Walleye draw choices a joke. Rant
 

What a joke the choices are this year.

Pinehurst class B only !

Last year 2 of us had class B
It took us 3 days and well over a hundred walleye caught to fill our tags, they were all to big !
The class A fish in Pinehurst have to out number the Class B by at least 10 : 1

No wonder there are so many poachers around.

This system sucks !

I'm sure there are other lakes choices similar.

I hope u don't join those poachers out of anger haha

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Most people on here complain that Alberta is backwards for keeping the “spawners ”. The government changes the regulations to not keep the big ones and people complain about that as well. No win situation !!!

The cash grab, fish tax, tag system continues to cause anger and always will.

Pay for a win card
Pay for a licence
Pay to put in for draw
Pay for tags
Pay fine when poorly designed tag falls off
Get your fish taken away.

Better off when you couldn’t keep any.... but not better off than when there were no fish at all.

What do you expect from a Provence on trout welfare? Common sense? Not a chance.

This might just be the smartest thing they have done in years.This should be the norm for every game fish species, keep some small ones and leave the breeders alone+ you got the excitement of catching over 100 good sized walleye for each small one? sounds like a win to me.

It looks like the latest survey shows the proportion of large walleye might be down. Not bad, though. It’s probably good to be proactive and stay on top of the situation.
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/807c...eport-2018.pdf

An hour east of pinehurst is a place called saskatchewan .that's who gets my tourist dollars and licence money. I'm taking my frying pan and a fillet knife and some salt and pepper and flour. Can't wait.

The effects of the fishing pressure from Alberta spilling into Sask is showing up already. Meadow Lake PP has had to reduce limits due to the pressure and the entire province saw reduced limits a few years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if the west side of Sask saw more limit reductions soon.

Take pictures of the class A fish!
Personally I’d rather C&R 100 class A fish than catch and keep a class B. Yes I enjoy eating fish. But I enjoy catching fish more!

BW

That's fine with me, I'm not asking for much...give me a 4 lb jack a couple perch in the pail and maybe a wallie if the stars align and I'm good to go. Sitting at a lake like pinehurst or lac la biche and catching nothing but cookie cutter wallies for a weekend or more doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.

Amen Habfan!

The draw system is a slot limit by any other name that costs you a small amount of $ to participate. If anyone is in favor of keeping the big breeders alive and then complains a lake with no A tags, is misguided. I'm not sure Kim if you like or dislike our keep our bigs ones regs - e.g. 1 over 63, 1 over 50. Feel free to add a comment.

Maybe they'll give it a name, "The feasting Alberta hordes" or something like that. Like locusts fanning out from our borders :)
Seriously though, it will be interested to see if that happens or not.

x 100... :)

Good post.

years ago the wife had class c tags for pigeon. We caught well over 100 walleye the weekend we camped there. 0 of those were small enough. Left a bitter taste in my mouth. I think they gave out like 10000 of those tags that year. Those stupid bastards new the size demographics in the lake and it was nothing short of a money grab. The tag system needs to be abolished in favour of limited numbers in a slot size.

LOL! Blame F&W for your fishing prowess too? This is hysterical. Other than making tags free, I really do not see a "win" for you. You have to put in time to find them, which is actually awesome! I would rather catch class B and As all day long. There are plenty of under 43 cm walleye in that lake. Did you spend more than a weekend trying? I usually catch them just targeting whites as a by-catch.

Fishing, tags or not, is not a guarantee right?

Last few years gotta say same here.

Thats what the tag system is. lol:)

remember a few years back when Frenchman lake and a few others had 3 walleye limits plus generous pike and perch and whitefish and burbot limits when all of those lakes were freezing to the bottom or had been dead and void of all fish for years ? Made no sense at all I'm not sure what that was all about but they have done some silly things in the regulation book in the past that I still can't figure out. Selling tags on mass for a fish that hardly exists is par for the course. Giving that many tags would tell the average Joe that there is a surplus that needs harvesting in that year class. Not suprised at all shows they are crooked as a grizzlies tit or haven't a clue.

This is a really, really simple one for me. I do buy tags, yes. I have never, ever bought tags for a lake that I've never fished or do not have an idea of the size classes that lake has to offer. After all, I am spending additional fees to do this. I'm going to ensure my money is well spent - something I have a chance of filling.

If you or anyone, in-turn, blindly buy tags for a lake you know little about, then do not fill them (surprise, surprise), then blame "the man" for it....cmon! Really? Sorry for your luck but in my books you got what you paid for.

Hypothetically, if tags were free and there were slot limits in place at certain lakes. I would still do what I do if I wanted to actually keep something. I guess that is just how I roll....

X2 Hahaha

Get ready for the pike tag system that’s coming are way next, it’s only a mister of time.

I had A class tags for Gregoire lake this year and it was easily the worst walleye fishing in years that I’ve had in that lake. I don’t blame it on the tag system though it was only the first year in 15-20yrs that a guy could keep a walleye and the fishing was slow from the start of the season.

Class A tags at Long lake here. Have had c and b before filled no problem. Cannot for the life of me fill the 2nd. Smaller sizes no problem, can’t get 50+. Fished over 100 hours there between summer and winter.

Why do we keep buying fishing licenses? If we can’t retain any fish, and everything is catch and release we shouldn’t have to buy a license.

Heard Pinehurst is closed to Jack next year so it will only be tags for walleye might as close the lake

come on snap, we've argued before and I respect your opinion. So in your mind it's up to us tax paying license buying fishermen to do our own investigating on the current status of size structure and year classes of the tags we apply for? It's in the government's hands the whole draw system, we trust their word that there is a surplus population which is why tags are alloted in certain numbers for certain lakes. We should not be responsible for picking out scams and large numbers of tags sold on mass for a weak year class that doesn't even exist. We are supposed to trust and have faith in our pathetic fishery managers and biologists that call the shots and all we can do is assume that they have done extensive research to justify the radical changes and allocation of tags. If they haven't done any research at all and it's just a money grab like it is appearing to be... then how as a fisherman can you justify the impact of stocked fish that were paid for with angler dollars in the first place and the impact they have had on gull pigeon sylvan pine Bellevue plus many others? Of course they are selling tags for fish that don't exist but its just another scam and I'm sick of this kind of crap.

Yes!! Regardless of tag system or not, it's "Fishing". Not the "Government guarantee walleye catch plan" :lol:
Take away the entire tag system at all. How did you catch fish before? Did F&W tell you where to fish and exactly what to expect? I would hope you have some experience of your own to guide you. .... or so I thought


It`s not a scam. The fish are there. Some lake you have to work harder at getting the size you want. There is nothing new here. Tags or not, it takes some effort, knowledge and skill.

I`m saying the fish are there because I`ve only ever left one tag unfilled. And that was last year and I was just lazy about it. Released plenty that I could have kept. I focus on getting tags at the lakes I know and generally where I`ll get them in an evening of fishing.

Bigger fish, harder to catch no?
Over time that should change as some of those B's and C's age.

Are you on glue? Like I said, we had zero issue catching them, they were ALL too big. This was like 9 or 10 years ago. no doubt the age structure is different now. Anyone we talked to all had the exact same tags as she did and no one could find one small enough. they gave out a **** load of tags for an age structure that wasn't in the lake.