Quote:
Originally Posted by barbless
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.
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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.