Angling opportunities
 

Folks,
Was talking to a friend earlier about angling opportunities in Alberta for trout.
As the population increases to the 5 million mark, the places to fish decrease.
In southern Alberta, Dipping Vat and Hartel dam come to mind
In Central Alberta Bigalow Resivior was lost.
And I heard that a couple of ponds in the Olds area are no longer stocked.
It strikes me that we should be increasing not decreasing opportunities.
The only way possible is through Areation.
Todd Zimmerling CEO do the ACA says they are going to do more - that was two years ago.
AEP is holding pat.
So, how is the process kick started?
Years ago and friend and I scoped out about 20 lakes near Rocky doing 02 levels and water depths. One of them came online about 6 years ago. Still another 4 at least could be done.
NADA since then.
How do we move forward?
And who is going to do it.

Regards,

Don

Don; If you look at stocking reports.You'll see that in 2009 they stocked about 2,800000,where as the last time they posted a total trout.Only a little over 2 million were stocked.Who knows if they,got back to those 2009 figures.They don't put totals down any more Cow lk should be added to your list,Tyrell.The loss of my favorite was,Dipping Vat where dipoloids grew from 8"in nov to 13" in April.Phenominal growths,especially noting that these fish werenot tripoloids.I see that last fall they are going try & convert Pine Coulee,to a trout fishery.I hope it works.

What has happened with Dipping Vat?

I asked the new bio & aca rep if they would get back talking with the 3 disputers.That was 11/2 years ago.The Hamlet wants it,as does the surrounding community.Give Shane Petry govt,or Aca Brad Burkett,maybe they might have an update.

Don't hold me to it, but I think it was an access problem, namely the land surrounding Dipping Vat is private, and the owner stopped granting access across his field. That's what I recall hearing about it at least.

Tyrell lake is another example. It has the potential to produce record fish... and was on the consideration list for tiger trout... however they diverted a lot of the freshwater going into that lake for a small hydro station... and it would also require airation. It would need a cleanup, But I would love to see that lake rehabbed.

Private land access around Dipping Vat is the issue I've heard as well. Perhaps ACA needs to look at purchasing a bit of land there and then adding aeration. The place would be a gem

Bigalow looks like it could grow some size. Did the fish grow quickly in there? Is it deep in places? It looks like lots of insect life around the marshes.

Strubel Lake is the biggest lose in the RMH area. It use to be awesome for nice Rainbows and winters over without aeration. I drive by often in the summer and there is seldom a boat there. They should either poison it or throw in a couple of thousand Tiger Trout in and see if they can clean up the perch and stocked fries. Close it for a year or two to start recovery and if they illegally put perch in there, close it down for 5 years.

John Tcich, whose Govt title escapes me, supported a perch limit on Struble thereby encouraging more illegal stocking.
Brilliant plan.

Don

Let's catch em


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Haven’t fished struble before but my experience with perch in trout lakes is once the perch are there the lake is pooched for trout. The perch eat everything and are stunted, trout are often skinny too as there’s no food. They need to develop a better strategy to deal with this, stocking browns and tiger trout on either C&R or establish a size limit of like 50 cm would be my preference, removing as many of the stunted perch doesn’t hurt either.

We used to go there when I was a kid. Fished there all the time. I would think there may still be a couple of big hogs down there. Probably full of suckers and Jack. A friend of mine stops by the boat launch periodically and he said the fish cleaning station is getting used. He didn't look at what is in there.

Once they are in its too late anyways. I disagree that it encourages illegal stocking though, guys willing to break the law and illegally stock fish are also willing to go out and catch them illegally. The only way to discourage them is to rotenone the lake but that takes finances fisheries is not willing to part with.

Aeration issues all come down to finances as well. The government won't be giving any money towards aeration so if you want more aerated lakes someone needs to find financing to provide them.

What I think they should do is turn the naturally over wintering lakes into trophy lakes and they can stock them with the little bit smaller fishand then stock bigger fish in the winterkill lakes and treat them as put and take. I have never understood treating good lakes as put and take and trying to turn sloughs into trophy fisheries...

I wouldn't even mind seeing some private pay lakes created in southern Alberta. Money from those who use the lake goes directly to the stocking and upkeep of the lake itself, zero retention and trophy quality

There have been some set up. Some successfully, others not. Depends on owner/users for success.

Don