Fishing Garner Lake

[jbax]

Im heading to Garner Lake camping next week, just wondering if anyone has had any luck there. Im taking the kids so im hoping to catch anything.
Thanks!

[horse shoer]

Try north shore for walleye

[fishunter77]

Have a cabin at Garner. It has been hit hard. Small perch up to 6". Maybe the odd big one. Pike are almost gone. Walleye were good until they opened it up for tags. In the last 5 years the have almost disappeared due to pressure. Stocking of Walleye was in the 80's and they really took off in the 90's. Another great fishery gone. I have been fishing there since the 70's and have never seen it this bad. Good luck!

[Brandonkop]

I agree with fishhunter77. Garner Lake is in a world of hurt. I too grew up fishing there and it was amazing as a kid. Lake level was high, millions of big perch everywhere. You could sight fish them, it was awesome! Pike were everywhere and nice size too. Then the walleye population started to pick up and the water started dropping. The Pike population crashed and the walleye population was still pretty small. The big perch all disappeared, fished out and then the perch started to stunt. There was millions of 3-6 inchers. Very few predators. Those were sad years. Then the walleye started to pick up and right as it did they shut it down completely except for perch. It was amazing in 5 years there were tons of pike again and lots of walleye and some decent 12-13 inch perch. Then people complained and they opened it for one pike any size. In two to three years they were gone. During the same time the walleye population was exploding with no predators and no retention. Soon the perch numbers were plummeting and they opened the walleye tag. For the last few years we were able to squeak out a decent 5 fish limit 9-11 inches mostly. Then this last winter I couldn't get anything out there. Fished all over for a few small perch. Still walleye out there, but this lake is toast. Sad. They need to shut it down for another 5 years, close the perch this time too so it gets left alone.

Have fun... many other better lakes to go to in my opinion. We have a cabin there and don't even fish it. We go fish the other lakes in the area.

[Talking moose]

Fished it last winter.... Tons of 2-3 inch perch. Too small to even get the smallest of hooks in their mouth.

[jbax]

Thanks for the heads up guys. Hopefully the camping is good if the fishing is not.
Im originally from ontario and i know its comparing apples to oranges but what i have never understood here in alberta is the limit sizes. Back home we would keep the smaller 3-4 lbs walleye and throw the big spawn'ers back. Im no expert but limiting with tags likely wont help if youre harvesting all the big fish. Just my thought, its really too bad a lake like that has to come to this.