The arctic blast of cold weather really settled in for our last day of ice fishing for Northern Pike.  Fishing at these temperatures always poses a bit of a challenge with the speed at which holes freeze, hands freeze and fish freeze. The extreme cold also seemed to push the fish off the shallower weedy flats we usually find them cruising in the winter.  After moving out to a main lake point adjacent to a large mid depth flat we finally hooked up with a decent pike.  Out in 20 to 30 feet of water we marked plenty of fish that just had no interest in chewing what we had to offer at all.  While this was a slow day with only three flags we managed to hook and land every fish.  This does not happen every day, so I consider ourselves lucky.  Espescially on this lake.  Pinehurst lake in Alberta is notorious for being a tough lake to ice fish and during a cold snap they can have a serious case of lock jaw.  Now that pike and walleye are closed to retention I suspect we may see an increase in pike size.  The walleye may be a bit on the skinny size, but the big pike still seem to be finding enough food and always have a nice fat belly.  I think this lake woud best be suited for a slot limit of both walleye and pike.  There are plenty of fish and apparently elevated mercury levels anyways.  So why keep the big fish.  Let the go and let them grow.  Let the people keep some of the smaller fish to retain some of the forage in the lake to allow those big fish to put on some serious weight in a protected environment.  That's only my oppinion though and I'm sure many of you have different ideas of how things should run.  I just know that when Pinehurst was wide open for Pike and walleye we were still catching lots of fish with some serious girth on them.  Maybe one of these days the fisheries department of Alberta will start managing for qualitity fisheries rather than an ethereal number of fish per lake.  Our lakes cannot be managed for catch rates as we see what has happened, every other fish in the lake suffers  to allow walleye the space to dominate in numbers. 

Good video and I liked your write up and input Brandan, we agree on what you have to say.

Thanks!  Maybe we will see some changes in future management.

Nice pike. That lake would do well with what you propose Brandon.


When I was 20 ish, my friend and I were invited to Pinehurst by another friend. Mud bay, spawn and holy hell did I learn what big walleye were. Caught a 13 lb pike to off the sandy beach too that trip. Fishing in swells so big you could not see your marker floating, you didn't want to leave. Pinehurst became a go to for years. Loved that lake. Even camped in the ditch before the campground a few times(slept under a truck canopy) cause you could never find a stall.


The only other walleye fishing that ever compared to that was our Graham lake trips on the May long. And the first couple years after they opened up Calling lake.