alberta fishing

[LacLaBicheNS]

So I am a new arrival in ALB. I have to say a few things about walleye here. Firstly, if theres so many of them in the lakes here (it seems like it from what I hear), why can't we keep any here? What is the reasoning? Is the fishery not sustaining itself?

Walleye are about the best tasting fresh water fish there is. Walleye and catfish imo.

Secondly, what is the reasoning behind only letting you keep one pike and it has to be over 75 inches. Why do they want us to keep the best eggg producers with the proven genetics?

Sorry if I offended anyone, but it doesn't seem like a good approach to managing pike! And I'd love ot keep some walleyes here and there..

[gonefishin]

What you hear from the neighbors and what the facts say are probably two different things. If the walleye fishery was sustaining itself, we would be allowed to keep a few more. There are plenty of lakes in the province where you are allowed to keep walleye and a few more where you can purchase a special licence to keep them.

Not too sure where you got the info about only being allowed to keep one pike over 75 inches. Unless there are special restrictions on a certain body of water, the provincial wide limit for pike is 3 and they only have to be 25 inches.

You may want to check out the Alberta Sportfishing Regulations for yourself and not believe what you hear so much.

[FisherPotch]

I can't recal so check the regs but a few lakes up that way have pike over 75 cm's restrictions and I think laclabiche is one of them.

There are a few lakes in your region where you can keep walleye PM me and I can point you in a good direction. Lac la Biche isn't a walleye fishery at this time if that was one of the lakes your refering to. Here in alberta we've been able to keep Walleye pops in many of our lakes. Actualy some wern't looking so good until the closures were made. The thing is that if the lakes were opend they wouldn't have populations for long. Hence the tagging system, theory is that they are a tool for fine tuning walleye populations to create equalibrium with other species in the lake and therefore limit stunted growth. Some would say they are a cash cow. We have too many fisherman here with too little water. Get used to C&R, I enjoy it, release likely 99.5% of the fish I catch. I enjoy eating fish too, but C&R has grown on me. Like I said there are some lakes in your region where you can keep them, fire me a PM. I will actually be at a lake fishing for walleye not to far from you soon, with intentions of haveing a shore walleye lunch, YUM!

The true beauty of the C&R is that if the big boys (and girls) keep going back thats how trophys are made.

You are correct about the size restriction thing. There has been many a debate on this forum about how our lakes are regulated to remove the most important spawning fish. I suggest emailing ted morton about it, many others have and hopefully something changes. Many of our lakes could benefit from a slot limit but our fisheries management could also benefit from better funding.

[LacLaBicheNS]

I can't recal so check the regs but a few lakes up that way have pike over 75 cm's restrictions and I think laclabiche is one of them.

There are a few lakes in your region where you can keep walleye PM me and I can point you in a good direction. Lac la Biche isn't a walleye fishery at this time if that was one of the lakes your refering to. Here in alberta we've been able to keep Walleye pops in many of our lakes. Actualy some wern't looking so good until the closures were made. The thing is that if the lakes were opend they wouldn't have populations for long. Hence the tagging system, theory is that they are a tool for fine tuning walleye populations to create equalibrium with other species in the lake and therefore limit stunted growth. Some would say they are a cash cow. We have too many fisherman here with too little water. Get used to C&R, I enjoy it, release likely 99.5% of the fish I catch. I enjoy eating fish too, but C&R has grown on me. Like I said there are some lakes in your region where you can keep them, fire me a PM. I will actually be at a lake fishing for walleye not to far from you soon, with intentions of haveing a shore walleye lunch, YUM!

The true beauty of the C&R is that if the big boys (and girls) keep going back thats how trophys are made.

You are correct about the size restriction thing. There has been many a debate on this forum about how our lakes are regulated to remove the most important spawning fish. I suggest emailing ted morton about it, many others have and hopefully something changes. Many of our lakes could benefit from a slot limit but our fisheries management could also benefit from better funding.

