Crawling Valley Reservoir walleye
 

Fished there yesterday, it's been about 5 years or so since the last time and I must say I was pretty impressed with the results. Found a descent spot at about 25' of water and just used a minnow and jig and did pretty good. I would say maybe 20 walleye in bout 2.5 hrs. Most were really small but had a few that were nice pan fry size 1-2 lbs. Might not sound like great fishing for most of you but it was a great day for me. Especially coming from fishing mostly Newell. Anyone else fish cvr lately?

Crawling Valley
 

We are going to head to Crawling Valley in August. where is a good spot to get some Walleye. Is there a size limit or fish limit there

Muskegman

Walleye limit 0, Pike 3, perch 15.
http://www.albertaregulations.ca/fishingregs/

crawling valley
 

Is there any where in that area that you can keep walleye? I know the wife and if she catches a walleye she's going to eat it lololo.

You can keep walleye in Travers and Red Deer River. Not sure how Bassano dam is after all that flood - is it still possible to fish there?

Best watch co's at launch checking backs of trucks underseats, in boats, they will bust ya for anything, including a beer that was in a duffle bag in the back seat from a few weeks prior when I went to a party....So I wouldent even try poachin walleyes, get tags and do it leagally..Or read the regs and find which lakes you can keep them, I havent bought a tag in 3yrs did my research and usally keep the limits for a fry when camping...mmmmm

I heard Bassano was closed due to unstable banks

Heading to cv this weekend. Got a few secret spots where the big boys like to hang out. Some really good fishing in the right spots.

So I tried a little spot I know off the shore yesterday and wow! Couldn't keep them off. No little guys this time. Biggest was just over 26". What a day

I'll trade you spots :)

I love CV. I caught 60 in 5 hours last weekend with the biggest at 5lbs.

I would love it too if they would let you keep at least one. Now it is waste of time, bad for the fishery and not challenging at all. Think about numbers they have there - you caught 60 ( which is not unusual if you know spots and how to do it, I have heard of people catching 100's a day), if you would have kept one no harm would be done. Plus with 100 valley caught and released there is 2-3% chance of mortality from foul hooking, bad landing, inappropriate handling, etc. so 2 or 3 will die anyway.They should make slot limit, lets say one valley between 45 and 55 cm can be kept - that would ensure biggest ones are released and reproducing to maintain healthy population. Now valley is not removed and it will get stunted like in Pigeon sooner or later.
In SK for example most of the lakes have 3-4 valley limit with only 1 over 55 cm can be kept and their lakes are doing just fine with healthy valley population despite numerous anglers fishing there and keeping their limits ( I am talking mainly about Meadow lake provincial park lakes). Really have hard time understanding 0 limits in Alberta - sorry for my off topic rant.

I don't buy into hooking mortality. I think those #'s are not supported by science. Walleye are a hearty breed.

It would be fished out in no time if you were allowed to keep, I see no problem with having the lake catch and release, at least you know you can take the kids there and have success.....there are plenty other lakes on the doorstep that you can keep wallys..Its bad enough with all the poachin there already, go to court any day in brooks and you will see almost everyother case has to do with poachin at cv and newell..You used to catch keeper pike all the time when I started fishing there yrs ago, no its touch and go for keeper pike..

Nail on the head. I've experienced the exact same thing.

It wouldn't take a year or two and everything in the slot limit would be gone from the lake.

Leave well enough alone and go buy some walleye fillets at the grocery store if you just have to have it that bad.

So you assume that every walleye in 45-55 cm range would be gone? That is impossible even with commercial fishing and with recreational angling it is even more unrealistic. Even if you take majority of that group out, big spawning fish will produce more then enough offspring to maintain healthy population. Travers is doing just fine without even a slot limit why do you think CV would get fished out with 1 keeper in slot limit allowed?
You can't tell how it would be for sure as we do not have examples of lakes with zero limit and overpopulated walleye gone outfished after letting people keep 1 valley but if I look at similar popular lakes with same pressure in SK I see them doing just fine and even better when it comes to size as valley does not get stunted or diseased due to overpopulation. Try catching trophy walleye in Travers or Pigeon and see how that works out.
0 limits are good for some period of time until population is established -after that you need to maintain it by taking some fish out. If it is not done it will get diseased or stunted. Mother nature will regulate it in its own way if people are unreasonable with 0 limits.

That's why slot limits are much, much better then what we currently have at 3 over 63 cm limit. You want to leave big fish there to spawn! I would rather take 3 60cm pike for eating then 1 100cm size.

