# August long, Switzer provinvial park, Alberta



## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

OK, so my trip reports are becoming photo reports as the fish just don't vary enough to make it worthwhile. 
We spent a 4 day weekend at Switzer Provincial park near Hinton. this is about 1 and a half hours from us and we'd never been there before.
The big campsites were booked out (Canadians love camping) but the smaller ones aren't bookable.
We arrived Thursday night and had Graveyard lake campsite to ourselves. This camp is not on a lake but rather on Jarvis creek, midpoint between Graveyard lake and Cache lake.

_Jarvis creek._

We spent Friday looking around at both lakes and a small paddle each way on Jarvis creek. I caught a couple of small pike and had a few follows from brown trout.


_Graveyard lake_

Saturday we headed downstream to Gregg lake. This is about a 10km paddle down Jarvis creek, past Graveyard lake. This varied from roacky portages to a narrow creek with 1m high vertical banks to everglades and watermeadows to wide patches of reeds. This landscape is totally ruled by the beaver.


_Field of flowers_




_Reeds_


_Everglades_


_This is how you get down a beaver dam_

Sunday, we paddled upstream to the road bridge above Blue lake (past Cache lake). I caught several standard (40-60cm) pike. We saw a monster (approx 8kg) that was caught in blue lake. Blue lake is crystal clear and you can see the bottom to 6-8m. Hard place to fish.


_A Standard pike_


_The road bridge / tunnel_


_Blue lake_


_Geese on blue lake_

Monday we fished Cache lake, having seen some monster pike in there. The water is clear enough to see the bottom in about 3-4m. I lost several really good pike, one being a solid 5+kg fish on an RR's lure. The hooks pulled for unknown reasons. Sarah also lost a really good fish when the drag was set too light and the fish wrapper her in the weeds. Sarah and I both ended up with a keeper (over 63cm. Yes, we kept them, I can now tell you pike has a firm flesh and tastes like fish). One technique that worked really well was to use a RTS frog and cast over really shallow weed beds. Some real lunkers were seen sitting in less than 2' of water. Most fish were caught either in or next to the shallow weeds. A big fish smashing your frog off the surface then going nuts in the weeds is highly addicitve even if I do lose a few (most) of them.


_Cache lake_


_Some deer came to visit._


_Keeper pike_


_Sarah's keeper_

We'll be back to find those big ones.


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

> . Some real lunkers were seen sitting in less than 2'


Starting to talk like a Canadian, eh?

Thanks for the reports. Really reminds me of canoeing around as a kid.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Sensational scenery Craig! Great to hear what pike tastes like. I was wondering.


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

indiedog said:


> Awesome scenery shots, who needs fish! Got any beaver shots??


 :lol: :lol:

Top scenery JF and nice fish.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

indiedog said:


> Awesome scenery shots, who needs fish! Got any beaver shots??


To be honest, we see them often enough we don't bother to take photos.


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

Really do get some amazing scenery over there. One day I may get to see it for myself.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

SharkNett said:


> Really do get some amazing scenery over there. One day I may get to see it for myself.


Come visit, I'll take you kayaking. Unless it's winter (Nov to April), then I'll take you skiing.


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

I really enjoyed that read and the photos are amazing. So peaceful. This might be a dumb question but are there bears in those woods?


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Yes.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Wrassemagnet said:


> I really enjoyed that read and the photos are amazing. So peaceful. This might be a dumb question but are there bears in those woods?


Yes. There were 3 bears spotted nearby while we were there, a regular black and two cinamon phase black bears.


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

I'd be interested to hear what precautions or behaviours people are advised to adopt when bears are about - a bit off topic but nevertheless I'm really curious about it.


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Dont know about the Canucks but in bear country in the US you keep a hygienic camp and utilize bear boxes/lockers/cylinders or hang your food suspended between 2 trees. Also dont sleep w any food or foodish items in your tent (like toothpaste).


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

All foods or scented items must be kept in a hard sided camper (caravan) or inside a car with the windows up. Some campsites have bear boxes for the food.
No burning of food.
Don't dump your dishwater on the ground.
Use the cleaning stations for cleaning your fish, never leave the waste at the waters edge.
Bearspray or a scare gun is recomended if walking away from the main areas. 
It was hot, so avoiding dawn and dusk and not wandering around at night would be a good idea.
We should have carried our spray when kayaking as we were often on a shallow creek that you could jump across. If we'd startled a bear it could have got messy.


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Toothpaste attracts Northern Hemisphere bears? AS you know down here we use it on our hats as a drop bear repellent.

Never heard of bearspray before, good idea though. Wonder when someone will invent snakespray for Aussies.


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