Sad state of affairs
 

This province is in dire need of a walleye hatchery program. I think that the tag system is a tax. What do we get from these taxes? Not much. There seems to be the mind set that fishing doesn't bring much benefit to our province, someone is wrong. I do know that people will go other provinces to fish. i am lucky, Sask. is just next door and I now go there for my walleye fishing, that means that I am spending my fishing dollars somewhere else.

Hey Alberta get your s*** together and start a better walleye stocking program.

Just came from MANITOBA fishing trip will be spending my fishing money there .

And stop being slobs out there....just because you can keep it doesn't mean you have to....we as outdoors people need to govern our actions too....it's a joint effort not just point fingers and lay blame as we slaughter our own back yard....accountability is all of our responsibility not just one side....but today's society likes to point fingers, lay blame and carry on with cell phone in hand while sipping on a timmies.....

We aren’t given the chance to be slobs here in Alberta, unless you think keeping one walleye in a fishing trip is being a slob. You live at the lake so it’s easy to say people are slobs, but for those who spend $300 on a day out fishing, and they do it maybe 6 times a year, wanting to keep 2 or three fish every trip isn’t being a slob.


I agree, alberta has the most pathetic fish management team in the country, possibly in all North America.

So far in the past 2 years my family’s total walleye retention count is 9 from Alberta, 8 from Saskatchewan, I’d like to see that number triple or quadruple. At quadruple that would be about 17 walleye per person, say round it up to 20, that works out to less than 1 meal a month, far from what would be considered slobs.

I refuse to take part in the scam our fish management team has come up with selling tags..... what a pathetic solution. What these idiots are doing is destroying the lakes that still allow retention by putting extreme pressure on them. It won’t be long before they succeed in destroying all our lakes so they can sell tags on all walleye lakes, what a great way to build bonus funds for a job well done in creating revenue.

Rumor has it that the plan is to have all retention limited to indigenous harvest which will then in turn be sold to Canadians. They’ll still offer limited tags to keep the revenue flowing though, they need the carrot on the string to keep the cash horse running. Somehow there isn’t enough walleye in our lakes for anglers to retain their catch but there’s enough that aboriginal harvesters can net the lakes and sell us some, as much as we want to buy, no limit$.

Care to show some proof of this "Rumor"?

If there is proof, is it still a rumor?

I heard this recently too...example given was the exact same thing happening in northern Saskatchewan. You can buy walleye, pike and lake trout fillets at most co-op grocery stores now.

What would you consider proof? How does one “prove” a rumor? By definition a rumor is an uncertain truth.

I’ll give you an example of why the rumors seem to make sense. With retention being near zero for licensed anglers, here’s a great way to enjoy wild Canadian walleye.

https://www.saskmade.ca/collections/...ishery/walleye

You beat me to it.

further proof would only be a short drive away to any of the northern lakes recently closed to retention to licensed anglers. I hear that test netting showed poor recruitment. But this is from a government that needs 5 years to build a bridge that would be done in 8 months in the states. How efficient is the test netting program? how much money is actually put into research on our lakes?

Every single one of those lakes was netted through the winter...some of which are still out there full of dead rotting fish, one even had a dead river otter in it.

But yeah...sport fishing is too hard on fish stocks :thinking-006:

I agree with the OP....fisheries is very low the Alberta priority totem pole...it is in fact....Sad.

Excellent, thanks

How about a perch hatchery too, while we're at it.

No kidding. I’d rather eat the sole of my muck boots after a day chasing elk than a rainbow trout out of a stocked lake, yet they have no problems stocking those muddy little buggers.

https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quo...en-5-55-61.jpg

(I am sorry... Couldn't resist...)

fault
 

It is decades of unsustainable limits (overharvest) that has devastated our fisheries. With an ever increasing population, we can never, never go back to those liberal limits of the past. This is 'the new norm'.

How does that famous quote go ?

'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.'

That was exactly what I was thinking of after I read this thread.

had a van come to farm want some walley pike from up the road north no i would like to catch my own guess selling fish for money is the new substanible way of treaty rights

totally illegal its for there own use only.

