Lake Diefenbaker voted most popular lake for ice fishing

By Joan Janzen

If you love to go ice fishing, Lake Diefenbaker might be your destination of choice. It’s also the largest and longest lake in southwest Saskatchewan, measuring 225 km in length with an 840 km long shoreline.

Lake Diefenbaker Tourism (LDT), a non-profit organization of volunteers, was happy to share information about this favourite fishing destination. Depending on the conditions and time of year, fishermen commonly catch their limits of a wide variety of fish on the lake. Based on weather conditions, fish activity, and accessibility, it’s estimated that anywhere from 200 to 1,000 people could be ice fishing across the entire lake during the span of one week.

Lake Diefenbaker is just one of many favourite ice fishing spots for enthusiasts like Dave Yaworski from Kindersley. Photo by Justine Yaworski

Those may be a few reasons why the lake was voted the top lake to ice fish in all of Canada. Many fishing enthusiasts and their families took advantage of free fishing on the long February 15-17 weekend at Lake Diefenbaker.

Adam Konrad from Fishing Geeks Guiding Company reported on a radio interview that the biggest fish he ever pulled out of the lake was a 44 lb. Rainbow Trout. “Ninety-nine percent of the trout escape from the trout net where they’re raised for harvesting,” the guide reported.

Volunteers at LDT explained that stable water temperatures, reduced stress, higher oxygen levels (especially in winter), an abundant food supply, less fishing pressure in deep waters, and genetic traits that support growth all contribute to larger fish.

There are over twenty species of fish in the lake, but the most popular are Rainbow Trout, Walleye, Sauger, Northern Pike, Whitefish, Perch and Burbot. The tourism group reported the lake has produced two world-record catches of Burbot and Rainbow Trout. The Burbot fishing in the winter is excellent; it’s not uncommon to fish during the night and catch 16 - 20 Burbot in one evening.

“There are several businesses offering ice shacks and equipment for winter fishing across the entire lake,” Angela from LDT reported. And for those less interested in fishing, there are other options available: snowmobiling for the adventurous and bird watching for the more sedentary types. From February 14th to 17th, bird watchers participated in a global event by identifying, counting and recording the birds they saw around the lake. Those sightings helped contribute to bird conservation efforts.

If you’ve been wanting to catch ‘the big one,’ Lake Diefenbaker is less than a two-hour drive from Kindersley. It might be worth the drive.