Ice Fishing for Pan-Sized Rainbows at Chain Lakes Provincial Park

Let's face it. If you're not catching fish, ice fishing is boring. Ice fishing without fish is pretty much just sitting on a lawn chair in a cold parking lot. And without a flasher or a gas powered auger, it is difficult to employ a mobile hardwater fishing strategy to find fish. For us, we may try to better our chances by choosing a likely spot on a map but once we're setup with our holes drilled, we're pretty much stationary for the day.

That's why Chain Lakes Provincial Park is my favourite place to ice fish in Alberta. I'm not familiar with too many other Alberta ice fishing spots but that's largely because we really haven't wanted to go anywhere else.

A pretty little ice rainbow

Steve's dinner

This long coulee in Southwestern Alberta is stocked with rainbow trout every year making the ice fishing action fast and easy.

It's not unusual to pull out a feisty, pan-sized, trout the very first time you drop your bait down the hole. And, as it is legal in Alberta to fish with two lines through the ice, single-handed double-headers are a common occurrence.

Adam and a single-handed double-header

Another single-handed double-header

Even though the fishing at Chain Lakes is easy and fast, the best rig for consistently catching double digit numbers of fish is a 12" - 18" light ice-mono or fluorocarbon leader connected to the mainline by a tiny swivel, thus avoiding annoying line twist. On the end of the leader tie on a tiny, 1/64 to 1/32 oz., jig tipped with a piece of shrimp. For whatever reason, white is by far the best colour for jigs.

The most effective pattern I've found is to drop the rig right to the bottom, pause it in the silt for a few seconds and then raise it a foot or two off the bottom. Hits often come just as the jig is lifted off bottom. If there is no strike on the rise, twitch the jig a few times, hold still for around 30 seconds, and then drop it back onto bottom and repeat. Since the little trout hit lightly and quickly, much like perch, it is best to always have a rod in hand ready for the slightest nibble. Any hole drilled near the south end of the lake will produce fish.

Jessica and a rainbow

Katie and her trout

Not only is the fishing really fun, the drive out to the provincial park is a beautiful trip through the Alberta Foothills. Spotting wildlife is almost a given and on our last trip out, we even saw a pair of moose lazing in the brush just a couple hundred meters from the highway.

Maybe later this season we'll try dead baiting through the ice for some big Southern Alberta pike but it's good to know that Chain Lakes is just an easy drive away for a guaranteed fish fix.