Dolberg Lake ?
 

Reading the 2018 regs & it looks like Dolberg has been declared a "Trophy" lake. A bait ban & limit of 1 over 50cm. This is great news, & might help restore it back to a good fishery, one which has declined over the last 25 years. Question is will all the folks who have sat on the dock & still fished from shore, for the last 30-40 years, obey the new rules?
Other great news, Tigers seem to have been classified, with catch limits put on them. I expect stepped up enforcment, on waters that have had changes due to the new regs.

That's good news about Dolberg & the tigers.Finally reg's to help,to get the full potential out of these areas.There was a rumor of a Barbless rule in the province.Guess it didn't make it,to the printer..

Good news on the tiger trout change.

I don't know Dolberg but after downloading the depth chart, I'm on the fence about making this a quality trout fishery. Seems to have the history but certainly doesn't have the size of water and likely forage...but I really don't know the lake. But I'll probably try it sometime in the future.

Ah Dolberg....was a great place years ago. Lots of shore fishing bait fishermen have kept the size and numbers reduced. These changes and and an increased F&W visitation may help to return it to its past. Great potential there.

Looks like some of the lobbying has started to pay off. I am glad to see that the government has come to some sane conclusions that I have been pushing for, any trout lake in this province that can support populations year round without aeration should be managed as a Quality fishery with lower/size limits and bait bans. Dolberg and Lower Chain (near Athabasca) are a start. Meat hunters can harvest all they want from the put and take lakes.

X2..Lobbying worked but a great deal has to go to,the areas bio.For taking concerns forward & creating a new QSF.Now if other area biologist's,would follow suit.Maybe there would be more QSF's,thoughout the province..

Dolberg
 

The rich and the riteous rule the roost.





































Seems like the rich and riteous fly fisherman are more important than the people who have fished the lake from shore for years; a lot of them locals.
There are lots of big fish in there if you know how to catch them. We go there and release 10 to 15 eighteen to twenty inchers lots of times. Goes to show you once again AB FWL don't know what they're doing!!

Now that comment deserves pics or I am apt to call :thinking-006:

I would believe that if you are talking about years past but I find it unlikely now.

I remember the first time I went to Dolberg. I thought I had found a hidden gem while driving down the last bit of road to get there. Then I turned around the final corner and saw the campground, 30+ people fishing off shore and probably 10 or so boats... The lake was as busy as Muir Lake which absolutely blew my mind.

I've had some good days at Dolberg and caught the odd decent fish but its gone downhill even in the past 3-4 years with all the pressure it has been seeing and the average day usually consists of catching new stock and maybe a few 2-3 year old fish. These new regs will help it get back closer to what it used to be like although I assume many won't be happy with the new regs as most of the people that fish up there are doing so to catch their limit.

If there isn't regular patrolling I expect there to be a lot of poaching up there this year... Won't surprise me if there is a bunch of blowback either. Most of the locals likely had little say with the new regs considering how they were handled.

It would be nice if they banned gas motors for this lake as well, way to small for gas. It's not like a storm is going to come up from nowhere and you can't make it back to the shore!!!

Finally a regulation change that makes sense.Dolberg was great trout lake at one time. There is lots of put and take trout lakes to go to other then dolberg.

I didn't realize gas motors were allowed on a lake that size!! That's insane and totally unnecessary! :eek:

even more insane is the Federal fisheries.Makes the decisions for gas or no gas,speed limits etc.

If there isn't regular patrolling I expect there to be a lot of poaching up there this year... Won't surprise me if there is a bunch of blowback either. Most of the locals likely had little say with the new regs considering how they were handled.

RavYak.. Dolberg like Swan Lake by Debolt,& many others, have had bait fishing since inception. Hard to believe all those fishermen will go quietly into the night, because of a Bait Ban.

Dolberg's size & type of fishery now, should be Electric motors only. Once saw a Double Deck Cabin Houseboat, with twin 150hp motors out there. Really ? It's not Lesser Slave Lake.

