard Ranger winter killed this winter? I was kind of hoping there wouldn't be as much winter kill this year.

ggpr · « **Reply #4 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 12:21 AM »

I am planning to go up to piprell and camp for a few days. Anyone know what its like out there and up in the narrow hills area? I will keep in contact with the lodge there so i dont drive all the way up there to find out i cant even walk on. From when i spoke with them last week they figured the ice would still be good to walk on this weekend.

Anyone got any tips on what i should be using fishing for the stocked trout up there? Lures, bait etc etc would be very appreciated. My thoughts were either jig heads with bait or small to mid sized jigging spoons. Was thinking worms, minnows and trout bait, is any bait preferred?

Any advice on what other nearby (50-100 km max) lakes would be good to hit up if things werent hot at piprell or if we wanted to change it up?

It looks like we wont be too far from clarence steepbank provincial park, i know there was a few stocked trout lakes in there... Anyone have any idea how access would be and what lakes might be worth checking out?

slicktrick · « **Reply #5 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 12:43 AM »

Decided on going to burtlane for tigers and splake will post results in the evening
ggpr have not been into steep banks this year but first trout lake you come to will be Kit it will have rainbows found it slow in the past had better luck going into Ridge which is the second lake and it had brook trout

AngusMacHuge · « **Reply #6 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 08:37 AM »

Ridge winter killed the year before last. Kit was test netted last year and appears to have winter killed to some extent as well. I wouldn't bother making a trip in there. Piprell and Sealy will be the best bets.

slicktrick · « **Reply #7 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 07:13 PM »

Fished Burtlane for about 2 1/2 hours three hits and no fish moved to sealy 5 fish seen only one 15" brook pulled moved to Pine for 1/2 hour no fish seen moved to zed end no trout was a great day to be out

The Beachcomber · « **Reply #8 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 09:52 PM »

How was the ice conditions? Was it hard to get on the lake?

brownfish · « **Reply #9 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 10:43 PM »

zeden lake is not open in april

AngusMacHuge · « **Reply #10 on:** Apr 06, 2015, 11:17 PM »

A stocked lake has to be explicitly listed in the fishing regs or it is closed in April. Any stocked lake that has native species of sport fish will be closed for the off season, as well as a few others due to agreements with land owners and such.

SaskWatch · « **Reply #11 on:** Apr 07, 2015, 09:50 AM »

People always claimed that the perch in Zeden were transplanted illegally. I guess this wouldn't be correct or it would be open in April. I can't see them keeping it closed to protect the perch if they weren't native. Anyone have any reasons, other then the perch, why it wouldn't be open in April?

ggpr · « **Reply #12 on:** Apr 07, 2015, 11:15 PM »

Thanks for the help everyone, especially slicktrick for the report and tips!

We will probably start out and spend the first day and a half (or 2 full days) at piprell. depending on how the action is and whether we wanna change it up we will probably move to sealey for the remainder of the trip. if sealey is too slow we may jump to shannon or pine (or another easy access lake) for the remainder of the 3rd day.

Any tips of what lures and depths/structure to target?

I was thinking jig heads with bait and jigging small len thompson spoons are classic methods that should work?

I also have a variety of specialty ice fishing lures that i could try. An assortment of PK lures, buckshots, cicada reef runner and other blade baits, swedish pimple, jigging rap. Anything in particular that anyone would reccomend? For my tip up i think i will run my jaw jacker with a homeade 2 jig head (spaced about 8-12 inches apart) "pickeral rig". I think that covers my still line... I was planning to jig my rod, but am wondering if sometimes dead lines are better for trout?

In regards to piprell... if its walk on only... are we likely to have decent luck in the first main bay of the lake? Its about 440 m to the first narrows on the northern part of the lake. That wouldnt be too bad to walk at all... Going to the center of the lake is closer to 1.5 km which may be a bit much with all of our camping gear etc...

How about sealey? its about 1 km to where the lake opens up... if we are just dragging our fishing gear here that wouldnt be too bad. but if we could have an alright chance in the first couple hundred meters of the lake that would be nice too!

Thanks again everyone. I will be sure to post pics and write a report when we get back.

CaptainM · « **Reply #13 on:** Apr 07, 2015, 11:41 PM »

Good luck guys! Should be a good time.

SaskWatch · « **Reply #14 on:** Apr 08, 2015, 03:16 PM »

you will probably be able to still drive on by the weekend. I drilled holes on candle and the trout pond at candle and there was still 3ft on the main lake and two feet or more on the trout pond.

ggpr · « **Reply #15 on:** Apr 09, 2015, 07:18 PM »

Just curious if anyone knows about any other road access points on piprell besides the access at the north by rainbow lodge? Doesnt have to be right to the lake shore but perhaps something with a reasonable distance walking trail to the lake?

I see on the depth map from 1960 that there is a "Sawmill site" on the western shoreline. From the google satellite image there appears to be a "road" off the main access that goes south to this site. Does anyone know the quality of this road and if it would even be worth considering heading down if we wanted to access further south on the lake if we are walking on only. Has anyone been there? Is there a path through the bush to the lake shore?

not sure if we wanna take the truck out yet... will assess the situation in the field. If we do does anyone know if its typically safe to drive far south on the lake... is there known spots that are typically weaker?

