Explain this to me

[Cold lake guy]

I have tags for Hilda lake 3 under 43, all good but after catching my share of walleye over I have filled a tag. Cleaned it up at thought all this for this little fish? I would have to fill all my tags for one meal for 2 or 3 people. I’m a pike fisherman and have yet to see a pike come out of Hilda this year, which has been closed for walleye up to 2017/18. Then tag. Walleye ate all the pike fry?

Ok, now I go to a lake that has a 3 pike no size limit. I’ve been to this lake in the last few years and never been skunked. Today I had a flag on the first tip up immediately after I set it, had a hit while setting the tip up! Came home with 3 nice eaters.

So explain this, A small lake with no size limit can produce good pike fishing and lakes with limits SEEM to be out of balance.

The sask biologist that makes their Reg’s says if you fish a lake and catch nothing but fish with big heads and long skinny body’s then it’s over populated. That is all you catch in the smaller lakes with these over 63 limits or walleye bans.

[EZM]

Every watershed, unfortunately, may be different from the next in terms of populations, the balance of these populations and of course the habitat, forage, recruitment, etc... and it's very clear to me that the regulations do not recognize (or address) these sometimes gross imbalances.

[Cold lake guy]

If you close a few lakes around a small city like cold lake then that puts more pressure on the open lakes. Like cold lake which is a major draw to Alberta anglers.

But closing a lake to a certain species throws the lake out of balance, might I suggest a rotation.....close a lake completely on a 2 year rotation. This will also stop the cabin owners from helping them selves to a protected species.

[ssyd]

Originally Posted by Cold lake guy

If you close a few lakes around a small city like cold lake then that puts more pressure on the open lakes. Like cold lake which is a major draw to Alberta anglers.

But closing a lake to a certain species throws the lake out of balance, might I suggest a rotation.....close a lake completely on a 2 year rotation. This will also stop the cabin owners from helping them selves to a protected species.

Wouldn't matter... Indigenous and commercial fishing harvest far more fish than sportfishing does.

[Cold lake guy]

I think commercial fish is closed in Ab, I have seen nets on Ethel but not in va few years.

[Cold lake guy]

My point is that the lakes are out of balance due to the current regulations. Close one species and the said species over populates the lake. Close the lake for 2 yers to angling on a rotation OR slot size it.

[Cold lake guy]

Actually if ya figure it, on an average day there is 30 boats on cold lake. Most fish with a buddy so let’s go with 2 pike per boat..... that’s 60 spawning size fish per day. Because it’s over 63 cm. Let’s slot size 45/55.

As far as the ‘locals’ fishing they are not taking 60 pike a day. Most are not interested in a sustainable way.

Again my point is that the last few years of regulation have not worked, let’s think of a new plan.

[wind drift]

Originally Posted by Cold lake guy

I have tags for Hilda lake 3 under 43, all good but after catching my share of walleye over I have filled a tag. Cleaned it up at thought all this for this little fish? I would have to fill all my tags for one meal for 2 or 3 people. I’m a pike fisherman and have yet to see a pike come out of Hilda this year, which has been closed for walleye up to 2017/18. Then tag. Walleye ate all the pike fry?

Ok, now I go to a lake that has a 3 pike no size limit. I’ve been to this lake in the last few years and never been skunked. Today I had a flag on the first tip up immediately after I set it, had a hit while setting the tip up! Came home with 3 nice eaters.

So explain this, A small lake with no size limit can produce good pike fishing and lakes with limits SEEM to be out of balance.

The sask biologist that makes their Reg’s says if you fish a lake and catch nothing but fish with big heads and long skinny body’s then it’s over populated. That is all you catch in the smaller lakes with these over 63 limits or walleye bans.

Interesting! I read your message and then went to the gov website to see if Hilda was surveyed recently. It was, in 2017. Here’s the link:
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/c4ce...eport-2017.pdf

What you report looks consistent with the survey results. There was a decent walleye population, but not many small fish. Two years later, the small adult walleye have grown, but not many teenagers have likely yet filled in the < 43 cm class. The pike population was low, with almost none over the old 63cm size limit. When I look at that, I think most of the pike adults got harvested before it went c&r, so I think it will take some time to recover. This doesn’t look like a walleye vs. pike problem, it looks like FW wasn’t attentive enough to the heavy harvest of adult pike and waited too long before protecting them. I don’t believe walleye destroy pike. If that’s the case, the remote Saskatchewan lakes I’ve been to with lots of both make no sense. Ecosystems that have been around since the glaciers left don’t work that way. We’re the new X factor shaping fish populations. Moose Lake has good numbers of both now. So does Lac Ste. Anne.