This is not Sask. Why must people compare Sask to Alberta? It is not a good comparison.
What is wrong with having a lake that is catch and release?:)

Slot limit likely will only work with tag system.

It is not bad for the fishery and if it wastes your time don't go:)

Maybe you should read this paper.

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodcons...ort/282313.pdf

AK, When you remove fish under spawning age or size you run the risk of collapsing the fishery. And you don't want to go there!

I guess we will have to disagree what is good and what is bad fishery then. And don't worry I am not going there - catching and releasing 100 small walleye per day is not what I consider fun or a challenge...

Show me examples where this happened please.

It's far from impossible, it's actually quite likely that the population in that size range would be seriously depleted. Just look at the pike population in the lake for the evidence of that.

Travers doing just fine would be a matter of opinion, in my opinion, it's anything but just fine. The population of fish over the size limit is small and shrinking, the system is not working in my opinion. Look at the tourney results there this year for the evidence of that.

I can't say for sure, but I can point you to the history of fisheries management in AB and the reason all these lakes are currently on C&R for the reason why I don't think any kind of a catch and keep or slot limit will work. A limited tag system maybe, where total numbers can be controlled, but even then, once you open the box, it's hard to close.

Comparing Crawling Valley to lakes in Sask is completely unrealistic and a very poor justification for a slot limit.

Milk River Ridge as an example.

It had a zero limit for a number of years.

It was finally opened to a limit of 1 over 55cm.

For the first while it was awesome fishing. But people were keeping all they were legally allowed.

Fishing is still good but much harder to find fish over 55. The key here is that the fish are spawning multiple times before they are legally removed.

The fishing is nowhere near what it was when first opened though.

Now if you want to remove fish from under spawning age fish because people will keep their fish eventually there will be few fish making it thru the slot to spawn = collapse.

Not sure if you were around for the tough years but I don't want to see it again!

There are examples in most reservoirs and lakes. It gets hard to find legal size fish!!!!

The advantage to 3 over 50cm or 1 over 55 is that the fish stocks will/should be self supporting.

Any legal fish should have spawned at least once therefore replacing itself.

I am not a big fan of letting people keep over the 55cm limit size. As I said slot limit would work better.
You as well need to keep in mind fact of fish adjusting to fishing pressure and baits. That people are catching less fish over 55 cm does not mean there are less there - after being tricked by same baits few times they need new tricks to make them bite! I have seen numerous examples where after year or two of great fishing same baits just do not work - you offer something new and boom you catching same numbers again.

may I ask you why? A lake in AB does not differ from lake in SK, if the size of the lake, forage fish numbers and fishing pressure is similar it is perfectly fine to compare IMHO.

Uhhhhh...... Wait... What?

Then make slot size starting at mature size fish. 50cm walleye has spawned once or more for sure. Make it 50-55cm slot limit. 50-60cm. Whatever works. Just do not leave 0 as it makes no sense biologically when you have overpopulation. 0 limit is ok if you want to restore fishery or create it. After it is done it needs to be regulated via taking some out by recreational or commercial fishing.
It is not normal to catch 100 walleye a day. 10-20 should be considered a successful day. Nothing wrong in not catching anything - it makes you rethink your fishing strategies, gear and skills and makes you better angler next time. Now anybody can catch 50-60 walleye in CV and think that they are good at it... Then they go to Travers and catch nothing and complain that population is depleted due to keeping fish while in reality they had no right gear and knowledge to catch fish there.
I would be ok if CV would be lonely exception in AB but when 90% of lakes have 0 limits for valley when there is overpopulation then it makes no sense, sorry!

If you give me an example of a lake in SK that is the same size, has the same forage base/lake classification, and the same fishing pressure as Crawling Valley with an effective slot limit, we can talk. I doubt you'll find much in the way of that comparison though.

It's easy to point to slot limit in SK as an example of an effective strategy, but the size of lakes, quality of the lakes, and the fishing pressure on them are simply on a different scale than lakes in southern AB.

Can you support that assertion in any way?

How did the fish populations in lakes regulate themselves before we came along with boats and fishing rods?

Who's to say what is "normal"? Ever been fishing in northern Sask? 100 fish a day is routine up there, I don't hear anyone fretting that it isn't normal or that the lakes are overpopulated and the fishery might collapse.

Any "regulation" is simply man made manipulation of the population dynamics according to whatever agenda is being pushed at the time, not a necessary requirement for the long term health of a fish population. Nature will sort that out just fine on it's own.