Gone Fishing- Pine Coulee

Slump Breaker                                                 PHOTO GALLERY

1700 Pro Sport Fishing Boat $20,000. 2 Trips to Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas $400.00. One Fishing license $22.00 3 trips prior to may 20 2007 and ZERO fish. I was getting ready to give up and sell all my gear on EBay if I didn’t start catching fish. I will admit that the weather in southern Alberta has been less than perfect this spring. My son Jake and I have been on three trips prior to Sunday and have not caught a fish!!

I know it’s early in the season and fishing with kids adds some challenge, but I knew I had to pick up some fish or I was going to lose my fishing buddy.  For kids, it’s a lot to do with catching and not so much about the fun of fishing. He is extremely good for his age and will spend long hours in the boat, as long as he has something to eat. They say, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” and this is true for kids like Jake as well. But I was starting to notice he was loosing motivation in spending a slow day on the water.

Sunday morning we left Calgary and headed for Pine Coulee west of Stavely. The Weather was cloudy and cool. I figured we might get out there and have to come back home due to rain. We arrived at the lake around 11am, the wind was calm and scattered clouds graced the blue sky all day. We started out drifting across a structural reef that goes from 25 ft of water to 13ft. I had a 3/8 jig head and a 4 inch plastic minnow on Jake’s rod, and I was bottom bouncing a Custom worm harness with a 6 inch plastic worm attached. We drifted this excellent piece of structure 3 times and nothing!

As We went around the corner and fished a point 25ft of water to 10ft in depth, We drifted off the first pass with a hit on the worm. Jake was busy eating potato chip’s so I started a quick retrieve with his rod and BOOM! Fish on! I passed the rod to Jake and hollered “reel em’ in Jake” and he proceeded to retrieve in our first fish of the day. The day got better and better with jigs and 4 inch plastic minnows being the hot ticket. We spent about for 5 hours on the water and it didn’t matter, what a day, fast or slow the fish hit the jig. Close to the end of the day I figured we would troll for some pike. Again I used 4 inch minnow by Rapala and didn’t pick up any pike but got 4-5 more walleye.

We got off the water around 4pm and we were both happy. I encourage you to head down to Pine Coulee; it’s an amazing fishery with the fish being relatively the same size. I’ve been here 2-3 times and had great results. I think it’s a great place to go with new people or if you need to break a Slump! All the best and keep your line tight!

Written By Ted. E.    (Edited by Bowriverblog.)