WTHECK netting at Pigeon opening !!!!

[sturgeonhound]

Sorry ....it's supposed to be 4" mesh and 5.5" mesh not mess...stupid spell checker!

[deadlast]

You guys that have suggested in any way that PETA be involved. Give your head a shake. These terrorists A)Don't give a crap about animals in any way. B)Have a bigger political agenda than anyone can imagine. C)Invite them into Alberta and none of us will be fishing again.

I have fished Pigeon Lake since 1980 and this netting is great news. The Walleye are skinnier than my frail great grandmother. The Pike have all but vanished. The Perch have vanished. Netting the whitefish will leave more food for the Perch, giving more food to the Pike and Walleye. Commercial fisherman have to actually follow the regulations, and will not keep any more than they have been allotted.

Here's to another 30 years of good fishing at Pigeon

[RedFisher]

See i disagree and agree... Well i definatly dont want PETA (spits on floor) anywhere near our lakes but i dont want commercil fishermen to kill the whitefish popultion... im huge whitefish kinda of guy i dont know why but i love catching them and i love eating them.... but i also like the occasional walleye.. and slimy pike.... see as for Lac St. ANNE they should definatly stop netting the whites in there...... these lakes get hit hard enough by locals.. people with an hour they dont need to net them all too.. and we wonder why the popilation is going down...I truely fear the day that they think about netting wabanum...its going to happen i know.. and the day it does i break out the old scuba gear and buck knife... i wont put up with it... our lakes are better than that.. if they want to harvest whites stock them in harvest lakes....

[sturgeonhound]

Originally Posted by sturgeonhound

Sorry ....it's supposed to be 4" mesh and 5.5" mesh not mess...stupid spell checker!

I got the year wrong when we were last on pigeon 2000, not 2002.

[RedFisher]

In January 2008, a netting survey was conducted of the lake whitefish population. The commercial fishery has traditionally used 102-millimetre mesh gill nets; however, this mesh size is also very effective at catching walleye and northern pike, and this became a problem as the walleye and northern pike numbers increased. As part of the 2008 survey, a number of larger mesh gill nets were set and the survey showed that the accidental catch of walleye and northern pike could be dramatically reduced (see table below).
Mesh size
Number of fish per 100-metrenet
Lake whitefish............Walleye .............. Northern pike

102 mm (4 in)

98.8 .....................22.2 .................... 0.2

140 mm (5.5 in)

90.4 ...................... 2.5 .................... 0.1
The advisory committee is proposing that a three-day (two lifts) test commercial fishery be held in January 2010, and if the fishery fishes clean (large numbers of lake whitefish are caught and few walleye and northern pike), then the commercial fishery on Pigeon Lake would resume in January 2011.

WOW its soo sad that the pike are almost all gone...

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by RedFisher

I

WOW its so sad that the pike are almost all gone...

Well The Government needs to remove there heads from there butts and lay the smack down . They need to start restoring the weed beds , so the Pike have a place to spawn . When all these Rich Area's around Pigeon lake they removed the huge weed beds that were once there . But the way I see it , is the Government doesnt care , every other lake is crawling in Pike .

Marketing a Trophy Walleye fishery is going to make more money then a average Walleye lake . They could make the Pike Catch limit 150 cm , Its not going to change the fact that these Pike have no where to Spawn , having a place to keep the fry , and eggs safe from Birds , and other fish .

May as well Stamp this province with a Trout , and stocked Walleye fishing province . Because it seems to me that these are the only Species they seem to care about .

[Hannie]

Originally Posted by sturgeonhound

I see by some of the threads above that there are a lot of people quite passionate about the commercial fishing issue on pigeon. However for the most part all I see is anecdotal (sp?) evidence and no real numbers around what the commercial fishery is about. Like I tell people that come into my office ranting and raving about some issue without any real data.....your just another person in my office waving your arms and squawking like a magpie. So on that note I will try to shed some light on the numbers wrt pigeon.

Before 2002 we were allowed to use 4 inch mess on pigeon lake. The target species is whitefish (I think 100,000 kg back then). Back before the walleye population expolsion in the nineties, we happily netted pigeon every year since the 50's and everyone was happy. (now my turn for anecdotal evidence) If any of you can recall the rec. fishing for all species was qiute good....whitefish o plenty, lots of pike, lots of perch and enough walleye to keep a guy going out every evening. Then in 2002 the walleye quota was exceed by about 250% and the comm fishing was suspeneded until further notice.

For the past several years, the SRD has been working with the comm fishers of alberta to try and figure out what to do on pigeon. Part of the decision making process invovles test netting. That was carried out earlier this year and the results helped get us to where we are today. The test fishery tried all different sizes of mess and all different locations on the lake to try and figure out what to do. The end result was that we have to increase our mesh size to 5 1/2 inches and we have to be in water at least 23' deep and we can't be any further west than the provincial point /mission line, etc. Basically we can fish is the deep main bassin of the lake so as to only target whitefish.

Some numbers from the test fishery:
with 4 " mess - 100+ walleye per net
with 5.5" mess 4 to 5 walleye per net.....what we have to use this year.

For the fishery this month, there will be 32 fisherman and 137 nets set. At an average of 5 walleye per net = 685 walleye.

Just for comparisions sake lets look at the tag system for pigeon for 2008 and 2009.
2008
1035 Class A
1411 Class B
161 Class C
That equals 6786 fish

2009
631 Class B
742 Class C (highly undersubscribed)
That equals 4119 fish

2 year total = 10905 fish....slightly higher than the anticipated walleye catch for the comm fisherman this year.


