I miss the good old days..

When you could buy a fishing licence and take home 5 walleye..

Life was good...

bait in streams was allowed..

No closures on lakes or streams.

No barbless hooks..

Free camping with free firewood at many lakes..

Yeah man...life was good...feel free to flame me..

It's expected...but I'll stand by my words..

I miss the good old days..

[Big Moose]

Don't we all, unforunately its the good old days that got us here.

i think i was in diapers in the good ole days. how long ago was this???

1

[Pikebreath]

Originally Posted by Big Moose

Don't we all, unforunately its the good old days that got us here.

Ain't that the truth!!!!

The sad truth is also you gotta go way back (in the 60's) to when the new resource roads were being built to every lake and stream in Alberta, to find both the fishing and the catching to equally good as well. In those days, the "pickeral" limit was 15. By the time we got to a 5 "walleye" limit the damage had already been done.

Actually I find the "catching" now to generally be better than 10 or 20 years ago and on some lakes and streams even 30 years ago. It's the "keeping part" of "fishing" that has changed!!!!

I do miss the free firewood and FREE CAMPSITES!!!

[Walleyes]

I agree,, on some of our lakes around home the Walleye fishing anyways,, is better than it was 20 years ago... On Beaver 10 -20 years ago Walleye fishing was "good" but not what it has been in the last 10 years,, the Perch fishing was unbelievable 20 years ago but today its almost non existent.. I truly believe it is dew to the amount of Walleye feeding,, even the minnows (shinners) are not close to what they were...
20 years ago a good night was 10 - 15 fish for 2 guys today 30 - 50 Walleye or more are not uncommon but that being said 5 and 6 pound fish were also common,, today a 4 pounder is considered a lunker for that lake...
Access has also affected many of our lakes,, why in the hell the government in their infinite wisdom ever built a graveled quad trail into Jackson & Kinnard is a mystery we locals cannot figure out. No one in the area asked them to.. It used to be a dirty trail that by the middle of June on wet years like this one was only for the die hards,, now its a car trail and the fishing has declined seriously... Its not like it did any good. Sure the wet spots were chewed up but the rest was left alone so whats the difference now its gravel, its still not natural.. And the effect on the fishery is not worth the trade.. Its not like there is a shortage of muskeg or wet holes in the area anyways... It is very sad to pull into the staging area on a week night and see 1/2 a dozen vehicles parked there.. Before the trail you were lucky if 1/2 a dozen a week went in... I'm not saying people don't have a right to go,, of course they do,, this country belongs to us all. But we don't have to put paved roads into our remote locations and then in return tell people there is to much fishing press and then not allow them to keep a feed for themselves.. Who created the problem ??? The 1/2 dozen people a week that made it into the lakes and took out 50 fish a week or the government who built a road and in turn opened it up to 100 fisherman a week taking out 1 fish a piece ????
Well sorry for the rant but I'm sure everyone has a similar story to tell.. I hope we at least can learn from our mistakes...

[SNAPFisher]

I understand what your saying. Yep, it sucks. If I had a choice I would say leave the area alone too. On the other hand, change is coming and remote areas are going to be less remote. Enjoy it as much as you can for now. We do still have a lot of remoteness to enjoy.

[Red Sky Shane]

I'm with Snapfisher.

It's tough to share with a lot more people, but in Alberta we still have it very good.

I read an article about hunting the northeastern states. These poor people had to wear construction vests so they wouldn't shoot each other and during some days there would be a few dozen people per acre. The fishing pressure in some lakes is so intense that there's no point in trying.

I was talking with a guy last night staying in our campsite that's back in Alberta for a 5 week break from working overseas. He told me of watersports in Singapore until they realized the feedlot/hog operation on the shoreline was pumping all their wastes under the water out to sea to bubble to the surface offshore.

Some of the past mistakes and mistakes not yet made have changed the environment and life for the outdoorsman, yes. But if we manage it or try to keep it the way it is right now, hopefully there won't be a post in another 10-15 years about the 'good ol days' of 2007.

[Unregistered user]

It was also nice to be able to walk into a Woolco and buy a new shotgun using only your driver's license as proof of age. Cooey single shot $ 50.00.