Alberta Bass?
 

Heres a question I've been thinking about.

Why doesn't Alberta have/stock Bass in any lakes? I understand they are a predator fish and can take over trout ponds but in Ontario, Bass and Muskie all live together and can survive the winter kill.

Anyone have any opinions?

I believe it's been tried a few times and they just won't take therefore it's not going to happen.

I think Island or Rock Island lake near Athabasca was stocked with smallmouth bass one year and the population died off right away.

Yeah, Ive heard it has something to do with the water.. Bass aren't well suited enough to handle Alberta's climate or something.

Too many idiots would throw them into other lakes they arent supposed to be in. If any did happen to survive sustainable resources would have a serious problem. Bass don't naturally live in Alberta we should protect the species we already have, appreciate what we've got and manage it as best we can. My 2 cents.

Bass
 

First, half the fish in Alberta aren't native to the province so the fact that the bass aren't shouldn't be a problem. In fact if it gets more people out fishing with all the added revenue etc. - it would be good for the rest of the fishing. I would be willing to bet that if there was a bass lake anywhere in the province it would be a mecca for fishermen - you would have to take a ticket to get on the lake or camp nearby.

Second, apparently the water here is too cold for them. They can stock them but the fish die off. I say so what! Stock them every year the same as they do for other species. Fisheries wouldn't have to worry about some nut job transplanting them to another body of water - probably won't live anyway and may clean up some of the other problems like perch. Again, if people are going to fish for them, it is good for everyone.

Who knows? They just may stay alive somewhere. We all know that the experts in the AB government don't know everything (anything?).

SRD policy is to try to help native species and have moved away from stocking new species. Highly unlikely to change their policy.

To many risks introducing new species!

Contrary to what some people think, they do a pretty good job.

Look at asian carp problem in the states.

Look at the snakehead problem in the states. To name but a few.

And the answer is yes, I would like to fish for bass. Just have to travel to do it!

"half the fish in Alberta aren't native to the province" thats true but bass cant handle the constent changes our climate has. also i belive theres still one pond down south that stil has a decent population of bass. be sure to ask the land owners/ and contact F&W. and the bass in canada arnt as easy to catch as in the usa because of the lack of bermetric preasure changes. so if u can locate a pond that has em use finese tactics and use small topwaters at night. totaly new tactics for the american bass

Okay with the bass education and everything and anything about introduction of new species. I'm from Ontario and we have all sorts of european and asian invasive species that live in Ontario waters. Yes chinook, coho, pink, rainbow and brown's aren't even native to Ontario, yet we intentionally introduced them into the great lakes and treat these as prized fish. Now there complaining there aren't enough baitfish to support these hungry fish. Every year the salmon are getting smaller.

Now there are carp's, goby's, spinny water fleas, zebra mussels and etc in Ontario. Aquaculture raising of atlantic salmon in the pacific ocean in BC now thats wrong which brings new diseases and the flea. And we're complaining about perch in alberta taking over the pothole lakes lets get real. All that money going into the raising of rainbow and brook trout to be killed over winter what a waste.

Yes the lakes in this province are not as fertile and are more fragile compared to other provinces. At least in this case invasive is not coming from unknown waters from unknown places.

Anyways I love the lake fishing here it's so much more peaceful and the crowds are small compared to back home and the fly fishing in the rivers are phenominal.

Just my cents fishing isn't so bad here just more challenging. If you could catch fish in Alberta you could catch fish anywhere.

I don't see how bass can't handle alberta weather. They are all over Ontario and from what I understand they have some pretty cold severe weather that the bass seem to be fine with. They ice fish them all the time out there and seem to have some decent sized fish lurking around. I don't know if I would want bass here or not since I have only fished for them once and wouldn't want to see them spread into every water system. But I do think that they could survive if given some time.

in te usa the weather is alot more stable and every little weather change the bass react to it thats one of the reasons bass are challanging bu also can be very easy if you know how to fish em. and kno where to fin em in coldfronts and stable weather. albertas weather changes every week/day or so and it makes it extremly hard for the bas to adjust.

huh?

I don't think the change of weather has anything to do with it. There is large mouth bass in harve montana and they get a lot of the same weather as us and even more snow. There is places like fort peck that have huge smallmouth. I think when they tried it they did it up north and it didn't work out. You need to start in down south with a lake that has feed or they will eat themselves.

If would be interesting if a club would be allowed to try it in a controlled lake and see what happened.

Bass fishing is such a blast, I really wish they were in Alberta lakes. The way they burst out of the water and try to shake out the hook while in the air.... nothing like it!!

Fish hunter7 no one mentioned the states and their weather. I did however mention Ontario which is part of Canada. I do think there is possibilities of bass surviving in the southern half of the province I just don't think fisheries will ever test it out. All the invasive species talk lately has pretty much put a hold on any new species stocking I'm sure.

I believe there is potential to stock bass in the lakes of Southern Alberta like in around medicine hat even the trout grow bigger down there. Stocking and trial and error just cost way to much and the diseases that may occur in places where fish already inhabit maybe fatal.

