Fishing how it's changed

[Supergrit]

Curious to see what other peoples opinions are. For those that have fished for a length of time say around 20 or thirty years. Has any lake you fished gotten better or is the fishing bad compared to the past.

[58thecat]

The past was horrible, too many caught, not regulated enough hence why we are in the state we are in now. We will continue to see our fisheries improve but like everything else it will take time but then again not everything implemented is what I would call right.....and now this post will light up:argue2:

[oilngas]

I have to say that in the 50's when I grew up and 5 gal pail was the limit on perch, as that was all the kids could handle, we caught a few walleye, pike etc. but basically if it came over the side of the boat it went home to the fry pan. Edmonton was about 300,000 folks.

During the 70 - 80 as the population of the Province exploded, money was around, cottages sprang up and new boats appeared, the general attitude was still "why fish if you can't take em home". So the (surprise here exclamation mark) the fishing measured as "catch / hr." went downhill fast. Calgary (we moved) was about say 500,000 - 700,000 folks .

Now fast forward to today's "catch and release" era and lo and behold the grandkid's n I can catch any number of nice walleye, some biggish pike etc. within 1.5 hr's of a smallish big city (Calgary 1.2 MM folks). Just look at Wayne`s pics !!!! All this after 10 years of ever expanding `catch and release`.

So for me, as a leading edge boomer, Alberta Fisheries is on the right track, make the Fishery `catch and release`as the rule. It`s been said many time the Province holds about 4 MM folks, and we do not develop many new Fisheries close to the Population centres, thinking Crawling Valley as a successful `newly developed fishery`. Access to those elusive `Alberta wild places` keeps getting more opened. More garbage stream side, more trashed places etc.

So if Fisheries were top shut down all fish killing in the Province, with very few exceptions (thinking remote fly in Lakes etc.), I think that would be a great thing for my Grandkids and their yet to be born Grandkids.

[Kim473]

I remember a few lakes I used to visit. 3 hrs and you had caught over 100 perch. Putting most back back of course. Looking down the hole, 8-12 would circle your hook and you were pulling the hook away from the small ones trying to get the bigger ones to bite. Now days your lucky to catch 10 perch the whole day. Dosen't help that F&W have stoped stocking perch and consentrate on stocking trout into ponds that winter kill often or millions of walleye into one lake only that you can't keep them out of. Just let the comercial or native fisherman net the lake. Our Gov and F&W need to get their think tanks back on track. C&R all lakes and lower limits of Perch to 10 all lakes that have greater populations of them when they do reopen for a year. Then close again the year after.

I'm all for closeing 1/2 to all lakes for a year or two to bring back the fish populations. I don't need to go fishing but enjoy it. Would save me a pile of money if they were to close the lakes or make them C&R only. I wouldn't fish if I can't keep any.

[thumper]

Fish numbers in the Rockies west of Calgary has definitely declined in the 40 years I've been here. At one time, Parks Canada operated fish hatcheries, but they stopped stocking lakes decades ago and have even begun to exterminate all fish from some lakes in recent years.
I'm actually surprised that Parks Canada still allows fishing at all. You are not permitted to pick berries or mushrooms or keep an antler that you may find.

While I applaud cleaning up pollution in the Bow River, the replacement of old sewage treatment systems with modern, efficient plants in Lake Louise, Banff, and Canmore has dramatically reduced the nutrients in the river. Less nutrients = less water plants = less bugs = less fish. Not only fish, but less other creatures that depend on water insects like Swallows, Dippers, Goldeneyes and Harlequin ducks as well.

I see far less people fishing Banff National Park (except Lake Minnewanka), and the upper Bow River but more people fishing stocked lakes in Kananaskis.
Spray Lakes still produces lakers, but the numbers and average size has declined quite a bit - it really gets hammered by ice-fishers now. Lake trout aren't stocked, so we'll see how long their natural reproduction can withstand this pressure. 30 years ago you'd have the entire lake to yourself some days! Not bashing ice-fishers here - just an observation. Heck, I've eaten a ton of Spray lakers myself over the years!

[EZM]

I'm not old enough to comment on fishing beyond 20-25 years ago, however, I can see a decline in some lakes.

The one that is most evident to me is lake Minnewanka.

We used to go to the lake and catch hundreds of trout, of various species, and many whitefish every weekend we spent out there.

