Tullibee

[PerchFisherman]

Hey folks,
Found the old man's copy of Lakes of the Lac La Biche District.
Lots of cool tidbits, but what I found most interesting was the huge number of tullibee that used to be found in Alberta.
In some instances, they'd net, in one year, 200,000+ pounds of tullibee, and only ~50,000 lbs of whitefish.
Now, I have seen tullibee in Cold Lake on multiple occasions, but the number of lakes that had tullibee at one point astounds me.
Where did they go? Am I just blind? Are they still around? How did the whites manage to kick around, but the tullibee die off?
Interesting.

[Talking moose]

Hey folks,
Found the old man's copy of Lakes of the Lac La Biche District.
Lots of cool tidbits, but what I found most interesting was the huge number of tullibee that used to be found in Alberta.
In some instances, they'd net, in one year, 200,000+ pounds of tullibee, and only ~50,000 lbs of whitefish.
Now, I have seen tullibee in Cold Lake on multiple occasions, but the number of lakes that had tullibee at one point astounds me.
Where did they go? Am I just blind? Are they still around? How did the whites manage to kick around, but the tullibee die off?
Interesting.

Lots in cold, llb, and slave. They like the bigger lakes. Friend just caught one at llb last week.

[Talking moose]

Many are caught by anglers and misidentified as small lake whites as well.

[Talking moose]

Calling too I believe has a good population.

[pikeman06]

Alot of those lakes up that northeast way have or had good tullibee. They would just swarm a hook a couple feet under the ice over deep water. Caught a monster in moose 30 years ago I still have a picture of. Not sure if they still common haven't been up that way for a few years. The old boys said they were full of worms.

[trigger7mm]

We used to catch them through the ice at Slave. Blue and silver jigging raps.

[swampy45]

Still lots of Tullibee around, just a matter of finding them.

You're right about the historic catch rates though, its absolutely wild to think we have decimated our fisheries in less than 100 years.

How about the fact that Touchwood Lake had an incredible Lake Trout fishery up until about 1926, and was completely eradicated?

[Talking moose]

Still lots of Tullibee around, just a matter of finding them.

You're right about the historic catch rates though, its absolutely wild to think we have decimated our fisheries in less than 100 years.

How about the fact that Touchwood Lake had an incredible Lake Trout fishery up until about 1926, and was completely eradicated?

Lesser slave had Lakers as well....

[bessiedog]

Lac lanonne has tulibee

I think St Anne does as well

Whitefish lake does

Pigeon used to when I fished it in the 80s

Waterton seems to have them.... the lakers will sometimes force up balls of them... little like salmon.

[swampy45]

Lesser slave had Lakers as well....

Plenty of lakes in the area have "historic" numbers of Lake Trout, all of which have disappeared in the last 12 decades.

[Talking moose]

Plenty of lakes in the area have "historic" numbers of Lake Trout, all of which have disappeared in the last 12 decades.

Oh really? I only knew of touch and slave. What are some others? Wab?

[swampy45]

I have heard "tales" from some old trapper friends that Pinehurst, Wabasca, and a Teepee Lake (?) among others may have all had Lakers at some point in the not so distant past.

[highwood]

Saw a bunch on the camera at LLB yesterday

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

[lromanchuk]

I have heard "tales" from some old trapper friends that Pinehurst, Wabasca, and a Teepee Lake (?) among others may have all had Lakers at some point in the not so distant past.

And what's the contributing factor to these lakes "losing" the lake trout? Is it a fishing, angling,human issue? Or did the lakes naturally evolve (or regress in this case) to a state that can't support lake trout habitat?

I don't know much about lake trout, but it seems depth of the lake is a major factor.

[swampy45]

And what's the contributing factor to these lakes "losing" the lake trout? Is it a fishing, angling,human issue? Or did the lakes naturally evolve (or regress in this case) to a state that can't support lake trout habitat?

I don't know much about lake trout, but it seems depth of the lake is a major factor.

Fish

The fish fauna of Touchwood Lake includes walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, lake whitefish, cisco, burbot, longnose sucker, white sucker and spottail shiner (Mills 1987). Lake trout were abundant before 1927 but subsequent commercial fishing apparently eliminated them from the lake. In an attempt to reestablish the species, lake trout were stocked at a rate of 31,000 fingerlings in 1967, 61,000 fingerlings in 1968, 90,400 juveniles in 1985, and 90,000 juveniles in both 1986 and 1987 (Alta. For. Ld. Wild. n.d.; 1986; 1987[a]; Alta. En. Nat. Resour. 1985[b]). No lake trout have been caught by anglers surveyed during creel censuses or by the commercial fishery (Norris 1989).

This is all I can find regarding Touchwood Lake and the history of its Lake Trout population. Lots more info on the webpage.

All info is found here- http://albertalakes.ualberta.ca/?page=lake&lake=67&region=2

[EZM]

Many are caught by anglers and misidentified as small lake whites as well.

^^^ THIS

I have fished with many people who caught these and thought they were whites. I bet 99% of the people who catch them have no clue.

[TROLLER]

Been in Crawling Valley for years. Most think they are whites.

[fish99]

Been in Crawling Valley for years. Most think they are whites.
the whites I have seen in crawling valley are monsters over 5 lbs

[nast70]

Still lots of Tullibee around, just a matter of finding them.

You're right about the historic catch rates though, its absolutely wild to think we have decimated our fisheries in less than 100 years.

How about the fact that Touchwood Lake had an incredible Lake Trout fishery up until about 1926, and was completely eradicated?

My dad has that same book. I thought it was pretty cool to have lakers in Touchwood. It's a very deep lake in parts as well.
Lots of neat info in that book.

My wife hauled in a nice 8lb Tulibee in Fawcett, same trip same day, my mom (different boat) caught one as well. Only time we have ever seen one up close.

[EZM]

My dad has that same book. I thought it was pretty cool to have lakers in Touchwood. It's a very deep lake in parts as well.
Lots of neat info in that book.

My wife hauled in a nice 8lb Tulibee in Fawcett, same trip same day, my mom (different boat) caught one as well. Only time we have ever seen one up close.

That's crazy big for Tulibee - largest I personally ever heard of was about 5lbs … from the great lakes (they are also known as Lake Herring/Ciscoe) - Most State and Provincial records are below 6lbs but I bet dollar to doughnuts HUNDREDS of "whitefish" were retained far larger than that as the people keeping them could not tell the difference and thought they had "whitefish".

And … there are some pretty crazy big ones here in Alberta - I have personally seen many ~4lbers come out of area lakes here with the biggest coming out of Amiysk Lake near Boyle.

[TROLLER]

Every year you can see some dead ones floating at Crawling Valley.

Asked a conervation guy who was tagging fish there yrs ago and he called them Cisco but also said they are also known as Tullibe. They have a life cycle and when it is up you see them floating at least till the pike or walleye get them.

[tiger woods]

I caught a Tulibee at lesser slave lake about 5 years ago while fishing for walleye. Fast forward to yesterday at lsl again and I caught another.

They both were incredibly aggressive compared to other species on the flasher. Not sure if thats something that could be assumed over the species as a whole, or if it's just a small sample size and pure coincidence.

[OL_JR]

I caught a Tulibee at lesser slave lake about 5 years ago while fishing for walleye. Fast forward to yesterday at lsl again and I caught another.

They both were incredibly aggressive compared to other species on the flasher. Not sure if thats something that could be assumed over the species as a whole, or if it's just a small sample size and pure coincidence.

Have found the same thing, they sure don't waste any time when they are interested. Have never targeted them but seems like they could be a fun fish if you got on a bunch.

Although I'd love it if we could use them for bait as well.