Shaking off the Winter Angler Blues

Winter weather has certainly been in the news lately. From crazy ice storms in Ontario to record ice coverage on the Great Lakes and even winter driving chaos in the American Deep South, this winter has been something else.

Even though winter seems to have been more harsh all over North America than here in Southern Alberta, it's easy to start feeling the cabin fever creeping in, especially if you're an angler. Even if the weather is cooperating, most of our favourite spots are closed or too dangerous to fish.

That's not to say we haven't been catching fish. We've had fun days down at Chain Lakes Provincial Park and despite my recent skunking at Lower Kananaskis Lake in the edge of the Alberta Rockies, my friend Peter caught the biggest bull trout I've ever seen in person.

A couple more Chain Lakes trout on the ice

I can think of worse places to get skunked than on Lower Kananaskis Lake

Peter and his Lower K bull trout. This pig barely fit through the hole.

Just last weekend, my friend Ivan invited us back to ice fish the little private lake where we spent the last nice day of fall drifting in the sun catching big rainbow trout (read about that day here). Again, the lake was productive and I managed to pull a couple of big trout through the ice as well as a mess of little perch that we weren't allowed to put back as they had been illegally introduced some years ago. I usually don't keep many fish but my wife and I had a blast filleting and frying the little fish for dinner.

A nice rainbow through the ice

Another ice rainbow

A mess of tasty little perch

So, I may not be able to troll around beautiful Canadian Shield lakes or wade through pristine free stone mountain streams for at least a few more months but if this is the worst it gets, we're pretty damn fortunate to be anglers in Canada. It beats having to sleep in your car after getting caught in an Alabama "blizzard" any day of the week.