[horsetrader]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Problem is from a management perspective if you want any harvest and a reasonable fishery...rainbow trout are the only option for the smaller pothole lakes. There just is not the reproduction nor the food base to support pike and walleye. Perch are not viable due to stunting. Even bass would not work in a put and take lake unless they were catch and release due to expected environmental stress and reproductive limitations.

Only larger lakes...Newell, McGregor, Wabamun, Pigeon, Gull, Sylvan would work. Maybe Buffalo...maybe South Buck. These are big enough that a limited harvest could be sustained.

A smallie fishery would only be a unique fishery like the grayling in Bear and Quarry. As such...very limited harvest to C&R for regs.

As mentioned before...to switch Gull to a smallie fishery would mean heavy stocking of smallmouths for at least 10 years. Then stopping only after a few years of documented successful spawning as seen through population sampling. To make it cost effective...generous limits would have to be applied for pike and walleye...maybe even lake whitefish. After success...then they can restrict harvest of the predators. Monitoring would have to occur after that to establish a species composition ratio and biomass and track every few years to see if they are declining or what.

It is expensive...massive out cry from locals would occur...significant cost and manpower. Cost could be offset with special license surcharge.

Who would agree to it? I don't think enough would agree.

Is there not lakes or ponds that they are stocking every year now with trout due to no reproduction and winter kill?