How about "general tags" for fishing?

[Pikebreath]

Here is something to ponder over....

The special licence walleye tags have been around now for a number of years, and (like it or not) has become a management tool to regulate angler harvest on several walleye lakes.

However the majority of our pike, walleye and wild trout fisheries are currently managed with relatively low daily catch rates (from 0 - 3) and minimum size limits. Generally such regulations have allowed many fisheries to survive heavy angling pressure but have also created unbalanced fisheries where fish over the minimum size are few and far between. This culling of the largest fish only also removes the most efficient breeders from the population.

Slot limits have the potential to keep the large breeders in the population but only when enough fish can make it through the slot size without being harvested first, so slot limits work best in fisheries with light to moderate pressure at best.

Managing all our water bodies by special licence draw would certainly control angler harvest but it would also be highly confusing for the general angling public.

Is it time to issue general "over the counter" harvest tags for pike, walleye and wild trout as a means of regulating and spreading around angler harvest and as a way to bring in slot limits to allow more fish to reach larger sizes?

For example, let’s say an angler can buy 10 pike harvest tags. Three of the tags could be for pike under 50 cm (slot 1),,,,, three more tags for pike from 50 cm to 65 cm (slot 2),,, and another three tags for pike from 65 cm to 80 cm (slot 3),,, and the last tag could be an “any size tag”.

The tags could be further coded in a manner to stipulate the number and type of tags that could be used in any particular lake depending on the management objectives. For example in Lake A anglers could use only the slot 1 small fish tags. Perhaps in Lake B, anglers could use one tag from each of the three different slot sizes. Then maybe in Lake C, an angler could use only the single any size tag.

How about 5 walleye tags (2 under 45 cm) (2 over 45 - 55 cm) (one any size)?

What about 2 stream trout (rainbow, cutthroat, brown trout) no size limit?

Again I am just throwing this out there for discussion, what the actual number of tags and slot limits end up being are all details best worked out by our fisheries professionals. What really is open to discussion is the concept of using “over the counter tags” to regulate and spread angler harvest over more size classes of fish and water bodies to produce “healthier fish populations” with good representation of all sizes of fish.

[whitetail Junkie]

I say sure if the price of the general pike tag is 50 Cents or less.

[pickrel pat]

edmonton bow zone walleye.......

[Cal]

I say sure if the price of the general pike tag is 50 Cents or less.

hahaha, nice

[Albertafisher]

I totally agree with this, I wish this was actually a law. It would be so much better for the fisheries...

[Drewski Canuck]

Are you on a secret commission or something?

Over the Counter Tags does nothing for individual regulation as supposedly if you have the cash, you buy all the tags you want?

Everytime I see these sorts of arguments I realize this is a slippery slope to privatization of the fishery. Essentially, you are selling the fish piece meal. Next we will pay for access to public lakes as well.

What of indigent people, do they get their tags for free? Apparently not. What about youths, who springs for their tags?

I have a better idea. There are lakes that should never have gone to tags, for instance Baptiste. The decision was based upon a creel survey conducted in the heat of August, and few fish were being brought in. A CRISIS I SAY! A CRISIS!!

Even after the goof up was acknowledged, the tags were kept in place.

Oh well, I guess IBM needs to make money off more Albertans, and the move to privatization continues.

Drewski

[Gordoats26]

I am not sure how well this tag thing works Normaly I would go fishing keep one fish to eat no big deal. But This year I bought these for 13 bucks or whatever and then I feel like if i catch a fish that fits the slot size of my tag I should keep all the fish i have tags for dont get me wrong i ate every last drop but still instead of keeping one now i kept 3 because it seems like if you dont your money for these tags are wasted. I would like to see the differance in the number of fish kept if the regulation is 1 fish or if its on this tag system my bet is there is not a hell of a lot of differance. just more money for the tax man.

[Kim473]

Sounds like the gov. would just make more money. If you want the fishery to make a comeback just close the lakes to fishing for a couple of years. I say close half the lakes for one year then open the next year and close the other half. Do this for ten years and let mother nature do her thing. If it was up to me I would close all lakes for 2 or 3 years but that would never happen as a lot of busineses depend on anglers money. When I say close, I mean NO C & R
NO fishing at all. Just imagine if the 1 million fish that are pulled out every year were left to reproduce for two or three years, how many more fish would be in lakes in this province. We would have the best fishery in Canada, next to the great lakes.

[WayneChristie]

who do you think is going to enforce this? the same officers that cant keep up to what goes on now?