I guess the info I am getting from the locals is for LLCB itself. I just bought my alberts fishing liscence and have only fished from shore for a few hours. I was basically just going to get out of the house. I did get the low down on LLB from the guy who runs the sporting good store here. I didnt' ask about other lakes, it woudl have been a few locals who tried to give me the info there.

about C and R. I c and r EVERYTHING i catch unless it can't survive and the odd time i do like some walleye. And every so often I'll get a craving for pike, but not often lol. So I'm fine with c and r. In the past 4 or 5 years I've kept maybe 8 walleye and 6 trout. Thats about it.

My quesiton really was intended to understand the system in place to regulate the fishing here. It seems quite different then I am used too. Especially keeping pike over 75 cms. It makes no sense to me that if I want a pike to eat I have to keep a big spawner with great genetics instead of a few smaller ones.

I do like the idea of buying fish tags/ special liscenses. The extra money generated could be put right back into stocking and managing.

thanks for the info!

[Scott N]

One thing about fishing in Alberta is that there are a lot of anglers for the number of bodies of water that we have. We don't have the lakes that Ontario or many other provinces have, but with a large number of anglers, it increases the fishing pressure. C&R is necessary in many areas otherwise they would be fished out.

Some of the C&R regs make for great fisheries though, for example the Bow River is one of the best trout rivers around, bar none.

[beermilk]

Well If you want to keep a walley every now and then just head out to beaver lake its like 10 - 15 mins outside of LLB and ur allowed to keep 1 over 50cm i belive.

the size limits are all backwards in alberta i agree with you there. keep all the spawners leave all the small ones doesnt make any sense does it lol.

[LacLaBicheNS]

thanks a lot for the info guys. I have a degree in bio with a tiny twist in ecology and management ( a few courses) and I can't not for the life of me understand the slot sizes on pike for AB. Even the walleye keeping one over 50 cms?!?! thats a prime spawning fish at 50 cms..


please dont;' get me wrong, I support catch and releash till the day i die. But to keep a fish or two every now and then for a meal is an excellent meal and experience, especially if your younger (kiddies need to expeirence that stuff in my opinion).

I ended up talking to the guy who runs the sporting good store here. We had a chat on this subject. He told me he's sat in meeting with the powers that control the fish and game and he said the fish guy was almost boo'd out of the building because he couldn't explain to the auidence why keeping the big spawners is good for the fisheries. The guy told me he just said "when you get your biology degree you will understand"..

[happy perch fisher]

If the limit is 1 over 50cm the walleye still get to spawn once or twice before being kept. But if the smaller sizes are kept then there be no little ones left to regenrate the population. Each lake is different. if u where aloud to keep 1 under 50cm almost everything under would be kept on most lakes. I think F&W are doing a decent job on are lakes.

[bobalong]

Alberta is unique in its walleye management. Unlike fisheries in most other provinces our lakes have a very very small population of spawners while a lot of the lakes have hundreds or possibly thousands of smalll fish that are just now (after ten years of closures)or will shortly be of spawning age. Most anglers on average do not catch large walleye (although with all the new equipment that is changing) so they have let anglers keep a very small population of the fish, big ones, if they can catch them while hundreds are growing into spawning age. How many times have you heard anglers say they have caught hundreds of fish, all small, do you really think those hundreds of fish would be there if there was a keep limit on them, I think not. There are still a few lakes with big walleye that are being kept but I believe those lakes are in the minority. I guess time will tell if the plan works, but one thing for sure is their should be hundreds or thousands of walleye spawning in Pigeon, Isle, Lac La Nonne, Lac St. Anne and others very soon. With the improved angling techniques and equipment that anglers have I still think a yearly walleye stocking plan will have to be impemented to sustain a walleye population in this province. There are just so many anglers in this province who can catch fish, that normal walleye reproduction can not keep up with the demand.