Fishing at Crooked Lake, Wood Buffalo, Alberta

• Overview

  Set in Wood Buffalo, Crooked Lake is an Alberta water. What surrounds it is taiga. With some 19 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The bank runs about 2.8 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Most waters listed here for Wood Buffalo are larger. Fort McMurray at 110 km is the nearest place to stop. Beyond it, Buffalo Narrows at 212 km and Wabasca-Desmarais at 278 km. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Crooked Lake

  Depth is unknown to us, and the shoreline is the better guide. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Fish documented in Wood Buffalo include longnose sucker, Arctic grayling, white sucker and mountain whitefish. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Fish Crooked Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 16°C, with January the cold end at about -21°C. The ice season is long here and the open one short. The lid usually goes in early May, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. The water is typically free of ice between early May and early November. Spring is short and heavy here; autumn is longer and steadier. It holds true on Crooked Lake more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. Light line and small metal for the trout; a fly rod earns its place on calm evenings. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. Peden Lake, 10 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Check the position at Crooked Lake before loading the car.