[Pikebreath]

A tag system could be used to limit harvest (you can only get "X" number of of tags per year) and distribute that harvest amongst different year classes of fish and different waterbodies or perhaps by fishery zones. (i.e. you can get 5 tags for NB1 and another 5 for NB2 to a total maximum of 10 pike tags per year).

Right now harvest is being primarily aimed at the larger fish and we are effectively capping the size of fish in these populations. If catching fish just under the legal size limit all day is your idea of a good fishery, then I guess this is fine.

Unrestricted slot limits will not be effective in heavily fished waterbodies even with low daily limits, but no total yearly limit. We see the evidence of this by the lack of keepers in the current "legal slot" of fish over "X" cm.

This has nothing to do with a cash grab or privatization,,,, the tags do not have to be expensive,,, yeah $5 for 10 pike tags would work,,,, and youth and senior tags could be given out free.

The probelm with special licence tags is they need to beapplied for well in advance and are not guarenteed that you will get any. Over the counter tags could be purchased at any time and can still be used to regulate harvest with more certainty than the current system.

[Hunter Trav]

The real problem is lack of enforcement. Tags aren't going to help that...

[Jamie Black R/T]

they hardly have the resources to enforce the system in place now.

confusing general tag system would make that worse...and thats just as easily abused as todays laws are.

more officers and more funding for research would be more beneficial than more rules for an angling public who doesnt follow them, or even understand them, anyway.

[Salavee]

Has anyone given consideration to the use of live baits. especially Crawlers and Leeches? . Overall, delayed mortality on released fish has to be pushing 20% when these baits are involved. Not everyone has the concern or ability to handle and release gullet-hooked fish properly. Tossing them back in the water just doesn't bode well for survival rates either.Nor does yarding them to the surface from -20 ft. +. If you catch 40 fish and release them all, how many of those have no hope of surviving ?

Excessive fishing pressure and the use of live bait has had a major negative impact on our Walleye fishery. Slot limits are nothing more than a band-aid reaction to a problem that began in the late -80's and are doing more harm than good in the lakes where they have been implemented. Knock a couple on the head and go home may be the best solution.!

Until the Province starts to accurately inventory (not estimate) each individual Lake by year class and set limits accordingly, I don't see much hope for our Walleye in the long run. It's a sad situation we have at present.

[3blade]

An interesting point of view, but:
1: would require significant research to work ($$$) - not gonna happen
2: as previously stated, enforcement is almost non existent due to a lack of $$$
3: Province wide bait ban would likely be more effective and cheaper/easier to understand

IMO, the most effective answer would be changing the current license regs to:
Resident: Has lived in AB continuously for the last 5 (or 10, or 15) yrs consecutively - Current price/regs
Non-Resident: Canadian, but has not lived in AB for the last 5 yrs - $300, zero keep limit.
Non resident Alien: $1000, zero keep limit. all extra $ goes to enforcement.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but we need to limit the exploitation of our resources, and we all know its related to the population boom. A tag system wont fix that.

[bobalong]

An interesting point of view, but:
1: would require significant research to work ($$$) - not gonna happen
2: as previously stated, enforcement is almost non existent due to a lack of $$$
3: Province wide bait ban would likely be more effective and cheaper/easier to understand

IMO, the most effective answer would be changing the current license regs to:
Resident: Has lived in AB continuously for the last 5 (or 10, or 15) yrs consecutively - Current price/regs
Non-Resident: Canadian, but has not lived in AB for the last 5 yrs - $300, zero keep limit.
Non resident Alien: $1000, zero keep limit. all extra $ goes to enforcement.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but we need to limit the exploitation of our resources, and we all know its related to the population boom. A tag system wont fix that.

I agree the population boom has been a significant factor, but I believe not any more than the knowledge, information and equipment that anglers have available to them today.....I like the new technology, but it is definitely a factor as well.

I believe there is quite a bit of money already generated from fishing in this province, our government has just CHOSEN not to use it to enhance the fisheries, that is.....and always has been one of the biggest problems.

With the exception of trout re-stocking our govenment has no long term committment to our fisheries, IMO yearly stocking of other species is also required just to sustain the fisheries we have. Some of our lake populations have improved, but all the government did for about ten years (and more) was to implement total catch and release on them, during that time they did almost no stocking and enforcement was even worse. This ten year catch and release "closure" basically cost them nothing, and resulted in depleting other species in the lake........not much of a plan or committment.

Saskatchewan has thousands more lakes than we do and has less than half the population, however they have been stocking walleye almost every year, for years, that is a long term committment.

I find it ironic that our government boasts about the money fishing generates from locals and tourists, yet do very little to introduce any new programs that will sustain these fisheries for the long term.