Article By: Joe Seaborne 2021-04-02
Over the weekend I headed out to Coal Lake to do a little pike fishing. I hadn’t been out to Coal Lake before but I read some decent reviews, so I thought “what the hell” and decided to give it a shot.
I had the weekend completely free and was fortunate enough to get the green light from the wife! So I made plans to stay overnight and spent a total of two days on the water.
To get to the south end of Coal Lake take the 13 to the 822 (northbound). Take your first left and follow the dirt road until you get to the lake.
If you’re going to the north end, take the 616 all the way to the dam. You can park along the dam or turn into the parking area to access the boat launch.
Yes. There are two boat launches one on either end of the lake.
Northern Pike and Yellow Perch are listed in the fishing regulations.
Coal Lake is listed in the Alberta Fishing Regulations under PP2. Below I’ve included a link to the Alberta Fishing Regulations for PP2
Alberta Fishing Regulations PP2"
The lake was pretty much a giant salad patch when I was there so I didn't get to use all my lures but I caught most of my fish with a 4in Salted Tube.
The first day I parked down on the south end of the lake and fished mostly around that area. I’m not sure if it was the time of the year (early September), but most of the lake on the south end was surprisingly shallow. The average depth was probably around 6’ with a maximum depth of maybe 12’ towards the mid-centre of the lake. It was also extremely weedy, making it difficult to troll.
The good news is that fishing was better because the water levels were down. I actually had a pretty good day out on the lake and saw lots of action.
I stuck to mostly jigging and topwater baits while focusing on open spots between weed patches.
On day two of my trip, I parked up at the north end of Coal Lake to explore the other end. It was also pretty shallow with a fair bit of weeds to contend with. Fishing was pretty good with a consistent amount of strikes throughout the day.
Overall it was a good fishing trip, I didn’t get any 20 pounders but had lots of fun reeling in the hammer handles.
I’m definitely no expert but, I did manage to locate a couple hot spots:
The south dam
It’s a bit of a task getting close to the south dam because of all the tall grass you have to maneuver around but once you’re beside the dam, it gets slightly deeper. I caught a few small pikes in this area while jigging around
Mid-center of the lake
This was the deepest part of the lake that I could find (12 feet). It was still pretty weedy but I managed to catch quite a few fish about 40 feet from shore.
Coal Lake is a smaller, shallow lake that's perfect for small boats. It's a decent place to catch Northern Pike and only a short drive from Edmonton. It was extremely weedy when I was there (September), so be prepared to deal with lots of weeds if you are going later in the season. I would also imagine that shore fishing is impossible once the weeds take over.
In the end, I would recommend Coal Lake to anyone looking to have a good day of pike fishing!