Pike

[Elkford]

I have always fished for trout and white fish and have never fished for pike. Where is a good place close to Calgary to try my luck. Any advise will be greatly appreciated. I just picked up a 9 wt rod so I would like to try it out. I have a small pontoon boat if that helps

[murray]

Welcome to the Forum, pike are a lot of fun on a fly rod. There are several places close to Calgary you can go. Think any of the irrigation system. If there is a body of water connected to the irrigation system it probably has Pike in it. The closest water I can think of is the Glenmore Resevoir. I'm not sure of the regulations as far as open or closed season so check that before you go but you should be able to pick up a few. Chestermere or Eagle lake come to mind as well as Twin Valley Dam south of Nanton are good choices.

Have fun, let us know how you make out.

 

Murray

[SanJuanWorm]

There are pike in the river bend ponds. The closest one to glenmore is the most popular.

[SilverDoctor]

A bit farther is McGreager & Badger lake

[alan2]

By coincidence I caught a pike last thursday in the Bow, about 24". I've only caught 3 in the Bow, all withing 100 yds of the same place. Upstream of that Lafarge cement plant at Glenmore where the river makes a bend by a gravel bar and duckpond. Slow water along there and using a wooly bugger. I was trying for trout (caught 1). They fight weird. They do a short sprint but not that much else compared to trout the same size.

[Kutney]

Most of the lakes i fish are easy to walk and wade and wade and usually you can walk around a large part and i have never needed a boat yet, I picked up lots of good knowledge from the guys at fish tales, the rig i use is the rio outbound line with the 12' clear sink and to that is about 4' 30 lb mono then i tie a albright knot to about 18" of 30 lb rio steal leader I find the rio easier to tie than the other brands, I usually fish the north end of the lakes in the later parts of the day because the sun warms up these areas of the lakes faster and usually the wind blows this direction which pushes food sources and warmer water in as well, generally fish between 5' and 15' of water although i have caught them in as little as 2' of water, after that its just figuring out a retrieve that they like and a color of streamer, I have indeed put in a lot of time finding new lakes and just pick one and fish it, you never know, this is the species I fish for when all the rivers are blown and its a blast.

Good luck I hope this helps.