The road appears to end right near that old sawmill site..

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/54%C2%B008'23.6%22N+104%C2%B054'49.2%22W/@54.139895,-104.913671,637m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

Here is the turnoff for it

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/54%C2%B009'12.9%22N+104%C2%B055'06.3%22W/@54.153596,-104.918423,636m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

One thing we are considering doing if the ice is still solid and we feel we can trust it when we arrive saturday is just taking the truck out on the ice with all the gear and offloading it near where we wanna camp and then take the truck back to shore. Not so sure if i trust leaving the truck on the ice over the weekend with these warming temps... would hate to have the shoreline weaken up significantly over the weekend and end up with the truck stuck out on the ice!!

Again, thanks for any help and good luck to whoever else is trying for trout this month!

brownfish · « **Reply #16 on:** Apr 09, 2015, 09:29 PM »

Quote from: SaskWatch on Apr 07, 2015, 09:50 AM

People always claimed that the perch in Zeden were transplanted illegally. I guess this wouldn't be correct or it would be open in April. I can't see them keeping it closed to protect the perch if they weren't native. Anyone have any reasons, other then the perch, why it wouldn't be open in April?

All waterbodies with any native game fish species are closed to angling in April whether the game fish were intentionally or unintentionally introduced. It is not so much to protect the perch as it is a matter of enforcement. If you could keep perch from a trout lake in April there would be no easy way to prove they didn't come from another lake.

All waters that are open year round are listed in the anglers guide in the special regulations section.

SaskWatch · « **Reply #17 on:** Apr 10, 2015, 10:18 AM »

I am not saying you should be able to keep any perch from Zeden, but if the perch are an invasive species, one would think they'd still allow you to target trout in the spring.

SaskWatch · « **Reply #18 on:** Apr 10, 2015, 05:32 PM »

Quote from: slicktrick on Apr 04, 2015, 08:00 PM

Going for some April trout anyone have any information on ranger lake herd it winter killed, second choice is burtlane

just talked to a guy at whiteswan. He caught a splake on ranger yesterday. So it hasn't been winter killed, at least not totally.....unless he caught the last one.

Water Wolf · « **Reply #19 on:** Apr 11, 2015, 12:41 AM »

Just curious, but have any of you ever tried ice fishing or open water fishing for trout in the
trout pond at Rowan's Ravine Provincial Park?

Are there even trout still in it? $:-\$

Last year I saw they had a working wind powered aerator, this year the blades are gone.

WW

gomwitdawind · « **Reply #20 on:** Apr 12, 2015, 04:51 PM »

Just got off the Tisdale Trout pond and was excited to see that it hadn't winterkilled. Seemed to be a healthy number of 10" brooks and rainbows in there! Caught one of each, and had a number of other strikes! It beat staying inside and watching T.V., LOL!

SaskWatch · « **Reply #21 on:** Apr 13, 2015, 06:45 AM »

Quote from: gomwitdawind on Apr 12, 2015, 04:51 PM

Just got off the Tisdale Trout pond and was excited to see that it hadn't winterkilled. Seemed to be a healthy number of 10" brooks and rainbows in there! Caught one of each, and had a number of other strikes! It beat staying inside and watching T.V., LOL!

Doesn't it depend what's on the TV? What if Fish Camp, starring your buddy Cody, were on? lol

gomwitdawind · « **Reply #22 on:** Apr 13, 2015, 11:34 PM »

Still take the trout pond, LOL!

SaskWatch · « **Reply #23 on:** Apr 14, 2015, 06:40 AM »

yeah, you're right. I'd probably rather wet a line in a gold fish bowl. Fishing is fishing!

ggpr · « **Reply #24 on:** Apr 17, 2015, 01:10 PM »

Was out last weekend, camped in the bush along the shore of the lake for 3 days/2nights. Fishing was a bit slow. I caught 3 splake and 1 sucker (which i hooked through the side by my own effort alone, the fish was not biting!), my buddy sadly did not catch anything. The fish that did bite seemed pretty aggressive and if they missed would come back multiple times to bite the hook... but then we would have trout swim inches away from our hook and not care at all. The water was incredibly clear up there, you could easily see everything down well over 10 feet just looking down your hole. I got to watch 2 splake fight over my hook, circling around it taking nips at it.... after i caught the one i tried my best to get the line back down the hole to get the other one but it had left by then.

It seemed like fishing was slow for most ppl over the weekend. Maybe one group on saturday caught like 4-5 fish...

The ice was pretty decent when we were there but rotting pretty steady. We drove on the lake all 3 days but on the third day we fished the main bay and dropped our gear off and then put the truck on shore in case the ice got too bad. There was lots of vehicles out on the lake over the weekend. Shoreline ice was pretty decent considering but definitely that was the weakest area. The ice out in the center of the lake was typically 2 to 3 feet. I dont think i would have kept driving on it too long after last weekend though.

I think my next time out fishing will either be in a boat or on the river, good luck with the open water season everyone!

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Author Topic: April trout (Read 3473 times)