Fisheries Regulation Changes 2019-2020
 

Just heard that AEP is looking for input on adjustments to fisheries management objectives and sportfishing regulations for 2019 - 2020. Most of the changes have to do with walleye lakes. You can read the information and take the surveys at TalkAEP https://talkaep.alberta.ca/ You'll have to register if you haven't already. Surveys close on DECEMBER 17th. There's also an interesting video on Fisheries Management on the site.

Thanks!
Responded to the lakes that I frequent and know. Glad to have the opportunity.

Unfortunately this post will go sideways with armchair bios. I could be wrong though...:innocent:

Registered, but surveys are all about completely unfamiliar lakes. So was not able to give any input.

Looks to me like wabasca will be closed for pike and walleye next year. Looks like pike closure at lac la bische as well.

I for one would sure like to see Fisheries.Do a survey on our trout lakes.

Not the easiest website to navigate, but if you start going thru all the different links, there is a lot of information about fisheries management in Alberta. It's a worthwhile exercise to go through to get a handle on the science / methodology SRD is using to determine fisheries policy and regulations.

Yay, more lakes for our fisheries biologists to turn into stunted walleye arcades.

Good riddance, I cant stand dropping a line for more than 5 seconds and not catching a walleye.

And screw forage fish, we don't need them and never did. Who do they think they are anyways. All they are good for is making annoying little flickers on sonar.

I'd hate to be labled as an armchair biologist so I will stop there before the big bad important folks come and put me in my place.

Quantity not quality!! Gotta make sure everyone has equal opportunity even if they don’t know how to catch a fish.. Sickening!!

These surveys are a joke. I have done the last few and not going to waste my time any longer. They put them out to appease public, but in the end it doesn't change anything because their agenda is set in the Alberta Fisheries master plans.

I think the arm chair biologist would create more desirable fisheries in this province than the biologists and public officers running the show currently.

It will be very sad if they close down Wabasca/Lac La Biche and other large lakes in the north. Probably these large water bodies would be better managed with regulations for retention of smaller fish.

In my opinion Quality outweighs catch rates. Why can't we have diversity in the province? When I took biology 101 it was all about diversity. You can not have both quality and quantity. You have to choose.

If they want catch rates to be high on some lakes that is fine. Let the beginner anglers have their 50 fish days of 2 pound walleye to keep them happy close to the cities. The biologists should really keep their hands off the distant large lake fisheries. Or maybe even try something totally Novel like using a different management strategy, for a change. Actually try to create trophy type fisheries with slots and max sizes. Why ruin trophy quality fisheries in exchange for catch rates?

Look at this for example - They closed Utikuma for walleye retention and decreased the pike limit to 2.

Winter and Summer Kill Lakes
Waterbody Watershed Unit Summer or Winter Kill Management Update
Bruce Lake PP2 Winter kill TBD
Bullshead Reservoir PP1 Winter kill Stocked May 26, 2018
Calder Lake NB3 Winter kill TBD
Unnamed (Carburn) Lake PP1 Winter kill TBD
CPR Reservoir PP1 Winter kill TBD
Crimson Lake ES2 Winter kill TBD
Dickson Trout Pond ES2 Winter kill Will be stocked by May long weekend
Ghost Lake ES1 Summer kill None
Pine Lake PP2 Winter kill TBD
Police Lake PP1 Winter kill Stocked May 11, 2018
Utikuma Lake and River NB3 Winter kill None
Winagami Lake NB3 Winter kill None


Did you notice anything???? Utikuma WINTERKILLED.
This lake historically winterkills on a semi regular basis. Why on earth would you ever have a 0 retention fishery on a highly productive lake that has a high risk of killing???


I am totally biased though because these biologists actually ruined our childhood fishing hole. Used to catch buckets full of perch and couldn't catch a walleye. Now all you catch is walleye that you can not keep, but you can't catch a perch to save your soul. Walleye were an introduced species in that lake. They are protecting a non-native species over native Pike and Yellow Perch. I don't even know how this is legal.

