Dolberg Lake on Radar to make a trophy lake?
 

So I have heard from the CO officer, that there is a census going around now for.people to fill out on wether they want dolberg to have more species of fish and make a trophy lake. What they haven't mentioned is if people says yes to this. That will be the end of ice fishing forever on this lake to help populate the new species into the lake and help make this a trophy lake . So if anyone sees this census about dolberg don't agree with this new multi species. Get them to leave dolberg alone.

There are lots of lakes you can go to in order to get your 5 trout... Not many to go try for trophy fish though. I would push for a trophy lake at Dolberg every day of the week as it is one of the few lakes that could grow a few decent fish with the proper management.

I would love it if they turned some of the even better lakes like Carson into a trophy Lake but that definitely won't happen so have to settle for some like Dolberg if we get lucky.

Lakes like Muir being our "trophy" lakes goes to show how sad our trophy trout fishery is here in Alberta. I guess that is why almost all the guys serious about catching nice trout go to BC, SK or MB to do so...

I would be totally in favor of this move. They should have done this to Wab for pike. The opportunity for a big fish is a good thing.

Wow yeah I agree we don't really have any other than muir. Dolberg is already well known from Paul's pics all over area gas stations ect of all those rainbows in that place I'm sure it could be great again and same with wabamun


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What other kind of fish species are being considered?

Lmao. Yeah too bad there is too many big mouths around.
Would be a good lake to put couple species in. I would bet that they would get big. If you could keep the bucket fishermen away......

Why not stock brown trout in the lake make it a size limit of 22 inches or something really big and continue to stock some rainbows. Get best of both worlds chance of a big fish and lets people take small ones home.
If that isn’t a option trophy trout lake would be great. If you want take trout home keep driving to Carson lake.

Carson lake would make an insane trophy fishery not many ppl know at one point in time the prov record raiboe was out of there and used to be renowned for monster monster trout back the day according to alot of the old timers dolberg is a really good lake too but idk how much of a factor is anonymity played in its past reputation of producin g large fish not any more tho as we all know its become popular, special rules will definitely bring back big fish there,

Trophy fishing in an over sized dugout where the fish were brought by a water truck........not my idea of trophy but have atter.

I am all for trophy lakes. The idea is great, but it is ALL in the execution.

And in Alberta, I am not very confident in the ability of gov't agencies to execute.

Perhaps the better term is "manage" a fishery.

Managing a trophy fishery is not only about what species to add and the stocking program, but it is also about enforcement of rules and regs to develop that fishery.

For many years now, enforcement in our province has been lacking.

Fishery management has been lacking (a ka, walleye everywhere!)

Yes, I am all for lakes such as Dolberg being turned in to trophy waters.

But is it realistic?

Any lake in Alberta that will not severely winter/summer kill and will support trout year round without aeration should be managed as a trophy lake. Those that want to take limits should be restricted to put and take lakes. I have been pushing for this for years. Quality versus quantity is the choice that needs to be made. The other major issue I have regarding our fisheries management is that unless fish populations in this province for any species can support a harvest under a general fishing licence no limit should be allowed. The issuance of tags to keep fish is a money grab. If we are serious about improving our fishery allowing those that will and can afford to buy a tag to keep a fish just increases the time of recovery for everyone.

We might use the management model that currently is in place for Bullshead reservoir. No bait fishing and a limit of one over 50cm.

Size limit would be nice dolberg can grow some nice trout there is enough out and take lakes .

Are you new to the province? Do you have any idea what the pike and walleye situation is? An open general season would decimate these two species in a couple of years. I don't like the tag system but with very little to no monitoring/enforcement the tag system is the only "controlled" harvest we see in this province.

It would be very nice .I would perfer C&R ,No ice fishing,Bait Ban.Once it's established ,then possibly allow 1 over 50cm..

Dolberg would make a great trophy lake but, given it's popularity with the C&K crowd and lack of enforcement resources...

Trout get plenty; and too much in my opinion, attention already in this province. 99% of the resources are already distributed to Trout stocking and management. How about spending some money to thin out the stunted Perch in a hundred of these small overpopulated lakes around the province and transplant them in some of the historically good Perch lakes that are not being managed at all and have a sparse population currently. The last time they did this a few years ago it was wildly successful and we could use a lot more of those efforts being done. Trophy Trout in Alberta from tiny small stocked mud hole lakes, meh, ok try some if we must but look after the rest equally proportional. The Pike, Walleye, Perch and Whitefish Guys all deserve to have some say and funding to help manage their target species and fisheries in the province a lot better too.

Guess you didn't get my drift. I will repeat, no limit allowed for any species until harvest is allowed under a general licence. What that means is NO TAGS. Until we get the populations back so that EVERYONE can harvest even 1 fish under a general licence no fish should be taken out.

Isn't that the reg for all QSF's in the province? I've never really looked at anything outside my "backyard" but just assumed it would be the same everywhere. I suppose I'm likely being a little myopic in considering only trout lakes too. Do we have true "trophy lakes" for other species?

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Never fished it but sounds like a great idea!

Getting back on topic, I agree that this is an interesting idea for Dolberg. I've never fished it. How is the forage and insect life?

BTW, the idea brought up by Carson is awesome. Can you say mirror of Patterson, MB :)
Now Carson I've fished and could see the potential. That said, it would be a tough sell to change given how popular it is with the current regs.

Not long ago Upper Kananaskis Lake was converted to"Trophy" Lake BS.
No more families with small kids on the shore enjoying Majestic Rocky Mountains Views and put and take fishery.

I doubt Carson will ever change although it has some of the highest potential in the province. It used to be a trophy lake back in the day, which is no surprise considering its size and depth. Now the fish barely grow because they feel the need to stock 18 million trout every year(slight exaggeration, but not by much...).

Dolberg is a lot smaller, it used to have some good fish back in the day too but with the development of campsites and word getting out it sees quite a bit of pressure now. Still ok fishing but pretty much only a catch and keep lake these days although it would grow multiple 20+ inch trout with the proper regs. Only tough thing about Dolberg would be enforcement as I doubt it gets checked all that regularly and I bet there are a number of locals that won't listen to the regs...

Lots of families at Kananaskis. Maybe just not yours...

Also 30 inch bulls, 30 inch rainbows and 24 inch cutties... Yeah they made such a horrible decision when they changed the regs...

I will never get the people that would rather go catch 12 inch trout to eat rather then have a chance of catching 10 lb trout...

the cutties are a good size now.

Carson? How bout they put it back to the way it was. Pike, whites, perch and burbot (still burbot in there).

Still birbot eh ive hears this from others too?

They probably don’t need to transplant perch anywhere, they breed like flies, all they need to do to improve perch fishing in many lakes (along with the pike, burbot and whitefish as well) is to start allowing retention of walleye in a number of lakes. The walleye are eating many lakes out of house and Home it’s easy actually, if there is a lake with stunted perch it’s normally without predators so just ensure enough pike around to keep numbers down some and you’ll get your humpies.

There's also naturally reproducing rainbows. Not sure if they are actually pure strain Athabasca rainbows or not.

It is you not getting the drift, because of the fishing expertise, and lack of stocking a lot of the local walleye/pike lakes within a couple hours of Edmonton will probably never have a general license. Some of these fisheries are close to being closed or tags for almost 20 years. More than 2 hours from Edmonton you may have a few lakes that become self-sustaining and will have a general season but it will be with minimum amounts

For the closer lakes the harvest on these lakes will be limited to tags, as the hope of many of these lakes becoming self sustaining for any species does not seem a reality.

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