Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck
The Southern Alberta Reservoirs have some deep sections, but seeing what droughts year after year did to the reservoirs on the Colorado River system, some down over 200 feet, there is no guarantee that 50 FOW will not be lost to irrigation and Alberta's obligation to flow through so many cubic meters of water per minute to Saskatchewan. Yes, this is a thing.
All the same, the walleye limits can be more generous given the impact on everything else when the population of walleye is booming to the detriment of all other species.
When a walleye is over 8 pounds, it has spawned for about 15 years, and has created hundreds of thousands of offspring. As these fish get older, their eggs are less viable, so why not let limited tags for fish in the 28 " plus range? These large fish eventually die, as has been seen in lakes like Pigeon where there were strict tag numbers. The really old fish just died out over time.
That big fish has done its job spawning, and when dead on the bottom of the lake, has been lost for the fisherman to utilize when it naturally dies off.
So why not tags for big fish at the end of their spawning life?
Drewski
|
My first question would be, why would you want to eat that 25 yr old 8lb+ walleye?
My second question would be, at what point is that prolific spawner no longer considered viable, or capable of 2-3 times the spawning potential of smaller or immature fish? How do you make that call as an angler? Why would you want to?
My third question would be, why would you want to deprive someone else of the opportunity to harvest a trophy fish like that? Anglers complain about the lack of big fish or trophy fish in AB waters, but then want to introduce a limit or a tag for harvesting those big fish? With the "logic" being that it's going to die anyway, so it might as well be today? Makes no sense to me...