Fishing Pine Coulee, a Fishery in Transition

 

Pine Coulee had a open Fishing policy(catch and keep)  over the last few years. The idea was to fish out all the walleye and Pike. This was to allow the introduction of stocked trout. A popular walleye and Pike venue until the decision to change, many walleye anglers are not happy with this.This fishing venue is open all year round presenting opportunities for both open water and hard water fishing (ice fishing) .

Getting to Pine Coulee Reservoir

Located about an hour south of Calgary straight down the number two Highway, just southwest of Nanton. Take westbound 527 about 5 or 10 minutes to reach the lake. The campsite is on the Southwest shore across the bridge.

This is a fairly long skinny lake several kilometers long and only a few hundred metres wide. I’ve only been there once so I don’t have exact depth numbers.  I could not find any reliable references in my research, under 30 FOW (feet of water) seems to be the consensus. In the summertime there can be large blue green algae blooms. This makes for poor visibility similar to eagle lake in late summer. 

 

Boat Launch

There is a boat launch  at this Lake. Sometimes the water level can be quite low so you may want to check out the local forums before heading out to boat. There are areas in the south end with rocks close to the surface, until you’re familiar with the lake use caution.

Provincial Campground

The campground at Pine Coulee reservoir has 25 RV and, a number of tent sites. There is power available here, garbage dump, fire pits and toilets. This campsite is actually very good for stargazing. I had heard about it on the provinces provincial campground site about that is definitely true. There is very little light pollution here. The tenting area I stayed in was well protected from the wind with a number of trees. This campsite site is right next to the lake of course, with a few sites on the lake. Additionally there is a dock right next to the campsite.

 

What Can You Catch ?

Available species as I mentioned above is changing right now minimal northern pike (jack fish)and, walleye of a smaller size 14-16 inches or so. The walleye never seem to reach decent size for their age in this lake. This is part of the reason fisheries decided to change it over to trout. Rainbow trout were introduced recently, so depending on how many survived it might turn into a good stocked lake in the future.

 

Pine Coulee Fishing Regulations

 

Pine Coulee Reservoir is located in Zone 1 eastern slopes ES1 (pg. 33 of the fishing guide 2018/2019). You can fish here all year round. As of the 2018-2019 fishing regulations you can keep three walleye over 50 cm and three pike there are no bait restrictions.

 

14,500 rainbow trout at 8.6 CM (3 ½ Inch) and 15,500 at 13.9 CM ( 5 inch) were stocked on October 16 2017 according to Mywildalberta . I see no reports of Trout stocked for 2018.  How well these stocked trout did remains to be seen. They may have been an expensive meal for the remaining Pike and walleye.

September 2019 Rainbow Trout Fish Stocking Update

I was just reviewing this article and figured I would see if any stocking happened this year. To my surprise there were 36,783 really small rainbows stocked on September 9 2019. These fish were 5.4 cm according to the fish stocking report. So if they do well there should be decent sized rainbow trout for summer. As for the ice fishermen, they might need smaller hooks. For more info check out this article on ice fishing for rainbow trout.