But who knows it's all speculation. In lakes around Mission, BC theres a huge smallie and largie population and no one takes advantage of that fishery because ppl there treat them like trash fish. But again the weather is fair with plenty of forage and the fish tend to get bigger quicker. So maybe fish for bass in BC it's closer than Ontario.

people start messing with mother nature and all hell breaks loose if you want to fish for bass go to where the bass are found they are a fun fish to catch but i dont think introducing them into alberta is a good idea and im sure F&W has looked at this extensivly im sure they have a good reason why they havent. :)

They have bass in Manitoba and Saskatchewan-Rock,White, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass in Manitoba-And apparently 3 species in Saskatchewan according to their regs. They have winters which are pretty extreme there. Might be worth doing in a few stocked ponds...

Really nothing to do with winter temps. You need a certain number of days above a certain temp for bass to survive and more importantly reproduce. They didn't flourish in Wabamun so not sure they'd do well anywhere else in Alberta. Not a far drive to BC, enjoy them there.

try big pike with buzzbaits, bass are fun but nothing like a big toothy fish launching out of the lake

i dont like bass there overrated. my undersized pike just ate your trophy bass.

If you love your trout fishing,just be thankful there are no bass in AB.On the eastcoast,NB and NS in particulair,bucket brigade bazzholes have illegally spread these invasives throughout countless watersheds where they completely take over.They are the single greatest threat to native trout and atlantic salmon populations wherever they become established and I kill every single bass I can sink a hook into on my home trout waters.NBDNR and DFO are presently in the process of spending millions of dollars in an attempt to eradicate smallmouth from Miramichi Lk. at the headwaters of the most productive Atlantic Salmon river in the world,thanks to some a-hole that thought it would be nice to catch bass from his cottage dock and illegally introduced them to the lake.If(when?) they escape the lake and get into the Miramichi river system,they threaten to destroy a world class salmon fishery as they feast on every parr they can wrap their ugly mouths around,not to mention the loss of an estimated $50M annual boost to the local,rural economy spent by travelling anglers that come from the world over to fish the mighty Miramichi. :mad3::mad3::mad3:

It's a pretty expensive river to fish on isn't it. Don't you need to hire a guide to be able to fish that river? Anyways it's a world famous river for atlantics and to bad there are smallies taking over. I remember watching the guys from the fishing canada show fishing for smallies in New Brunswick. I also heard there are bass tournaments in NB.

i dout it would be stalked in good fishery lakes, i think they would be stalked in ponds down south east. thats if they do it again lol

Yes,in NB,non-resident anglers need a guide to fish for Atlantics or even for trout on guide required/scheduled salmon rivers.Expensive??I guess that depends what you call expensive?No more expensive than the guided west coast salmon trips I've seen reccomended here many times,and in fact I've seen daily float trips on the Bow that cost as much and more as a day on the 'chi?
I'd say figger on $300-500/day depending on how fancy the lodge,but that would include lodging,food,guide....the whole 9 yards.The going rate for local guides is in the $150-250/day range for guide only.

Bass tournaments.....pffffft...don't even go there!!:mad3: Those a-holes in many cases are the Bill Dance wannabees that are illegally spreading these invasive menaces all over the Maritimes,threatening the very existance of native salmonids wherever they become established!:mad3:

Well apparantly the AB govt. knows enough about smallmouth to realise that even if they weren't an invasive menace and extreme threat to native species,they are not a suitable candidate for a put-and-take fishery.They are very slow growing throughout most of Canada and the northern extent of their USA range,going dormant in winter and having a relatively short growing season.They prefer water in the 70 degreesF range and don't even really become very active to speak of until it hits 60F.It takes several years for a CDN smallmouth to reach any resemblance of a "quality angling" size,so unless you want to fish for 3 inch smallies,you can fogetabout a put and take stocker fishery.

I agree grinr, alot of alberta is to cold for to long and the bass won't grow to any substantial size. As for guiding in alberta and bc it's very expensive for walk and wade. I can by a pretty nice outfit for $500.

Good Points! I do go the distance for different species, next fall I'm going on a fishing trip to Niagara Falls again so I'll probably try a few days for bass (its more of a steelhead trip). But ya, this has been a topic friends and I have discussed while sitting on this ice this winter :P I figured I'd try and get some answers from you guys! I knew they were an invasice species but I wasn't sure what other reasons Alberta didn't have them, weather makes sense though too.

top water pike is just as fun as bass but the only problem is pike tend to miss the lure alot..imho

reading this thread is just funny to me. I went down to houston at christmas. And I talked to a couple serious bass fishermen. They told me that they took a couple trips upto canada and they fished for river walleye in manitoba and Lake trout somewhere (cant remember where) They said that those 2 fish kind of ruined bass fishing for them because the one was the best tasting freshwater fish they ever had and the other one was the best freshwater fish fight they ever had