#1 issue of concern to Anglers in Alberta?

What do you think is the NUMBER ONE issue of concern to Alberta anglers???



Robin in Rocky and heading down to the AF&GA conference next week.

In my opinion there are many problems and issues that pertain to Alberta's Fisheries, it would be difficult to choose just one. Most recently I have been reviewing the ammendments to the fisheries act and I must say that this is becoming my newest fear for the state of our fisheries here in Alberta.

I do not like the future of fishing when you have to buy a draw tag on top of license fees to keep a fish..

I think that the 2 major problems in Alberta are,

1.) Dumb regulations, I think the limt of fish in Alberta HAS to decrease if the government wants to keep the lakes in half decent shape. 3 pike over 63cm?? thats encouraging people to keep the biggest pike of the day! its nuts. I think what they should have for pike is like 3 under 70cm, and then maybe one a year over 40 inches..incase someone wants to mount a trophy

Another problem with the limits is on stocked trout lakes, nobody needs to keep 5 fish for themselves, thats crazy.

2.) Overstocking of trout lakes, I think our government has to stock less fish into the pothole trout lakes. In so many of these trout ponds you see such potential for big fish, there is so much forage in these ponds its incredible. Scuds,boatmen,chronimids,minnows,leeches,calibeati s nymphs and the list goes on...
What is happening is the government has so many fish going into these little lakes that there isnt enough food for each fish to reach its potential size. I think they need to reduce the fish stocking so that there is less fish, but also bigger fish. When they do reduce number of fish stocked in they also have to reduce number of fish being taken out say 1 or 2 fish per angler. Because of these bigger fish being harvested(over 20 inch) you will get more food from 1 (20+ inch fish) then with 5 (10 inch) trout.

Hopefully this will get mentioned in the meeting

with out a doubt commercial fishing on lakes where there is a colapsed or population of any fish in any trouble.

TRUE STORY; I was at fish and wildlife on friday when a amn came in. he had longer sandy blond hair, blue eyes and was about 45. he had a last name I will not say, ended in chuk. ex. kowalchuk. He was decidding on which 2 lakses he was going to commercial fish this weekend. he chose cold lake and get this, PIGEON lake!! I spoke with the co there and the civilian, who informed me that he was 1/8th metis and he was going to get to net his choice of lakes twice, one summer one winter, 2 lakes. WTF. this was expalined to me as sustenance ( how ever you spell it ) he then drove away in his brand new 07 chev crew cab diesel 4 x 4/ WTF is that!!!

Brock are you a little jelouse? Im sure if you were that guy you would be singing a different tune.

I agree they shouldnt give the natives any more priviledge than anyone else but wining and complaining about it on a forum wont help.

It's time we... ALL... fish and hunt by the same rules..Sustenance my *ss..

Let the natives hunt whenever they want. As long as they are still doing it in their traditional way, still living like they did back then and they are doing it to keep their family alive not because the grocery store doesnt carry moose meat..

Alberta has the highest ratio of anglers to lakes in Canada. Lots and lots of pressure on our lakes. Maybe we do not need the commercial fishery in our province. Let the other provinces supply our stores with fish.
My 2 cents.

"Another problem with the limits is on stocked trout lakes, nobody needs to keep 5 fish for themselves, thats crazy."

Kyle, i understand where your coming from conerning pike but put and take fisheries are for just that, keeping a pile of trout. The main purpose of a put and take fishery is to remove pressure from our self maintained/tourist rich systems (eg crowsnest river, bow river, castle river). The trophy put and take lakes are good in moderation but lose part of there function. I have no guilt in keeping 5 12'' trout off a put and take, but i never keep a 18-20'' out of any river system aside from gill hook incidents. Just a thought.

I say loss of habitat and poor water quality are the main threats to fisheries in Alberta. With some habitat alteration you can produce a lot of fish, good habitat equals enough fish for many hungry anglers (or catch and release).

