Are you saying the OP killed 2.5 fish each time out?
Well now we know what happened to that spot :thinking-006::bad_boys_20:
WDF

35 post since june '09, and six in this one thread he started to argue with everyone?

Obviously just waiting to have a legitimate discussion.

Braggart lol

Same with Pine Lake before the winter kill and then blue algae.
We had a spot, 2 of us with 2 tubs of minnows, be gone in 2hrs.
But the perch were decimated.
Oh, and this is one of those recreational lakes, great, we didn't even need to jig as all the boats going by did it for us lol.
WDF

No dude I don't live on these forums obviously. I just had to vent today, not trying to get in arguments. Don't worry I'm done now.

I miss pike fishing in southern Alberta but walleye just never caught my interest much.

I’m not saying the OP did anything. I’m just saying statistics and studies show despite what an angler does, just because you release a fish doesn’t mean it survives and they have shown how accurate the mortality percentages are. If you want to believe Everything you releases survives to make you feel better than be my guest. That kind of mentality goes along with people who herd shoot Or shoot at running animals and because a critter isn’t laying on the ground dead when everything moves off they say it was a clean miss and Don’t even walk up to check for blood.

Ya I find that hard to believe....a jig with a pinched barb in the lip out of say 10 feet of water brought to the side of the boat one twist of the pliers and released or even a quick belly grab and a quick pic then drop in.....can't see any harm especially death of that fish....now maybe a deep Gil hook?.....or just over tha last few weeks I have killed a lot of walleye cuz I am probably averaging in the 30's each outing....:scared0015:....now there is 20 boats out.....boys are having a hey day....lake will be done in a few months....nope...sorry not buying into that one.

Read the whole link and there is a lot of factors that effect survival rate and % of death. 1 in 10 is plausible in some cases but it can be much lower or higher. Done with care my opinion survival rate is high but the % of anglers who put in the effort is much lower than what many might think. Lots of studies out there and lots of different mortality rates

Truth of the matter is C&R has a greater impact then anglers would like to admit. There is a reason why in BC once you retain your one legal steelhead you must stop fishing

Fish can be tough as nails or extremely frail but

I was only responding directly to fords statememt.....I know that at different lakes, locations globally fish can be tuff as nails and then in other areas weak....

Catch a fine mountain rainbow and wow what a beautiful hardy fish.....catch one here at little bear right now....good god...soft to the touch...weak....probably will die upon release....


In a nut shell can't paint the same picture with one brush....

The article mentions the many factors that play into fish mortality just not rounded to simply catch and release.....

This guy speaks the truth... I was in your country this weekend briefly. First eleven walleye caught were all between 26” - 30”.
Insane.

I grew up with a cabin at sylvan lake in the birchcliff area. I remember as a kid catching perch off the dock, days of catching some really big Pike and some nice whitefish, and then in recent years the non-stop walleye action. I have almost never been skunked at that lake. Couple weeks I went out there and I agree that the fishing was slow, prob the slowest I have seen in years. However, if it means that the perch and pike come back I would be really excited.

Just my observation. At CVR which has been C&R for a very long time for walleye, of all the times, over all the years (there have been many years), the amount of people that say they get 30 to 40 walleye a day and the amount that we catch from my boat ,the only fish I have seen dead and floating or washed up on shore have been two white fish and one trout (way back in the day). Have not seen any walleye yet. Maybe the pelicans or the pike get em. Been going there the better part of 30 yrs and been all over that lake one end to the other. But that is just there and they are plentiful.

I agree.

The 10% mortality rate statistic doesn't pass the sniff test with me either.

If that number was legit, the walleye population in most AB C&R lakes would have been decimated years ago. The exact opposite is true.

The fact that lakes where anglers are complaining of over populated walleye, while at the same time talking about consistent 50-100 fish days, would seem to be impossible given that mortality rate. That would be the equivalent of every angler or every boat keeping a limit of 5-10 walleye a day. That is simply NOT a sustainable number, it's NOT realistic. A look at how quickly any lake with a retention limit tends to get thinned out should really make it obvious what the effects of a higher mortality rate truly are. PCR is a prime example.

The University of Regina is running a walleye tagging program in partnership with the Sask Walleye Trail. The results to date have been pretty incredible. They are proving that C&R works, even on fish with what was deemed "severe livewell stress" at the time of release. Anglers are reporting fish that were tagged 3-5 years ago, fish that have traveled 10-50+ miles, fish that have been caught and released 5+ times, and on and on. I have no doubt there's a mortality rate, and in talking with the U of R students, they also believe there is a mortality rate, but they have been as surprised as anyone at how low the rate actually is.

