North Central Native Trout - Proposed Angling Closures

[millsboy79]

There is a new survey on the APE website.

Be sure to take the time to have your voices heard ... not that it will probably change the outcome but you never know!

https://talkaep.alberta.ca/north-cen...gling-closures

[i love fishing]

saw it long ago finally made a better plan

[dryflyguy]

What are everyone's thoughts on the proposed total closures for a 5-year period on the selected watersheds?
Personally, I've only fished the Berland and Kakwa watersheds (almost 15-20 years ago) but back then the grayling were seemingly plentiful. I would support the closures there to help fish populations recover, just hoping it would be successful

[RavYak]

This is ridiculous. I don't believe these waterbodies are in rough shape(at least not according to AEP's own reports...) and closing these rivers only significantly increases the pressure on other rivers...

Then once reopened everyone will pounce and fishing pressure will be 4 times what it regularly is now...

Leave all these rivers open. Heck reopen the Pembina too. Angling pressure needs to be spread out not concentrated.

Hopefully other anglers all tell AEP to get lost with this idea. Only a matter of time before all the rivers are closed and there are tags for all pike and walleye etc.

Fishing is fine in the province, we don't need to try and improve it by these ridiculous methods that won't work(and which will just lead to permanent closures).

[ecsuplander]

Not sure about that. From personal experience I have been fishing Lac St. Anne for 15 years. Historically a great walleye lake. Then overfished, walleye were hard to come by. Zero harvest- walleye came back. Now we have limited harvest of walleye on the lake. Seems that in this instance it worked. Not sure if this is applicable to these waterways or not.

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by ecsuplander

Not sure about that. From personal experience I have been fishing Lac St. Anne for 15 years. Historically a great walleye lake. Then overfished, walleye were hard to come by. Zero harvest- walleye came back. Now we have limited harvest of walleye on the lake. Seems that in this instance it worked. Not sure if this is applicable to these waterways or not.

Good point. But this is different in terms of the types of water bodies that are fairly easily impacted streams and rivers, and, it looks more like replacement of non-native species with native ones.

Just take the Ram River for instance. Anyone on hear think that cutthroat should be removed and bull trout and rocky whites should be re-established?

For me, this is a great cutties fishery and I have zero interest in seeing change from that. I know of enough great bull and white fisheries that I do not see the need for another. Besides, it sounds like a cuttie success story to me. And if it ain’t broke….

[RavYak]

Originally Posted by ecsuplander

Not sure about that. From personal experience I have been fishing Lac St. Anne for 15 years. Historically a great walleye lake. Then overfished, walleye were hard to come by. Zero harvest- walleye came back. Now we have limited harvest of walleye on the lake. Seems that in this instance it worked. Not sure if this is applicable to these waterways or not.

Ste. Anne was never closed like what they want to do with these rivers.

These rivers are for the most part catch and release already.

I also bet you when they shut Ste. Anne, Pigeon and lots of these other lakes to retention they ended up wrecking a bunch more lakes by overloading them with pressure...

Gotta think of all the consequences of these actions. It started with the Pembina, now they want to do Kakwa, Berland, Clearwater and Ram. Next year they will add more... And soon they will all be closed... Meanwhile habitat destruction due to commercial practices will continue as well as other situations that affect these rivers much more then the C&R sports fishermen...

I am only ok with fisheries closing waterbodies if it is to protect a population of a species. Like what they do at Primrose for walleye, Job for cutthroat and Pinto for bulls. The rest of the waterbodies they can manage using either varied retention or C&R, if a river can't handle the C&R pressure then the fishing success will drop and people will go elsewhere giving the river time to recover. I have seen this on the walleye stocked lakes in SK where locals jump from lake to lake as they recover and crash due to over harvesting.

Anglers need to remember that fishing quality is not the biologists or AEP's primary concern. They having been pushing their limits these last few years and we need to keep them in check in situations like this.

What AEP should do is start fixing up some of these rivers. Start rebuilding or adding spawning and overwintering locations. Fix areas damaged by floods and commercial activities etc. Back in the day fisheries used to do a lot of that kind of stuff but not anymore.

[slough shark]

Originally Posted by ecsuplander

Not sure about that. From personal experience I have been fishing Lac St. Anne for 15 years. Historically a great walleye lake. Then overfished, walleye were hard to come by. Zero harvest- walleye came back. Now we have limited harvest of walleye on the lake. Seems that in this instance it worked. Not sure if this is applicable to these waterways or not.

Huge difference between closing a body of water and making them catch and release. Most guys are ok with catch and release at least on native trout, this is about shutting them down to angling (likely for more than 5 years) governments don't reopen things all that often unless things become an issue which rarely happens with fish

[McLeod]

Originally Posted by RavYak

This is ridiculous. I don't believe these waterbodies are in rough shape(at least not according to AEP's own reports...) and closing these rivers only significantly increases the pressure on other rivers...

Then once reopened everyone will pounce and fishing pressure will be 4 times what it regularly is now...

Leave all these rivers open. Heck reopen the Pembina too. Angling pressure needs to be spread out not concentrated.

Hopefully other anglers all tell AEP to get lost with this idea. Only a matter of time before all the rivers are closed and there are tags for all pike and walleye etc.

Fishing is fine in the province, we don't need to try and improve it by these ridiculous methods that won't work(and which will just lead to permanent closures).

You are bang on... First of all they NEVER due any habitat restoration so that is a load of crap..

20 years ago we were telling them make all flowing waters Catch and Release except for Brook Trout and limited Rocky Harvest and close the Bull Trout water by Sept 15th.
If they close it for 5 years they may NEVER open it.
And look at the Lovett river they shutdown. Brook trout are multiplying and there has been no habitat restoration.

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by RavYak View Post
This is ridiculous. I don't believe these waterbodies are in rough shape(at least not according to AEP's own reports...) and closing these rivers only significantly increases the pressure on other rivers...

Then once reopened everyone will pounce and fishing pressure will be 4 times what it regularly is now...

Leave all these rivers open. Heck reopen the Pembina too. Angling pressure needs to be spread out not concentrated.

Hopefully other anglers all tell AEP to get lost with this idea. Only a matter of time before all the rivers are closed and there are tags for all pike and walleye etc.

Fishing is fine in the province, we don't need to try and improve it by these ridiculous methods that won't work(and which will just lead to permanent closures).

Agree, 100%. That is how I answered the survey as in not in favor of.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by RavYak

This is ridiculous. I don't believe these waterbodies are in rough shape(at least not according to AEP's own reports...) and closing these rivers only significantly increases the pressure on other rivers...

Then once reopened everyone will pounce and fishing pressure will be 4 times what it regularly is now...

Leave all these rivers open. Heck reopen the Pembina too. Angling pressure needs to be spread out not concentrated.

Hopefully other anglers all tell AEP to get lost with this idea. Only a matter of time before all the rivers are closed and there are tags for all pike and walleye etc.

Fishing is fine in the province, we don't need to try and improve it by these ridiculous methods that won't work(and which will just lead to permanent closures).

Preach it... we are loosing our fishing freedom and opportunities! Nothing they do is really helping the whole province. Fishing is so limited already and the more you decrease fishing locations the pressure increases exponentially on the others.

[smitty9]

I'll also emphasize RavYak's point. Have a read please, and consider carefully what AEP is doing:

http://flyfishalberta.com/jensenflyf...-trout-survey/