The 2018/19 ice fishing season has come to a close and this one has been a real grind. This year I was drawn tags for Pigeon Lake and was excited to catch and cook some winter walleye. Fast forward to the end of March and I’ve put in 10 days on Pigeon from dawn till dusk and managed to land 4 fish. Luckily two were in my slot size and made for a delicious supper but the amount of effort was sizable for the small payoff. I was fairly mobile thanks to my ATV and never stayed in a spot for more than an hour or two. At prime time I would set up camp on spots that typically produced well but so would many others, the fishing pressure was substantial. I found that concentrating on the big structure spots such as the Provincial Park drop off, Golden Days, Mulhurst and Silver Beach did not pay off as I wanted. I also had high hopes of catching my first whitefish but I didn’t see one the entire season.
While my ice season at Pigeon Lake was tough I am not ready to admit defeat. I am fairly new to this lake so the ice season was a good time to learn about the most popular spots. This summer I plan to put in some time mapping out the lake and locating some secondary spots that hopefully don’t see as much pressure. A lot anglers reported good catch rates at less pressured locations and I will be working hard to find them.
