Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish Hunter7
you know what they need some lakes strickly catch and realse for sport fisherman and some catch and keep all catches for people who like to have fresh fish so you can have the best of both worlds
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Such a system is already in place generally speaking in Alberta, there are lots of "stocky ponds" all across the province for the meat anglers & several rivers, streams, & lakes that are either fully C&R or have a very limited retention allotment for C&R people. The biggest complaint I hear from meat anglers is "We need to be able to keep fish from more places than the trout ponds because all you can catch there is 8"-12" trout!" An ironic complaint to be sure.
There are some lakes which puzzle me however, such as Pine which is a very popular lake containing a decent variety of species & at first glance at the regs looks like a good place to fish for the day & go home with a feed of fish. When you really break it down however, there is a 0 retention on walleye, a perch limit of 5 which basically means you might as well not even fish for them, 3 burbot (of which I have never hooked even 1), & 3 pike over 25" of which I have only caught two in my life that big there. I asked a F&W officer about the ridiculous 5 perch limit & she said it was to "discourage the keeping of perch" there! I don't understand why they don't just turn it into a C&R lake & be done with it, wouldn't change things much aside from keeping a few more snot rockets out of the frying pan.
Another option for lakes like Pine would be to make them C&R for the summer & then have a 1 walleye & 10 perch daily limit from ice up to March 1st or something. Maybe it's just me but I might only keep 3 or 4 fish over the whole summer but in the winter I feel jipped if I don't go home with at least a couple for a meal.