It was not unusual to boat 30-40 Lakers a day in the 10 lb - 20 lb range in one day.

Sturgeon fishing at the forks was like shooting fish in a barrel. Walleyes were plentiful and willing to bite for hours on end.

The retention limits were far to high to sustain this harvest.

I will, however, say that I'm optimistic that the reduced retention limits and management strategies, on a whole, should improve the fishery.

[thumper]

Old days @ Spray:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/posters%20for%20forums/1240449_492688470827824_31387763_n_zpsb3ff0dec.jpg (http://s16.photobucket.com/user/Canmoron/media/posters%20for%20forums/1240449_492688470827824_31387763_n_zpsb3ff0dec.jpg .html)

[huntsfurfish]

Most have improved a lot(at least numbers)which is good. Limits have been to liberal and have been behind with the population growth.

The days of catching and keeping a lot are pretty much in the past.

[AlbertaCutthroat]

Fishing has improved where we fish, no doubt about it. The good old days have been the past 5 years, way better than when I was a kid in terms of numbers and average size. Pike limit used to be 10, walleye used to be rare in the stretch of river and reservoirs near home, nobody ever caught sturgeon in the sucker holes. Not all bad across this great province.

[bobalong]

I think that your post is dependent a lot on what you consider "better", the ability to catch fish, or the ability to keep fish. I have been fishing in Alberta for about 50 years or so.

In Alberta I am mostly a C/R fisherman and have been since about 1990. In my early years, there were lots of fish, very few anglers, so C/R was not discussed at all, or at least I rarely heard of it.

Through out the 80's and 90's is where I observed the decline in our fisheries, mostly in lakes with walleye, pike, and perch as the trout stocking in our province has been fairly consistent for decades.

During the late mid to late 80's is when I first remember reading about Sonar. I purchased my first sonar in 1987, and it changed my fishing for ever. It was an 82 vertical pixel unit, with about 250 watts of power. Pretty mickey mouse by todays standards, but the ability to read structure, at least for walleye fishing, was HUGE.

During the late 80's is also when a lot of the "fishing rigs" were introduced by manufactures. Although a lot of these boats were smaller than today, 16' with a 40HP, but these units rigged with a sonar and electric trolling motor were an absolute walleye fishing machine. The days of the 12' with a 9.9 were not gone, but were quickly being replaced by these newer, bigger, faster boats.

These bigger boats could easily accommodate more anglers, and with the larger, deeper, and faster boats virtually all areas of a lake could now be fished. This was also when walleye tournaments were starting, and there was all kinds of info available on locations, techniques, seasonal movements in videos and books.

About the mid 90's is when GPS became available to the public, at an affordable price. Purchased my first GPS in 1997, which like Sonar was a real game changer, especially for ice fishing, no more drilling 30-50 holes trying to find structure, one or two holes and you were fishing.

For me the knowledge and ability to catch fish is many, many times greater than 30 years ago, but I believe the result of that, along with many other factors, is why your ability to keep many fish is much less. There is also better, more sensitive rods, line and smoother reels, but Sonar and GPS were the real game changer for me. I have stated this before "if you have one of the newer fishing rigs with sonar, electric trolling motor and GPS, when was the last time you were skunked when fishing"..........just doesn't happen any more and hasn't for years.

The reluctance of our Fisheries to keep up with the times, and dedicate the money needed to implement a consistent and long term stocking program, for other species beside trout, has also had a negative effect on our fisheries. I will agree on some lakes the walleye populations either have or are recovering, but I don't really call "closing lakes" fisheries management. It is cheap and easy but closing a lake for ten years or more, just resulted in added pressure to other lakes, resulting in collapsed populations in those lakes. Increased populations has also been a huge factor.

It appears I may have went on a bit, but that is my observation of fishing over the past 30 years or so. I am passionate about fishing and have been ever since I caught my first fish at about 6 years old. There are some things that can be improved with our fisheries, but I can still spend a day fishing, and enjoy it like no other activity............so I am not really sure if I consider fishing better, but for me, it is still pretty damn good!!

[niwrek]

There's limits....?

[Supergrit]

I fish around whitecourt to me as far as lake fishing goes it's a lot different then before. Trout lakes about the same just a lot smaller average size. My favriot lake Pegasus is totally different the whitefish population is probably 20 percent of what it was before. I was also curious who would I contact to try and change the limit of whitefish to 3 a limit of ten in a lake that size is a joke.