2018 fishing closures on oldman drainage?
 

Good day!
Following the recent proposed fishing closures in central Alberta...
I was reading through a FB post about it and one poster replied”to those who stick to the oldman drainage are in for a shock next year”.

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything? Or care to discuss the possibility.
Thanks

it is currently on the "potential closure" list with AEP

Can you post the link or provide the source?

Even if closure is just speculative/rumoured at this stage, I'm sure at the very least it is on the list of those waters to watch very closely; depending on water temps, stream flows, etc. Fall levels were abysmal, and depending on snow pack and characteristics of runoff this year we could be facing a tough coming one. I can't remember a fall with reservoir levels so low.

I heard about this last night... As much as this would suck, I would certainly support it (both as a guide that guides the area and as a recreational angler) as it sees WAYYY too much pressure. Prior to the considering a closure however, I would also support if they were to change the area to a "Classified" management watershed, ban OHV (as unpopular as that idea is on here), random camping, etc. As those activities certainly impact the area negatively in my opinion... If they ban "recreational" activities in the area, they MUST ban any industrial development, as well!

That'll make other places even busier than they are now. Then maybe we can close more places

.......

The only lever AEP has anymore is restrictions on anglers. They will temporarily close rivers to allow fish recovery, but the recovery will never happen because it's not overfishing or C&R that's causing the problem. The bans will never be lifted and the cutts and bulls will never come back.

Oldman drainage closures
 

Not sure about this method of madness. I usually fish Racehorse, Dutch, Oldman and Livingstone rivers and a 25 fish day is a slow day in 3-4 hrs of fishing just one river. Is it that a person can't catch a fish every cast is why there may be closures? Catching 50-60 fish a day on the right stretch of river is not hard, some stretches hold fish better than others. Yes these rivers are busy with people fishing and I will follow some that catch zero fish and I will catch 4 or 5 in the same stretch. Is it the river or the people fishing them that say there are no fish? I'm not sure of the correct answer for people that make the rules for fishing, but maybe go back to the old days when 2 of these rivers were closed one year and 2 open and vise versa the next year, used to work okay. Total closures will gain nadda.

Hmmmm.......someone to agree with. Yahoo!

Wanta rumour - how about the Govt poisoning all the Oldman drainage to remove the rainbows which are hybridizing with the last of the genetically pure cuts.
Been done elsewhere.

Don

IMO Phillips and the AEP are full of environmental yuppies that couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag. Closures will only put more pressure on other areas causing more closures. They are pointing fingers at ohv and campers and not industry, free range cattle, or development which are a far far more contributing factor.
Phillips is achieving her goals with Y2Y. First the land grabs, then ohv, open camping, and now hunters and anglers.
Our fisheries have been managed very poorly for decades regardless of which gov is in power. Only the one in power now is answer to everything is to shut it down. They are wasting money developing parks, in which all parks operate at a financial loss. That money would have done wonders put towards fishery management. Especially with some people who are educated and not driven by eco ideals.
I thought for years all eastern slopes should be c&r.
The areas I fish... haven’t changed since I was a kid. I see more and larger bulls and catch larger Cutties than ever.

They want people out. Period.

The ndp continually put out skewed articles and fear mongering, trying to gain support from people who don’t spend anytime outdoors and don’t know any better.
Example the latest one saying ohv causes grizzly bear deaths. Show me on bear that was killed by an ohv.
One only has to go back ten years in news articles only to find that multiple articles were written about grizzly population rising and coming back. And even last year about more encounters with humans/bears. It’s not because of more people, it’s more bears which are on the move due to too many in one area. All while ohv and open camping were happening.

Wish everyone would see past their differences.. no matter if you dislike ohv... camp but don’t hunt... fish but don’t camp... whatever... because the ndp is and will be affecting us all in some way shape or form. We could all come together, work together, find common ground so we can all enjoy the land and our interests, and drive proper management for ohv, camping, hunting, and angling.

Even lately Y2Y contradicted themselves by saying sedimentation caused by ohv is bad for fish... then they come out with an article saying sedimentation is healthy and needed for the ecosystem and reproduction. They are against people in the backcountry.... as is Phillips.... period.

Just catching up on some fishing threads and wanted to add my own observation in regards to some of this post.

I fish the same waters 20-30 days a summer and the waters fish very easy but some of that is a problem as the amount of fish I catch that have be foul hooked or have broken off flies and lines on them is higher than any body of water I have ever fished including stocked ponds. The pressure does cause some harm.

I don’t believe anyone is saying there are no fish either. I know a large portion of the concern is the bull population and the lack of redds over the last dozen or so years being counted. Being friends with some CO’s they have had a hard time policing the majority of Southern AB for a long time and with people continually keeping bulls on these waters hey are hoping for some lengthy closures. They can prove that closing the waters for multiple years is good for the population through counts.

As selfish as it would be for me to not want to see waters I enjoy closed, I know it would be for the better.


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A major consideration is the loss of pure breed Cutthroats. The Oldman system is full of Cutt-bow hybrids. It is a Federal concern to protect a species from disappearing. Perhaps the Oldman river above the falls (which hopefully is a fish barrier moving upstream) will become a Cutthroat sanctuary. Man-made barriers have been created in other locations so that could be another way to isolate stream stretches. The question becomes how much we value a species that is slipping away

If Philips is seeking to further a secret agenda( Y2Y) then wouldn't she have to be banning all activity in the backcountry. This would include cattle grazing and industry. So far none of these have been banned or restricted. This Y2Y conspiracy theory seems a bit flimsy.:)

New regs posted today, never fished oldman so not sure what they were last year, but it does appear it is open at various times between April and September.

https://mywildalberta.ca/fishing/reg...s/default.aspx

Zero retention on the Crow... that is fantastic! On the one hand, it represents great conservation. However, on the other, it does make me wonder if they have evidence to suggest that the population is in bigger trouble than I thought.

What suprised me with this was the 0 retention of mountain whitefish on the crow! I could always count on keeping a few whites; not any more.

Zero retention is a response to the presence of Whirling Disease. Perhaps with the development of genetic resistance over time and stable population estimates, you might see some change in the regs in the future

From the map of closures I was shown it is pretty much all waters in the south, so you may not have to worry about it being busier in other waters. Time will tell I guess.