Bushleague
06-22-2017, 03:31 PM
Yesterday I was fishing with my daughter in the Slave River and had a CO check us out. We mentioned we had released a nice Pike and he told me that there are plans in the works to make the regulations for pike in Slave Lake zero retention, C&R only. Not sure if this is actually set in stone yet or not, but having conflicting feelings about it I figured I'd see what others think of the idea.
My take is as follows, Slave Lake is not putting out trophy pike the way it used to say 15 years ago, and I wouldn't mind having more big pike in the lake. Yes, I'd even be OK with seeing a few less walleye... fishing walleye in this lake is stupid easy and I can handle having to work a little harder for them in exchange for more big pike. Friends in SRD have told me in the past the commercial fishery took lots of them as bycatch, and since it has been shut down it does seem like the pike numbers are starting to come up.
But... as I said this lake is boiling with walleye, and more years than not they look pretty skinny, I'm not so sure the lake has enough feed to support any more lbs of fish than it already contains. So IMO at least as important as releasing pike, would be removing walleye if the goal is quality fish. Maybe F&W think that a larger population of trophy class pike will thin out the walleye on their own? From I can see most pike caught in the lake itself are already released though, the majority of pike that I see kept are by shore anglers out of the Slave River, where the regulations apparently will remain unchanged.
Anyways, its an interesting idea and its nice to see F&W show some interest in promoting a better balanced fish population for once, as well I'd enjoy tangling with 40"ers on a regular basis again... not sure if I'm 100% convinced that their current plan is going to be effective though.
My take is as follows, Slave Lake is not putting out trophy pike the way it used to say 15 years ago, and I wouldn't mind having more big pike in the lake. Yes, I'd even be OK with seeing a few less walleye... fishing walleye in this lake is stupid easy and I can handle having to work a little harder for them in exchange for more big pike. Friends in SRD have told me in the past the commercial fishery took lots of them as bycatch, and since it has been shut down it does seem like the pike numbers are starting to come up.
But... as I said this lake is boiling with walleye, and more years than not they look pretty skinny, I'm not so sure the lake has enough feed to support any more lbs of fish than it already contains. So IMO at least as important as releasing pike, would be removing walleye if the goal is quality fish. Maybe F&W think that a larger population of trophy class pike will thin out the walleye on their own? From I can see most pike caught in the lake itself are already released though, the majority of pike that I see kept are by shore anglers out of the Slave River, where the regulations apparently will remain unchanged.
Anyways, its an interesting idea and its nice to see F&W show some interest in promoting a better balanced fish population for once, as well I'd enjoy tangling with 40"ers on a regular basis again... not sure if I'm 100% convinced that their current plan is going to be effective though.