Saskie, Lillabelle seeings as how you're staying at the resort anyways, is a fair sized lake with reportedly very good pike fishing. Folks up in the Cochrane area don't bother too much with pike in my belief. Walleye and trout opportunities are all in that area as well and I've been told that fishery gets most of the pressure. I've fished Lillabelle 3 times right from the dock/front lawn at Lillabelle lodge. I awlays wished I had more time there to take out my tube and hit the much visible weeded shoreline from the lodges vantage point. Boats can be rented there and I think that for you it would be a great and relaxing option if you're travelling at the same time. Simply a Red Devle (and they seemed to one time like my buddies Can Flag version of the Red Devle) worked in the past. The water is tanin to well stained so flashy, noisy and maybe even scented would help. In-line spinners are always a good lure to me up here in the north as well.saskie wrote:That's the one - we're staying at Lillabelle Lake Resort for a night each way, which (apparently) is just outside of town by the airport. Has boat rentals and good pike/perch fishing in the lake. I'm definitely open to other suggestions on where to shore fish or rent boats, probably from shore and reasonably close (within 30min) to the trans-Canada.
The last time I was there I watched this nice sized pike probably around 9 to 10 lbs sip flies off the surface in september in about 1-2 feet of water. It stayed right in front of me for the longest time and it ignored several of my metallic offerings, before going out deeper and vanishing.
Also, if you're there in the spring and want a quick 20-25 min jaunt to try for walleye, you could head out to Flood's Landing. It's a scenic camping area at the base of a big set of rapids. A fair size pool waits at the bottom and the fish stack up there in the spring.