Protect the pike. Harvest some walleye. Don’t screw up the habitat. Give it time.

[ssyd]

Wabamun is a classic example of our terrible fish management policies. Close down a trophy pike lake due to an accident and while it's closed lets destroy that fishery for some misguided attempt to create a walleye fishery instead. I can think of several central lakes that could have used all those walleye besides Wabamun.

[wind drift]

Yup, Wabamun has a long, roller coaster history.
https://albertaep.wordpress.com/2017...-wabamun-lake/

The policy of restoring lost fish populations isn’t wrong, but I get that not everyone agrees.

When I spent most of my time ice fishing there in the 80’s, the lake was wacky. Hardly any pike. Guys hunting big females in Town Bay with bows. Lots of little perch in bays. The whitefish would cycle crazily. Some years large and few, two years later, lots of small ones. That was one messed up lake.

Walleye we’re stocked repeatedly over the years in an attempt to restore them, but they never took hold. Mostly because of the screwed up water temps from the hot water coming out of the plant in town. The habitat’s better now. The walleye finally took hold. I still get good numbers of pike fishing in the summer when I specifically target them. I would really like to see perch fishing improve.

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by wind drift

Interesting! I read your message and then went to the gov website to see if Hilda was surveyed recently. It was, in 2017. Here’s the link:
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/c4ce...eport-2017.pdf

What you report looks consistent with the survey results. There was a decent walleye population, but not many small fish. Two years later, the small adult walleye have grown, but not many teenagers have likely yet filled in the < 43 cm class. The pike population was low, with almost none over the old 63cm size limit. When I look at that, I think most of the pike adults got harvested before it went c&r, so I think it will take some time to recover. This doesn’t look like a walleye vs. pike problem, it looks like FW wasn’t attentive enough to the heavy harvest of adult pike and waited too long before protecting them. I don’t believe walleye destroy pike. If that’s the case, the remote Saskatchewan lakes I’ve been to with lots of both make no sense. Ecosystems that have been around since the glaciers left don’t work that way. We’re the new X factor shaping fish populations. Moose Lake has good numbers of both now. So does Lac Ste. Anne.

Protect the pike. Harvest some walleye. Don’t screw up the habitat. Give it time.

Good post!

[Drewski Canuck]

Winter Kill Lakes are my Pet Peeve, and every year when fisheries management is discussed, I raise this fact.

Lakes like Utikima, Isle, etc will eventually be wiped out by a Winter Kill.

Why conservative regulation when it will mean nothing because of periodic winter kills?

Isle has been closed for about 15 years now, and no recovery to the walleye population? But it regularly Summer kills and winter kills.

Utikima is overdue for one of its catastrophic winter kills, but the walleye limit is 1? Who are they fooling? The lake is an average of 8 feet deep, and it is inevitable that the adult walleye population will be lost in the next winter kill.

The Bios read these posts year after year. It doesn't matter. I send letters to the Minister. It doesn't matter.

Allowing a concentration of fishing pressure on winter kill lakes really will do not harm in the long run.

Generous limits on a winterkill lake will allow the fish to be utilized and will take pressure off of other lakes with struggling populations.

If the population is low in the lake due to fishing pressure, when the winter kill event does happen, there will be that much more survivors out of the low population in the absence of a 100 % kill. If that happened, conservative limits wouldn't matter anyway.

Drewski

[58thecat]

if your going to do it right to keep a lake in balance you need to close and rotate because if you allow one species to be targeted for angling well its feed time for the others as in eat the little ones...balance goes to one side...slot size the fish for keeping or slot size and put them on a draw system for tags...

[Smoky buck]

Biggest neglected tools by Alberta is slot combined with shorter seasonal openings. It is a proven system and has been used to maintain populations in waters that have crashed and rebounded in areas out side Alberta. This is effectively used in parts of the states where pressure on their waters far exceeds Alberta’s

Balanced management is better for the ecosystem and fisheries

[Jokey75]

Fisheries meetings are underway. This is exactly the stuff they want to hear from anglers.

J

[Penner]

Just ask Pikeman he’s an “expert”...