Yeh and they never abuse this law they could get a 5 dollar fine

20 walleye per angler is not sustainable in Alberta. That’s 6 million walleye per year harvested if every licensed angler took 20. And 90% would be concentrated on under 50 lakes throughout the province. That’s 120,000 walleye per lake to keep up with your demand. And this doesn’t take into account FN harvest.

Personally I think 80 walleye for a family of 4 is a bit glutinous whether it be a license owning family or FN.

Set the limits at what the lakes can handle and apply to all races. This will never happen so in my opinion, there’s no point spending money to stock walleye for FN to have exclusive rights to net.

Go back and re-read my post, the number I posted was over a two year period. The way our fisheries are set up, all the Alberta licensed anglers only have a small handful of lakes to retain walleye, how long do you think those lakes will last? A slot size on 90% of the walleye lakes would help all the lakes.

And you consider 80 fish over a 2 year period glutinous??? Lol! Two fish per meal, 40 meals of fish out of a possible 730 meals (lunch or supper)......

Do you work for the esrd?

I was just at touchwood and the fishing was junk, its ridiculous how you can have a larger lake with good structure not produce solid fish with good numbers. A guy has to wonder how the fishing may improve if the netting stopped at that lake.

Why isn't lac la Biche opened up to keep ? that lake is over run with walleye

Netting.

It’s the answer to your question and the REAL reason we can’t keep fish.

Sadly, lots on the board here Pierre who are unwilling to learn.

It is beyond doubt, requiring no proof that Alberta has an angling population that also is incredibly meat oriented. Ok, fair enough, but it has been stated 2.1 million times on this board we easily have the most anglers per lake pressure than anywhere else in Canada.

And you're not a slob for wanting to keep fish. However, you are a thief (I refuse to use the euphemism "poacher") if you are one of the arseholes keeping walleye out of Wabamun. Which is happening by the way. You are a slob if you were filling 5 galleon buckets of tiger trout 2 years ago, only because there was no limit.

Anyways, we don't have great fisheries management, I do agree with that. But until AEP changes its mentality, AND the angling public changes its mentality, we will be stuck with status quo.

My mistake. I read it as 20 walleye each per year. Which if the fishery could support like in sask, by all means, fill your boots. Unfortunately our fisheries can’t support that amount.

I still stand behind my stance that stocking walleye is a waste of money unless they close FN netting. Which won’t happen. So why spend tax dollars on stocking programs for FN retention. We are on the same side (closing FN netting and “subsistence” fishing). But throwing money at the problem so that guys can keep a few walleye is a waste of resources in my opinion.

I’d rather see dollars go to trout programs. At least they won’t just end up in FN nets. And I rarely fish for trout.

General agreement in my circle of friends is that Alberta slot sizes are allowing fishermen to take breeding stock sizes.

All good arguments, but are we truly learning from our mistakes of the past?

here here x2

Slot size straight up woudlnt work here. We don't have the walleye population or the conditions for adequate growth. Our fish grow slower for many reasons caused by us. The main issue is farmers promoting (cows drinking directly from the reservoirs, run off from highly fertilized fields ect) algae bloom in the reservoirs and dropping the water levels ridiculously low. These fish take a long time to grow and need the right environment to thrive. We keep messing up the environment and hoping it will get better.

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At $30 for a fillet I'll pass.

It may not be feasible for a slot limit to run all season but a short season say 6 weeks combined with a 1 or 2 fish slot limit is most likely feasible. Main thing you would need to spread pressure

Alberta is not the only place that population vs fish available is an issue. There is options beyond what is presently used. Many jurisdictions realize that if you provide some form of C&K you generate more funding for the recourse and keep strong interest for future fishing

Nothing wrong with having C&R waters or trophy lakes but without respectable efforts in a C&K fishery you are loosing funding and support.

I rarely keep fish but I see the value in C&K fisheries and how they are beneficial

^^^^ 👍🏻