Depressed, disgusted.... and to think I now have to pay $60 to fish when I'm back in town.

That's my rant. Alberta fisheries biologists are working themselves out of jobs. Once all the lakes are closed there will be nothing left to manage.

Wow Utikima is zero catch for walleye that is sad things will never get better for the fisherman. Eventually slave lake will follow suit because it will be the only lake left that you can keep a fish.

If the Slave lake was closed it would kill the tourism as well.


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If they put a bait ban on any of their "world class" walleye fisheries the walleyes would starve to death. All they got to eat is frozen minnows and maybe the odd dew worm or leech laying on the bottom of the community hole. Sad state of affairs to say the least. I've ranted and whined enough about it...another alberta boy who has seen the demise of our quality fisheries over the last 40+ years. The pike situation in sylvan buck and gull is the worst. Nice gene pool with large faster growing pike that kept the place in order. They let us take 3 breeders a day for way too long. I wonder how they explain their logic behind that now that they went to a zero limit. Imagine if those big pike had been protected for this long with a 1 or 2 under 70cm limit for those that want a fish to eat. You would still have all those big girls doing their thing every spring. They aren't gonna stock any pike or perch so it's gonna take forever for these once prolific lakes with a good variety of species to get back on their feet if ever. Brutal.

LOL, 20 years ago everyone was complaining you couldn't catch a Walleye and guys were complaining about that.

Would you rather catch a hundred 8" Perch or ten 18" Walleye. I know what I would prefer. To each his own I guess.

You know, nobody is holding a gun to anyone head forcing anyone to buy a license or to fish within Alberta.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I like the fact that Pike are now getting some attention.

I guess it all depends on the driver for fishing. Going out to catch and release 18 inch walleye seems pointless to me.

100, 8 inch perch would make a mighty fine fry!

You must have missed the other stuff mentioned about biology, diversity, winter kills, proximity, quality over quantity... all things that dont seem to enter the minds of the guys with the ban hammer. They only look at catch rate like yourself, so understandable why you'd be happy catching 18 inch walleye.


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Brandon, well said and thank you.

Our system in regards to fisheries and hunting in Alberta is totally fubar.

Soooooo.....how do we fix it?

Well said.

I wish we had perch like we did 15-20 years ago in the province and fish mgmt gave them a chance -- Northern Europe has lakes like ours crawling with 2-3 ponders that taste better then a walleye any day. Plus at that size they're not as hard to deal with the bones.

Perch are such a hardy fish they can survive being frozen with almost zero oxygen and low water (perfect for Alberta sloughs). Unfortunately fish mgmt is too short sighted to support this for fisherman who eat what they catch. Instead all they seem to care about is money from sports fisherman who want to catch and release big trout while wearing their felt bottom boots.

Now we have whirling disease across the entire bow river basin because of stupidity and greed.

Europe's perch are different biologically than ours. That's not to say that management in Alberta shouldn't improve.

Well said. I still don't understand why slot sizes like in Calling lake weren't implemented in more lakes. I imagine a few of the now zero catch limit lakes would still be allowing retention of fish with the breeders surviving and reproducing. As said before, I guess there's no money in slot sizes like there is in the draws/tags........Pretty sad.

The other "stuff" wasn't missed by me, I'm happiest catching a variety species in a variety of age classes. I also don't mind taking a fish home for the frying pan every now and then. I'm an avid angler just like the rest of you. One difference however, I'm realistic.

Perhaps what is misunderstood by yourself and most others is the single fact that Alberta currently does not have the water bodies nor the population of fish within them to allow sustainable harvest of any game fish species under general possession limits with the number of licensed anglers that currently exist. There are likely only 2 things that could possibly change that, an extensive stocking program for all game fish species, combined with extensive regulation enforcement. But there is little chance either of those are going to happen with the economical pressures in this Province that we are likely to be faced with for the foreseeable future.

