Gill netting on Wab
 

So, we were out on wabamun today and saw a bunch of guys putting a gill net down the hole. Is this legal even if you're a treaty member? The guys weren't from around the lake they were asking about where to fish. Cause the regs do say no fish can be kept. Pretty sure they weren't going to catch and release.

Call it in and let the power to be decide if this is correct or not. Most nets are left in for a day or more, so they should be able to find it. It should also be marked with the owners info.

Thanks. Doing it now.

I honestly know some of the natives out there and when the walleyes took over and ruined the pike fishery and whitefish they said they just waiting till they big enough to get their heads in the mesh then they were gonna net the buggers out so they could help the whitefish out. No b.s.

Gill netting on Wab
 

Lol maybe they will sit their catches[emoji38]that's great


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The lake has really changed last 2 years and the mesh size should show what they are targeting? But would really like to be there when it got pulled? just to see how many of what speices the do cath? No matter who you are, just me but no nets!!!! in a closed lake?? I hope Jaymann has sucsess with the powers that be??
Red Neck Out
:scared0018:

I remember someone posting here a few weeks ago that he had spoken with the local band and that they were hoping to pull walleye this winter.

I don't hear about guys hauling in the whites like the old days anymore so I highly doubt they are netting the lake for those.

Netting is total BS this day and age and should be outlawed altogether.

with you on that

I agree, unless its useless stunted walleye that have completely ruined a great lake that are being targeted, in which case I fully support it. Fill the whole lake with nets IMO :)

commercial netting has been shut down in Alberta for quite a few years now. Exception of subsistence netting.

Agreed! Actually my feelings are stuff them down the hole with their nets.

Now the nets are going to pull out what little big walleyes are in the lake and the stunted small ones will pass through the mesh and survive.

that's sad, pay to stock fish then take the fish out with nets. should just give them a coupon for billingsgate it would be cheaper

At the recent information session they made it clear that native rights come before anglers. If and when it comes to the point where the two can't coexist it will be anglers that get the shaft.

In regards to the netting on Wab, I hope they net half the lake empty... It would speed up the recovery process immensely.

Yeah i don't mind the local native's netting Wab for walleye. It will actually lead to bigger walleye and pike, imagine how much more food there will be for the fish that survive the winter.

I wonder if the powers that be plan on re-populating the whitefish in Wabamun now that the hot water effluent is shut down and they could spawn properly. Imagine how big the pike would get with a thinned out walleye population and a healthy population of whites? Probably the best bet at getting anything close to the old days.

Yup net them out. They just gobble up everything in there and starve out all species. I thought it was getting set up as a trophy pike lake. They had it right until they put the walleye in. Allow one pike under 65 or so and keep the big girls pumping the eggs out. Anyone who knows anything about big pike knows they get big on whitefish and Cisco and keep a nice balance. Take the whites away and the pike suffer. And it ruins your year classes. It takes decades for other species to recover because there is no stocking or broodstock and lakes like pigeon will be void of perch because there is no recruitment and too many wallies eating the few that do hatch.

Nets
 

I saw 1st hand the destruction nets can do, a nylon net dont need mesh size to work, the big fish will roll up, the small will "gil", They should never be used, if the buoys lost the nets will continue to fish for years, fish get caught, rot,fish again,diveing ducks are caught,musk rats, beaver,etc---should be a total ban.
If no way around a commercial fishery, maybe baited trawls are the way to go, at lease the unwanted species can be released.---------As an ex newfie commercial fisherman who took part in the destruction of one of the greatest resources on the planet-- nets in freshwater lakes is the ultimate stupidity.

Could of course use trap nets when lake is ice free

It also could be biologists test netting for management or scientific purposes. Netting is probably the most efficient way to do testing in the winter. There were several test nets in Pigeon a few winters ago. Wabamun lake did have the spill they so the biologists could be testing the fish.

I don't think biologists have beers and ask for fuel for their augers when testing.

The netting for management is done in the fall when water temps are between a specific range. Hence, I think that very unlikely.

Are you sure that those were test nets and not native nets on Pigeon a few years ago? When I saw them and called the local F+W office they sure did not indicate that they were aware of any test netting going on and said they would send someone to investigate. My thinking at the time was that it was native fishing as I have never seen other netters leave large holes and huge blocks of ice out unmarked.