I expect there to be major grumbling on this change from locals and others also, but it is an AB lake and the majority of users are from Edmonton.

It is definitely going to need some enforcement and calls to RAP.

First off I'm not picking on you Supergrit but using your post to respond. I have fished the lake but not for years I prefer to go west to trout lakes.

The lake is too small to make it any thing other than a put and take lake, just what it was intended for.
The locals out here are not very happy and a lot of the old fishermen that I have talked to are ****ed off that there was not consultation on putting a bait ban on this lake.

Heard some talk about putting pike back into the lake then those trout guys can take a hike.

"yeah what are they going to do take my licence away?" elder gent in I would say about his late 70"s. Table occupants nod and laugh

So all I'm saying is that with out proper consultation this trout lake may end dead!

Don't PM or anything else just wanted the forum to know that local folks are not happy about this.

Most trout lakes in Alberta are bait and keep the fish lakes, very few lakes cater to those of us who are C&R sport fly fishers, so the minute one gets turned into a trophy lake everyone gets up in arms!! Threatening to destroy the lake? Honestly people!!:angry3:

Whoops didn't mean to respond. Can be erased by mod

Dolberg
 

To bad the locals are the ones that clean up after all the fly fisherpeaple every year when we go for a evening fish or just to enjoy our local lake like we have for thirty years plus and when we tried to get the lake man or electric powered only the fisherys didn't want anything to do with it now their going to change everything for you guys fat chance!!!!!!

Hmmm. Cant Please everyone.

Case of Not In My Back Yard as usual.

The province could use more quality fisheries.

We all need places to play.:);)

And thats almost all Ive got to say about that.:)

Yeah, smrt-nin up you badd fly peaple

What are you trying to say here :confused:

Our local lake??? Sheesh :fighting0074:

I hate to say this, BUT it's usually the other way around for the clean up, when I go to these lakes I see empty containers of maggots, worms, find bait rigs in the grass by the water where the bait people sat and fished! Most of us fly fisher people are very conservation conscientious and respect the fish and the lake.

That's what I see all the time, and you haven't even mentioned the yards of discarded monofilament line left on the shore by the bait plunkers! :angry3:

I always thought that trout lakes if they put brown trout or anther species in the same lake as the rainbows but have the brown trout as the trophy species in the same lake. Of course the trophy species would be way less numbers stocked. That way I could have challenge of catching s big fish with my fly rod and put and take fishing could continue.

Agree with Stryker2. Really too bad we have a few forum members that don't see the wisdom of the new Dolberg Regs. Sounds like the "local" attitude is a lot like that which screwed up Hasse Lake years ago, "if I can't have it nobody can". Sure hope that FW enforcement is stepped to catch a couple of these fools that propose doing idiotic things.

The surveys were also given out to the local F&G club and a presentation done by the bio....so the locals did have input. They just didn't like how it turned out. From what I understand the surveys came back with 90 something % in favor of these regs. That's democracy folks.

Rich and righteous fly fishermen? Not me sir....I tie my own to save money. ;)

Garbage left by fly folks? Cant recall last time I picked up a empty leader packet. Or empty Gink tube. Plenty of worm bags and corn cans though.

Bottom line is everyone who buys a license has money going into that lake and has a say.

Wish more things like this would happen. And I don't mean that more lakes have to have these specific reg changes. But when a bio sends out surveys and gets input then implements the popular vote...well....what more do you want from a government??

J

To many people fishing now. We can't use stocked lakes as a food source.
Cast a spoon or a bobber with a fly..it catches fish and you can let the fish go for someone else to catch..

Preposterous

Pretty darn good idea... if they would have made the Tigers C&R across the board we would already have some fisheries that are producing both trophy's and eaters, everyone wins!

I have a bunch of family in the area and I understand the frustration with the licence change. When I was a kid there was about 4-5 lakes in the area with good fishing. Catching dinner was a way of life around there. At this point most of those fisheries have met sad endings, and the last fishable lake just got turned into a trophy lake to keep the visitors happy... I can see how that would be pretty aggravating.