I think the greatest changes need to come in the regulations. Keeper limits are just stupid here in Alberta. I also agree that "everyone" should have to abide by the same regulations. My distant relatives hunted and fished to keep themselves alive here in Canada and now, the list of people who actually use that form of "sustanence" is probably counted on one set of hands. Cheap excuse to abuse the weak timid system.

my 3 cents.

brad

my worries are that my grandchildren will not be able to enjoy what we have and we need not to loose our resourses

Ryan, obviously you are alone here. and as for if you think i was whining, then whatever... you assume that if i was native i would be doing the same thing and take advantage of my rights and net. are you Fu*&^%* kidding me. all of the info i posted was fact and no assumptions. keep your assumptions to yourself. Yes i do think it is a fricken joke that he can go to Pigeon lake and throw a net of 1000 feet long and 16 ft deep in these waters for 48 hrs twice a year. He doesn't live on a reserve! and because of a lost court battle in the east a few years ago, my childredn will suffer the consequences! Now that is fact! B.

Maybe we need to adopt a strategy like b.c. & charge more $ for out of province lisences to get more cash flow for fish & wildlife to replenish our stocks.

In my opinion the total amount of fishing pressure on the lakes and streams is a HUGE concern. Regulations aside you just can't have that many lines in the water. It doesn't matter if everything is catch and release, with that much continous pressure on the fishery it is still bound to collapse. And another thing, the tag system is a good idea.

good call on the tag system jebber, but what good is it for us to draw or buy a tag if someone can go throw a 1000 ft net in the middle of these walleye?? you know???

Yes the commercial fishery is also of great concern to the fishery in alberta.

So far a variety of concerns that I break down somthing like this:

3 would like to reduce limits

3 think that "special groups" with special fishing "privilages"
are hurting the resource (I put Brocks comment
about "commercial fishing into this group because it was
a "special group" person getting a Domestic net licence he
was talking about)
2 think Commercial fishing may be hurting the resource.

1 Specifically mentioned increase funding for Fish & Wildlife
so they could do a better job of managing the resource.

This is the #1 issue as I see it. Many of the problems mentioned could be adressed by F&W if they had the staff and budget to do the work. Presently their hands are tied with some issues like Habitat concerns as the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA, a non-government organization funded by Alberta Anglers) is supposed to be doing these kinds of things.

Robin in Rocky

I think one way to help with funding is to require all potential anglers to take a regulated test... similar to a driver’s license! Just as with driving, people should have to show some competence with regards to angling. The test should include proper catch and release techniques, knot tying, gear care, knowledge of environment, etc, etc. This would weed out some of the 'undesirables' from the system and thus reduce the number of anglers in Alberta. Then again, look at how many bad drivers are out there, I guess as always some will slip through the cracks but this idea has some merit.

Secondly, with regards to increasing the license amount for alien anglers, I experienced an increase in license fee this past summer in Montana. They almost doubled the amount it cost us to fish for a week. I must admit that I was very upset when the kid told me how much it would cost. Upset enough to refuse and go back to the cabin. But after a day or so of sulking and realizing how badly I wanted to go fishing down there, I grabbed a set of brass ones and went back and bought the license. In other words, despite the number of aliens who would be upset at the increase (which should be large) those who really want to fish will pay. Others can get out!

Brad i really like your idea of takin a test idea, i do think it will weed out alot more people and undesirables and i also think it will help a little with the poaching because now its just gonna be that much more of a hassel to do it, and it will help with the funding and as you said the people that really want to fish will take the course to get out and do some fishing, just like us hunters, if we want to hunt we have to take a course, just imagine how many hunters there would be if you just had to and purchase a WIN card then buy a hunting license, it would be just as bad as the fishermen per lake in alberta, so i do think they should in corporate something like that, but i do think they should exempt those who have a fishing license already. but once again this all leads back to the fact that the F&G just dont have the staff and resources to do that unless of course a private group such as the AHEIA is willing to start to do those types of course's as well.

HA HA HA HA

A test to go fishing....