Proper fish handling technique is the key.

It is a sensitive subject so just take that with a grain of salt.

I know why you posted what you did and understand what your saying. Some of the fishing buddies I know saw the 1 limit walleye change and said immediately that Sylvan was "done" or would be. Your post is confirming some of this.

I'm hopeful that they will continue to change regs as needed. We'll see.

Show me the statistics for walleye.
However when it comes to still fishing with bait..... I’d agree. Atleast 10%. Due to the fact so many anglers are to cheap and lazy to cut and leave the hook in the fish. Rather than lose the hook and have to re tie, they would rather rip it out with pliers.

I dunno what op is saying due to covid being have the blessing of taking the rest of the year off and head out fishing almost everyday. Last week me and my buddies were on sylvan 4 times and the worst day between the three of us was 24 walleye. That was the worst. I dont see any decline from last year at all maybe your spot is over fished and they left? Maybe your one of the marina bay people who are saddened that the walleye left the bay because as one said their buddies all left? What is really sad about sylvan, is a guy used to be able to target huge pike. I'm sure they are still in there but why would they bite a hook when they can have a feast of walleye? The lake is over populated by walleye and some need to go its for the best. Walleye fishing is like shooting fish in a barrel and really boring.

Actually I recall a 3 over 63 cm limit for pike, like Gull had. Well I can't speak very much to the walleye fishing in Sylvan, I certainly want to see those "big girls" / pike stay where they are with better management. That lake can produce some bigguns and those should be better protected than in the past.

What does the better management look like? What rules would need to be in place to allow the “girls” to live long enough to get big in a high pressure lake like Sylvan? Is catch and release good enough? Bait ban? Special licence to fish the lake?

Personally I would change that to somewhere between 99.5% and 100% of freshwater fish.

well
 

80% of a walleye's diet is perch.

What makes you say that?

Yup. The ones I catch in the NSR agree.

The reason you don't see as many big girls is probably because they are choking on the sharp pointy dorsal fins of the walleye they are reduced to eating. Sort of sad, it's like feeding a dog the same dog food it's whole life. :sHa_sarcasticlol: :sHa_shakeshout:

Walleye are also filling up on the big schools of native minnows that support the other fish species too.

Another question...how do pike and walleye get along in remote fly-in lakes with very little fishing pressure? Are the walleye all stunted and the pike few in number? Are the forage fish scarce? I’m curious. One might think if that was the case, nobody would pay to fish them. Also makes me wonder if my Grandpa was telling tall tales about fishing Moose Lake in the 50’s and 60’s, catching boatloads of pike, walleye and perch on the same trip. I should dig up the old photos.

I was being somewhat sarcastic about the big girls choking.

The remote lakes are a more balanced ecosystem. The walleye were most likely not stocked and the predator species developed together.

My example , (might be flawed, welcome to correction) , If F&W would have stocked a million northern pike fry instead of walleye into some lakes we would have more pike and less walleye. Not a balanced ecosystem. In recent years there are more fish eating birds, like pelicans and cormorants competing for the native minnows too.

A person could still catch a good assortment of nice fish at Moose lake in the late 80's too.

There are still plenty of big pike in sylvan. I fished it heavily until 2018 and we averaged two or three a day like this in the summer.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4a1f00c33b.jpg


I “probably” saw more pike in the weed beds ten years ago then recently but I’ve caught more over 15lbs in the past five years then ever before.
The trick is to fish where the fish are and to be honest I never saw anyone else fishing where I did. That picture should be enough to tip you off where that is. Fish the bottom of that drop off where it goes from 6 to 13’ in less then a boat length. It’s loaded with pike and walleye on top of the 2’ weeds that grow on the bottom of that drop off. When I ran out of shiners I used to troll a rapala that ran at 10’ around 3-4 km/h along the bottom of that drop off and it would slay them.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5ce9010586.jpg

Nope......I feed them about 20 lbs of minnows a week:)

They just gotta do a little surface water dance for me in return......:sHa_shakeshout:

Beauty pike....hmmmmm.....maybe they are the reason eye numbers fluctuate????

All great questions. For me, I think C&R for pike for Sylvan should continue. This is year 2 for that regs change. That and improving forage species like perch.

Bait ban is a tougher one for me while there is a 1 walleye limit. Maybe something to look at adding in a couple of years - maggots and mealworms only.