This years comm fishing quotas:
walleye quota = 750 kg....at an average of 2.5 lbs per fish that is about 660 fish.
whitefish quota = 50,000 kg...at an average of 3 lbs per fish = 36,666 fish

Pike quota = 1300 kg at an average of 4 lbs = 715 fish

If any quota is exceeded, the comm regulations suspends the fishery for an indefinate period of time until a verdict can be reached about the health of the fish population.

So as you can see from the numbers that we don't want to catch walleye or pike just whitefish....or we'll be back where we were in 2002...something we don't want.

Just my 2 cents....
Sturgeonhound

Well said!

[buckmaster]

I think sturgeonhound checked his database on this one!

[Hannie]

Originally Posted by buckmaster

I think sturgeonhound checked his database on this one!

I figured that nobody would have the fortitude to post a rebuttal.

It's fine when you're writing purely based on emotion and another when there are black and white numbers to reference.

Usually seems to quell the storm.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

All that Stuff can be found On My Wild Alberta , ITs all Public Informtaion they call it . Not to mention That Stuff I posted earlyer had graphs of Similar stuff when they Test net Pigeon lake to do fish Numbers . But it is good information , but none the less All the numbers in the world wont fix the real problem .

[buckmaster]

Thats right hannie!

[mclean]

This data is from the commercial netting of Milk River Ridge Res,Same type of a body of water as pigion but not as big .
Whitefish Quota ----20.000 lbs.
Pike Tolerance------2.000 lbs.
Walley Tolerance----450.lbs.
No. of nets ---------88
lenght of nets-------100 yards, with a 5 1/2 mesh
This was to be a 2 pull fishery, but after 1 pull the results are,
Whitefish------------18,482 lbs.
Pike-----------------642----lbs.
Walleye--------------1,238--lbs.
This is on one pull of nets, And a 30% check on the 88 nets that where set, so what was the actual number of walleye,pike numbers that where caught, a lot higher than recorded.
So you say on Pigeon Lake, there is going to be 32 netters, and a 137 nets set, I think the Sportsfishermen should be up in arms,
Also there is no way to prevent sports fish from being harvested with the use of gill nets. Therefore revenues collected from the sale of the sport fish by the netters should be re-invested back into the the fisherys and or management. There should also be a 100% check of all fish harvested by commercial netters,
If a 3lb. white fish can be caught in a 5 1-2 inch mesh gill net , a 3 lb. walleye will also be caugth.
When the Government policy Announcement in 2004 to make Commercial Fisherys a viable industry, and all lakes would be open to commercial netting unless Fisheries Management could prove that the sports fishery was in danger of a Collapse. AS SPORTSMEN, WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN.

[Winch101]

This a prime example of the real outdoor dilemna , there have been 71 posts about this and 2076 views on this thread . Apathy it strikes me is more of an issue than netting .

Just because its Printed and there are numbers attached doesnt make it a fact especially on here ...The Govt has proved that over and over again .

I still think a protest during this netting will go a long way to bringing
this issue to a boil . The idea that netting of game fish is some how
good for the resource is so stupid ,this is an example of your conservative government in Alberta at work .

My experience watching one of these " pulls " on Keho was
that there were far too many pike killed for the number of whitefish .

This is why this event should be monitored by an independent source
not the netters and the govt.

[Hannie]

btt

[Walleyes]

Mine, mine, mine. And so go's the story... We all have a right to those fish. The guys that do it for a living and those of us that do it for fun,, who has the right ???


You would think that the guy that feeds his family off of it would have dibs,,, but not so.. We that do it for the heck of it beleive we have the inherited right.. So what do we do ?? we fight..

I believe there is room ,,, no there has to be room for both.. There are lakes where we need some netting to control the population,, cause we know the government won't give it to the fisherman to harvest that would mean some overtime to monitor.. So we go round and round.. The average Joe takes it up the ars,, the majority takes it in stride.. Life go's on..

Keep throwing them back boy,,,they will sell em just as fast as they catch em !!! The Alberta solution..

[danewfy]

so the expected catch of whitefish is 36,666. even without the expected incidental catch of another 1375 fish, thats an insane number to be harvestd in one fell swoop. could someone please explain to me how this is supposed to be good for the fishery? i just cant believe that this is being allowed. thats a lot of angling oppotunities being taken immediately away and who knows how much damage it will do to the stocks in the future. my letter of disapproval has been sent.

[dezmo]

Originally Posted by jacob1202

has anyone been on the lake in the summer? u cant look 50 yds without seeing a dead whitefish floating... and its been this way for 10 years... we target whites and any walleye or pike wich are fit are released... if u know how to set ur nets ur not gonna catch any pike at all....give ur head a shake!!!!

you have to many rights as it is, u guys should be treated like everyone else as far as i'm conserned i don't get a free truck wen i turn 18, and i would also like to keep more money off my checks instead a percentage goes to you. ya theres something wrong here...

[danewfy]

some info from a dfo angling survey done in 2005. on average anglers spent 13 days fishing per year, keeping 2 fish per trip for a total of 26 fish per year. that was for all species. considering that alberta has such a high ratio of anglers/lakes, i think its safe to presume that 26 fish per angler here would not be sustainable. its just my opinion, but allowing 32 fishermen to catch 36,666 fish of 1 species in 1 lake? this is not just any lake, but one of the most heavily fished lakes in central alberta already. i know they're just numbers(lies,damn lies,statistics) but if 32 anglers kept 26 whites per yr., it would take (44) seasons for them to equal the harvest of 1 yrs commercial fishing. its just unfathomable.