Rocky / Caroline Lakes
 

Anyone have any reports on the lakes up there? Any signs of winterkill to be aware of?

No winter kill, however the crowds are off the charts all week long now. Fishing pressure will need to be addressed sooner than later at just about all central AB lakes. Was at Beaver Wed past, upper and lower parking lots filled, even a camper set up. Not worth the gas money unless you like gabbing all day with people 10 feet from you on both sides. Not for me but some people seem to like it. And for added bonus the fishing was terrible. I see less people on my urban fishing trips these days lol. Anyways just giving you a heads up on the over crowding. Take care.

Was at beaver may 28, 25 vehicles in the parking lot by noon, Saturday same thing but add half a dozen cackling hens on kayaks 😆

They need more of this[Beaver] type/style of fish regulation.It allows the fish to grow,get some usefulness out the the fish.A 10" fish released last week,from the truck.Makes absolutely NO sense.Allowing people,with lic.,to take 5 fish.No wonder the hatcheries ,cannot produce. Struble lk,no one was even there ,yet Beaver had 14 vechiles there by 9;30. Contact your area biologist,MLA to ask for reg changes...

They're all over the place. The same here in the Stony Plain area...yaka, yaka, yaka.

Struble is a funny place. Beautiful spot, super clear lake and doesn't see nearly the fishing pressure (in the summer) of others in the area. The fishing can be on fire if you catch it right. Lots of little guys, yes, but you can get surprised with a few big ones that fight real well.

Agreed to the limit.

Any lake within 2-3 hours of a major centre can not sustain a 5 fish limit and provide satisfactory or better fishing opportunities.

I was Tiger hunting at Beaver May 4/5th. 8 or ten vehicles & 1/2 dozen loons! only 2 cars at Birch, no one at Burntstick. I like seeing the cackling hens in their kayaks! Great to see everyone enjoying themselves.

Beaver bad 25 boats on Monday and just two kayakers.
Parking lot had 18 vehicles in it @9:30.
Only one guy caught any number of fish and it wasn’t me.

Don

fished off my dock on burnt stick very slow small perch seen one pike go under the dock and that was it was there all day Sunday

Time they start stocking some real trout lakes instead of these dink ponds! We have huge trout lakes that have been neglected for years!

Case in point, more and more people are interested in quality vs. quantity as the folks are jammed in like sardines trying to fish in these sloughs.

Care to name a few?

Here's a few: Ghost Lake, Glenmore Reservoir, Barrier Lake, Upper Kananaskis, Lower Kananaskis.

I heard rumor that they stocked Cow with Rainbows this year after the pike winterkill of last spring. Not sure if it is true or not.

Stocking is public info.

https://open.alberta.ca/publications/fish-stocking-list

Can you see Cow? I’m curious also.

Well look at that ...it is in print. Completely forgot to look at this. Rainbows stocked. I hope they are considering aeration for the future.

Well well well! Look at that indeed... maybe we'll return to the 70's 80's heyday of 16 pounders. That's not the bios dumping a few dozen brood stock into the lake... looks like they are re-purposing the fishery back to trout. Over 110,000 trout!!!

Won't be long before the perch show up (or are they still there? Haven't fished Cow in 35 years)

Either way, province needs more trout fisheries. Especially QSF's. People seem to like them. So add some aeration and some QSF regs, ban bait and ice fishing, and you're good to go. Maybe the Moscow circus will leave Beaver lake...

https://i.imgur.com/fNp9Zlj.png

Now with Terrell Lake no longer stocked, is Cow Lake the new trout landfill?
Maybe thrown the excess fish into Gull, Pigeon or Sylvan where they would give the walleye fishermen a catch to remember.

Don

:thinking-006::thinking-006: So, from above post's, they are saying Cow lake recently winter killed so bad it killed the Pike? Now they dumped trout in it so they can winter kill next??:angry3::angry3:

If that's the case, what a waste of 124,000 trout.

To reiterate:

Solvable problem with money and aerators.

:shake2:

Most things are solvable if you throw enough money at it.

Going to say this again. We have several large & deep trout lakes (that do not winterkill!) in Alberta which the trout populations are suffering big time due to non-existent stocking programs for them. Extra funds not required, just dump some fish in them already, end of story! A named a few lakes which fit the criteria in a prior post.

Seems our shortsightedness continues on with more money thrown out the window to support feature winterkills & proposed aeration systems on the horizon.

I think the main reason that the government doesn't stock those lakes is that in lakes with tributaries, and therefore natural reproduction, they want to keep the ecosystem natural. Instead, they stock lakes where there are no natural populations to interfere or compete with.

Perhaps you should email SRD and ask them why the lakes you mentioned are not being stocked.

Most of the lakes with tribs were stocked at one time or another including the Bow river. For example, the only native rainbows in the province are Athabasca's.

Time for some replenishment of fish in these lakes!

Yes they definitely were, but it seems that the mandate now is to allow populations that currently survive by natural reproduction to continue to do so, even if the current populations aren't native populations. Instead they stock lakes where the populations are more isolated and can't reproduce.

Yes, possibly. But is this a smart decision for the long term benefit of our trout fisheries in Alberta?

Could be wrong, but IMO many are tired of the 6" trout in the ponds that keep getting fished out or die from winterkill.

Time to think bigger & more long term to revive some of our larger trout lakes!

1. Not wasted money if the aerators work...right? No winterkills, or minimal.
2. Large and deep isn't the end all to be all. Ironic that you cited several artificial reservoirs as your best, prime examples. Firstly, some of those have actually been stocked. Secondly, some of of those large and (so called) deep reservoirs are subject to deep drawdowns, thus exposing the productive littoral shallow areas that provide the food and spawning area. When water levels are unstable, these reservoirs aren't the most ideal trout habitat.

Anyways, you and I aren't really seeing this fundamentally different. Trout fisheries can be small and shallow, and aeration can and does work. These larger waterbodies could work as well, but they have different issues that do need to be addressed.

Where you and I see this the same way is that these quality stocked fisheries are in high demand, anglers obviously like them, and the province should find ways to increase these opportunities.

Smitty

No, it's not "possibly". This isn't about the "fisheries" you feel entitled to, this is about the fish. They are low productivity and mostly barren and offer overwintering habitats for native/wild populations that go up the tribs.

With the state of native trout populations in Alberta, the last thing the mountain reservoirs need is stocked trout.

Just fine up here in the Central and North "ponds". Stocking is going in a good direction here.

Yes, I am entitled to an option about this, as are you. Thank you very much!

These (reservoirs) mentioned do not have many if any (native) trout. The fish remaining in them are (stocked) trout. The bow river system lakes-reservoirs mentioned are all man made. Much different then Northern Alberta.

The trout in the this system are in big trouble compared to Northern Alberta.
In case you haven't heard, this system was ripped apart from a major flood in 2013, an ongoing invasion of Prussian carp, and let's also throw in some Whirling disease. Oh and one more thing, this system has the highest concentration of fisherman in the province. So yeah, it is about the fish!