Quote:
Originally Posted by Speckle55
went into a small lake we could kill it in a week..
...
but i also believe than sometimes changes may benifet some but takes away from the whole.. especially when Alberta has so few lakes.. people have said i have 10 lake rbt in 35 minutes .. not i have 2.. so if you take 1 make C & R the pressure on that 1 lake doubles and there will be no room like you see down there.. your lakes have super high stocking rates or are double stocked the most popular because of pressure ..now you want to take out of system 3 lakes down there .. is it a big deal yes it is .. do you have the fish and Game clubs on board .. no you dont even belong to one.. do you see what i mean..
i started as a bait angler with my mom as my Dad worked.. food for thought
|
I will try and address your comments in order:
First, could 8 proficient fisherman (flyfisherman?) kill a small lake in 40 man/days of fishing? Quite possibly. Could 40 powerbait danglers with very limited experience do the same thing? Probably. I would hope that the experienced group would be less likely to fill their creels to the brim without consideration of the consequences of their actions. The second group, I would be less confident that they would "get it" in time. My opinion, from my observations and experience of 35 years of fishing.
Second, I disagree. Changing the regs on SOME lakes benefits SOME, and takes away from SOME - not the 'whole'.
Third, see above - and: I think you might be surprised at what happens to your "1" remaining lake. I'll give you an example. Michelle Reservoir is only 15 minutes or so farther than Bullshead, but has a 5 fish a day limit. It is just as windy, just as exposed, and roughly the same size (I could look it up, but I don't have time, but it is a small/medium sized lake). Also, it is fully accessible like Bullshead, in other words there is no part of the lake you can not access by foot - unlike Police, which requires a boat to fish a large portion of the shoreline. Anyway, on any given day there are 10 to 100 times more people on Bullshead. Most times I drive past Michelle there is only one or two people on it (if any at all), while there are dozens at Bullshead. So which lake do you think the pressure will double on??
Fourth, are the local fish and game clubs on board? No. They are not. I believe that the majority of members of these clubs do not care about the issue because they either do not fish (hunters) or they are walleye/pike/perch fishermen. There is a vocal element in our club that screams "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" every time the issue comes up and treats you like a pedophile/rapist for having a contrary opinion. Frankly, I have about had it with this type of person and will be voicing MY opinion more strongly in the future.
Fifth, I am on the exec of the LFGA. I have been for 6 years now. I was the fish chair (3 chair positions for me) for a short period of time this winter, however we found a young lady with a lot of drive who is taking the club forward, planning a Children's Fishing Derby on Mami (Payne) Lake for the end of May. Everyone is invited! And yes, it is a 5 per day lake.
Lastly, I too started as a worm dangler, roe chucker, oolichan jigger and herring moocher. I have killed more fish than I care to admit, and I have eaten every one (except for the little bullheads we used to catch in the creek which people told us were detrimental to our trout and salmon populations - couldn't be the clearcut logging from mountain top to mountain top - nope, it was those damn bullheads.... and dogfish.... and rock cod... and bull trout...). But I outgrew that phase.
I remember my dad, uncle, cousin and I out fishing Lingcod (the sal****er version - just as yummy). I think in those days you were allowed five each. I later realized we were fishing during the spawn, and were hammering lings like you would trout during a travelling sedge hatch. Somewhere around 12 or 13 dead fish in the boat, I started to get a bad feeling; a feeling like we were doing something wrong. We were well within the regulations of the time, with more room for fish, but it just wasn't right. The next ling I caught I brought to the surface and just watched for a while, then, to my uncle's utter disbelief and anger I reached down with the pliers and popped her free (it was about a 18-20 lb fish, the biggest of the day, and unknown to me at the time, probably a female).
My uncle freaked. He yelled at me and said that if I did that again, he would throw me back! Well that p'sd me off, and I let loose with a diatribe, including more then a few choice words (that I had learned from him and various logging camps I had stayed in with my dad), about if he wanted to be an a-hole and kill every fish in the ocean that was his choice, but it was MY fish, and it was my choice to RELEASE it. And NO, he could not use my limit to catch more then his share. Did I mention I was 10 years old or so?
My dad just looked at my uncle and said, "You heard him. I guess we are done for the day."