No argument from me the fisheries biologists have certainly contributed to the current state of our fisheries, however its your brother, your dad, your uncle, your grandfather, the fellow anglers on this forum, yourself, I, and any other angler in this province past/present whom have impacted the fishery the most and are where the fingers should be pointed at.

Times have changed and the times of keeping 5 of that, 10 of this, 30 of those are long gone and aren't coming back anytime soon.

Restating keep limits because you feel "entitled" to it, or bitch'n that the "biologist" don't have a clue, or eliminating the draw system "because it is just a money grab", ain't going to solve squat and quite frankly is the exact mindset that has gotten us to where we are.

Thus to my original point, I'd rather catch and not keep, then not catch or keep. Have draws for those whom like to take a meal home every now and then. That's reality.

It's not about bonking fish, it's about balanced fisheries and diversity. If you protect walleye in a lake they are an apex predator. They are fishing 365 days a year eating everything in the lake that they can fit in their mouth. As many fish as we ever caught we never could have fished the lake out of perch in a lifetime. What we could not achieve in a lifetime the walleye have collapsed in 15 years of protection. It was really interesting to watch a lake change over time and population dynamics flux with the simple shutdown of the walleye fishery. Mid way it was looking pretty great... we have long since past that point.

I think the number of waters and sportfisherman is an excuse! Government will always blame us. I used to actually see way more people fishing back in the day when there were limits. Now hardly see anyone fishing on the lakes. Natives are still netting these lakes. The oil industry continues to deplete the ground water and lake levels in areas across the province have suffered significant drop in water levels. Winterkill/ summer kill, blue green algae, nutrient loading from surrounding cattle and grain farms.

You pointing the finger at me is kind of funny given haven't lived in Alberta for 15 years and I haven't kept a fish from the lake I mentioned in years. There are lots of fish in Alberta and super easy to catch... they're just all small starving walleye.

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well put

X3

👍👍👍

Dodger.

Couldn't agree more and as I've said in previous posts before. The bio's missed the boat on this point by a thousand miles no question.

Your dead wrong on this one. After several years of recovery, Long Lake was opened up for 2 weeks to allow a harvest of 1 Walleye. The Walleye fishery collapsed again only after 2 weeks. GPS, sonars, imaging, underwater cameras, GPS guided trolling motors, advanced lures & tackle, quads, skidoos, SxS, inflatable float tubes... we have an unfair advantage. Whether it be technical advantages or pi$$ poor fisheries management decisions, us humans have the ability to impact things with a flip of a switch.

Agree with most of these points here as well however what do any of these points have to do with harvest management by fisheries?

Just a hunch, do you think that the water levels for "your" neck of the woods Garner, Mann, Floating Stone, Fork, Muriel... are due to the Oil industry? If so you need to get educated.

If you think the problem only started 15 years ago you are unfortunately very ill informed. Futher more I'm pointing the finger at all of us anglers not just you in case you missed that. What would be interesting is to see your viewpoint on what solutions you would implement to correct what you see as being wrong. Like most, you have pointed a bunch of fingers but are silent and it appears unwilling to participate at any level in contributing to improving our resource.

Fisheries
 

I have watched most of your videos and you bonk everything you catch! The nmbers of fishable waters vs number of anglers is not an excuse its simple math. 800 lakes and 9 river systems supporting 3.5 hundred K licensed anglers plus over 65 under 16 and natives and out of province like yourself. Its a wonder we have the fishing we do. You do make valid ponts regarding oil water usage and poor farming practices. Walleye were in serious threat of being damaged for good in the 80s and people were freaking out. Measures were taken to correct that and people rejoiced. I recall people saying that South buck was dead and now its fishing well again. I guess its being careful what we wish for. Ive known and still know and associate with several biologists and fisheries technicians. They are immersed in what they do and have all the data. Armchair bios need to relax and let them do their jobs.

Amen!!! Great response Penner. I was thinking the same things but held off on responding to Brandon since it really was a response to your post.

Cheers!

Won't be buying an Alberta fishing license next year. I'll drive to sask. and give them my money...

Awww, that hurts.:);)