Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt505
There are some here who wouldn't believe you, I was arguing with them just a couple weeks ago. I'm very glad you posted this, like moose said, very interesting findings and proof slot sizes work.
Thank you.
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Slots do work and work well if fisherman will honour them. With Ni****ing being a relatively deep lake there were concerns over fish mortality from catch and release during the winter months as the walleye are generally caught in 30' to 44' of water at that time. As you know their air bladders tend to extend when brought up from those depths. Education was the key in getting fisherman to bring fish up slowly so to reduce that issue. One of the proposals initially had been to not enforce a slot size in winter and reduce the limit from 4 to 3. That never came to be and the slot remained in effect. I know I put a handful of 55-59 cm walleye back in the hole over a couple seasons and all were in good shape and turned and headed for bottom with a shake of a tail and water splashed in my face. It was discovered after a few seasons of research the mortality rate was not near as high as had been predicted. Summer was not an issue as most of the fisherman didn't bother chasing the walleye after they left the shallow waters as they warmed up when post spawn spring turned to summer. Most didn't like venturing offshore 6+ miles on the big water to find them. They hung around the closer to shore bays and islands and pursued the abundant bass more.
Now back to slots. Yes they work. For the first 10 or so years I fished Ni****ing fish to 35cm were the most abundant and fish over 40cm were not very plentiful. Over 50cm were rare as hens teeth. I can remember my first year trapling spawning walleye for an experimental Walleye restocking program. Of all the fish we caught to collect eggs from at the biggest spawning grounds on the lake we collected only two females over 8 pounds and less than 6 from 3-5 pounds. The rest (hundreds & hundreds) were the 35cm fish. Within 5 -6 years of the slot size introduction (no retention 40-60cm) there were more slot sized fish spawning and very few of the 35cm fish there and the 35cm that were there were now almost 100% males. When I left in 2012 you could still regularily catch a limit of keeper size fish (under 40cm) but you would usually throw back 4-6 40+ for every under 40 you caught.
I personally think Alberta Fisheries needs to address their management system. Cold Lake for example, I have not participated in or read any studies from there but I would think those 50+cm Walleye they allow three of to be kept are their prime female spawners. Even on Ni****ing they allowed over 60cm to be retained but only one in your limit of 4 could be over 60cm, the rest had to be under 40cm. To allow three over 50cm to me is removing your females and I know from my sex ed classes as a kid two males can't reproduce?! I think a no retention slot of prime spawners would serve Alberta's fishermen and Alberta's waters very well. At least that's my opinion based on what I experienced and as a side note all the waters in the area of Northern Ontario I resided and played in had slot sizes though not all were identical. Many were tailored to the different fishery zones based on many factors but the first consideration was usually fishing pressure received.