MUAH HA HA HA HA HA

HA

.......cough.......HAAAAAAAAA!

Id like to know whats so funny, do you find the test to go hunting a funny thing too, both deal with wildlife and preserving them and both involve proper respect for the animal and how to handle and deal with the them properly.
So please explain

Yes I think any "test" for things that people did for hundreds of years without it is a funny thing. esp something a 4 year old with a long stick, a lil line and a piece of metal formed in the right way with a worm on it can do.

I know that some people will not be acting in the best manner when hunting or fishing, but that is because THEY have chosen not to inform themselves; or they choose to ignore what is "RIGHT".

Not testing someone doesn't mean they will not respect the animals they hunt/fish, the weapons they use or the enviornment they inhabit.

To say that people need to take a "Test" to fish or hunt, is to me a modern day, money making scheme.

Perhaps a seminar, informative, teaching conservation, regulations, ect....I can see that...even make it mandatory everytime you renew your W.I.N. (which for years i never needed to fish....hmmm...wonder why).

I think netting in general is a problem, may it be commercial or sustinence. Last time I checked there were no magical nets that could differentiate between species. I for one would love to know in Tons how much closed specie fish was netted last year. ie walleye in pigeon

The only "funny" part of taking some sort of test/ semiar to obtain a fishing license is that people always assume that because a certain thing has been happening without testing for "hundreds of years" that changes are not necessary. I am not trying to say that a fishing test is the best solution but it is obvious that there is a huge problem in Alberta with our fishing situation and something has to be done. Saying that any kid can grab a stick and hook and chuck it out there is the problem. Is that really how we want our kids to be fishing. Education about habitats and conservation and the environment in general is as vital as anything to the survival of Alberta fishing. Just because we live in a free country does not mean that there are should not be stipulations and preservatory measures put in place to help ensure that generations that follow will enjoy the same opportunities that we do.

On another thought, I glanced at the regulations and it says that non-Alberta residents, Canadians, pay the same for a licence as Albertans do. That is just plain stupid. Period.

Brad

Count me in as another person against testing. Waste of time and waste of money. It'll turn out the same as the boating license thing thats in place now...its sounds great and gives some people some peace of mind but...the test ends up being watered dow, something that a complete moron couldn't fail (too many people fail and there will be an uproar and gov't ain't gonna have that happen). Then people take there peice of paper and the gov't takes there money and things continue on exactly the way they were.

Cripes even a driving test is somewhat useless when you think about it in real terms...it ensures that for one day you know the road signs and one day you can get by on a fairly easy road test. It doesn't determine level of responsibility and ethics, maturity or whether you plan to keep up on skills and rules when the teacher isn't around. Is our real problem people not knowing the road signs or people just ignoring them and thinking they are above the rules of the road. Same question goes for fishing...are the majority of people breaking the rules out of ignorance or are they knowingly breaking them. The feel good and "trust in you fellow man" answer is ignorance...but from my experience that just ain't the case. IMO most people breaking the rules know they are and while they may not know the amount of the ticket they are subject to they know enough to cower when a CO comes along...that says something to me.

#1 issue for me...to create more waterways of which AB is sorely lacking! Lets build a wall around edmonchuk and fill'er up...problem(s) solved

#1 issue for me...to create more waterways of which AB is sorely lacking! Lets build a wall around edmonchuk and fill'er up...problem(s) solved

:lol :lol :lol AWESOME

I'll drown for some better fishing!!!!

. o 0(wait, that means I can't fish...oh man)

HA HA HA...good one though...let me know when the water is coming!!!:rollin

As for as I am concerened with out a doubt the biggest issue is habitat loss. Which includes everything from watershed logging, development and even 4x4's quads and dirtbikes driving through and up and down rivers.

Second on that list would have to be the lack of CO's as well as the lack of funding for them to do there job......

Nets-bad, Stocking-increase, SRD-increase funding, Handguns-pack 'em when fishing(gotta open muh beer wid sumpn).