Welcome back, Hasse Lake
 

Grew up at that lake!

Then the perch moved in and the island in the center became a beach chicken roost, complete with many feet of bird droppings.

Lets hope that the Perch did in fact all die in the winter kill, along with what I understood were some sterile pike that were stocked to keep the perch numbers under control.

Then the winter kill hit, which had never happened in all the time I knew this lake.

Perhaps it should have been treated with rotenone long ago, but anyways, lets hope for the best!!

Drewski

This is indeed great news. Was talking with a fishing friend on Wednesday. He is responsible for getting the aerators in place once the power line gets installed so should become a great trout fishery again.

Spent many autumn days there in the past for incredible back swimmer action.

Used to fish there in the early 80s I remember catching some nice size rainbows

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I'm not sure I understand the plan here. Spend a ton of money to rehab a fishery and then additional costs for construction and aeration installation (not to mention cost of running them) only to keep it a limit of 5 fish put and take lake? To me that is not a wise use of ACA dollars.

I would be all for rehabbing the lake and aerating if something was changed in the regs to make it a QSF fishery with regs similar to Muir....or even just a reduced limit of 2 fish/person. I have looked for any proposed changes to regs and have found nothing. Please let me know if I am mistaken.

A reduced limit would actually begin to teach people about conservation....something that just happens to be right in the ACAs mission statement (in the name even).

All this does is continue to promote over fishing and condition folks to keep more fish than they actually need. At a crazy cost. Your license dollars.

Makes no sense to me.

J

I have not heard about regulation changes either.

That said, makes sense to me. Things like this that improve a fishery is money well spent. Who said everything needs to be under "quality" regs? A balance is fine by me. Some on it, some not. And how knows, maybe they do have plans to change the regs in the near future.

It is a good news story to me.

I fished that lake lots from ‘76 to about ‘88.

Huge hungry trout.

‘Fish the narrows’ .....if anyone understands that.

Never did like the island.

Ice fishing early early mornings with my dad and my uncles.

Sad to hear about the perching. That was a tragedy.

Can anybody overnight there, is there a camp ground there, thanks

No camping
 

Day use only.

Caught some real nice trout there many years ago and lots of little perch before the lakes demise.

Any additional lake to fish, is a good one.

I'd be all for a quality fishery but if the majority wants put and take so be it.

It will be very interesting to see how this lake does over the next few years.

Looking forward to chucking a fly 'r' two there in a couple, three or four years.

I agree if they are spending the money on aerating and trying to rehabilitate a former proven trout fishery then it would only make sense to me to protect the trout to a decent size. I don't agree with 100 percent catch and release because of mortality. If you got a gut hooked 10 incher then you should take it home and eat it rather than let it stink the lake up. 5 trout any size in a lake that close to edmonton will just be fished out to the point it's a waste of time. One under 12 inch and one over 22 or something would work maybe. They are sterile anyways and get smart from the pressure so it would retain a few hogs one would think. Just my 2 cents.

Welcome back
 

Caught many nice trout from there in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It was good but couldn’t compare to Spring Lake in the late 70’s for big rainbows.

Hasse lake
 

I agree with Pikeman why spend all that effort and $$ if it's just going to get fished out every season. What's the point?:confused:

I don't know of anyone advocating total, 100% C&R. You're right, that would not make sense. And nothing wrong with harvesting one, trophy fish. It's a stocked lake, not a wild and/or native fishery...

Too expensive to aerate to have people keep the 5 fish. Smh.

And clearly, with the number of anglers and the pounding QSF's like Muir and Beaver get, why wouldn't you spread the pressure and the traffic out?

When you look at stocking report, it becomes pretty clear, pretty quick on just how many lakes and ponds have the 5 fish per day opportunities. It's not there is a lack of choice in that department.

Smitty ..Agree with you.Taking pressure of off Beaver & like fisheries.Is key to QSF lakes.So adding this lake would be ,beneficial.It appears the ,one thing apparent.That people like to catch,larger fish & take 1 home.Having a retention of 1 over 50 cm,like most of the QSF are .Would better off set the costs of stocking tidlers,only to have them harvested in mere months.Stocking costs keep escalating,yet the cost of licence fees remain stagnant.Last i heard it costs $75-100.00 for a kg of fish.So reduceing that cost.Will help with,the operating costs of aeration.Which inturn will possibly allow for ,fish growth etc.Muir,beaver & now Dolberg are prime examples .Of a suggessivefull fishery

A lot of great points in this post. Agreed.

Once word gets out this lake is stocked again it wont last long. I remember days you could not even find a place to fish let alone be able to social distance. The only people that stand a chance will need a boat.
Personally I think they should keep it closed or at the very least a C&R lake for a few years to allow some of the fish to grow to a decent size.

Totally agree, if they would make this C&R for a couple years until the population gets established, that would help.

Given the state of that lake, it would also be very beneficial if they could raise the lake level a foot or two, that would be good too!

Not much sense in closing it; it's a stocked, put and take fishery. As for total C&R, well, that would be nice maybe for one season, but then there needs to be a discussion about the use of bait as well.

There is a segment of the population who only fish for the sake of eating fish, and will take their limit (and their whole family's limit) every time out.
They are going to fish somewhere.
Maybe having another place relatively close to town will take some pressure off of further away lakes?

Glad they are doing something on Hasse. Fished it back in the early 80's and was doing 25-30 inch Bows. It was great back then and hope it becomes great again.

As I said earlier, look at stocking list. People who like their 5 trout a day don't lack for put and take fisheries in the province.

However, given their popularity, the IS room for more QSF's, imo.

Never fished it before, is it worth a try?

Old timer Fish and Wildlife Management philosophy was if you spend $50 in gas you should catch and take home $50 in fish.

Back in the day there was far fewer anglers and also by numbers far less poaching.

For any lake to stay 5 fish a day means just a short term freezer fishery which these days serves a limited demographic.

The vast majority of anglers simply want to catch fish and sometimes have a meal. They prefer size although doesn’t have to be monsters. Say a 14-16 inch trout versus 8-10 inch.

For Hasse...the masses should demand a change.

Firstly, brown trout with some brookies should be stocked to control the perch. They should be catch and release only.

Secondly for the first 4 years larger rainbows over 12 inch should be stocked. Limit to one per day per person. Strict poaching controls and checks should be initiated. Perch limit should be increased to 100.

Stocking of browns every year should be done.

Installation of pellet dispensers for money can be brought in by volunteers. People can take pellets out to supplementally feed trout for the first 3 years. Rule is no fishing in areas one is feeding. Throw food in after fishing or while cruising over to an area to fish. Only feed what they can consume in 10 min.

Aeration should be maintained.

If they asked I could provide the stocking ratio.

Perch populations will crash over the next 4 years as successive YOY get consumed by browns and brooks. Perch sizes will increase. Trout will find more food and perch population crashes. Supplemental feeding can either be maintained, reduced or discontinued as the data shows.

In five years Hasse will be the go too fishery for everyone.

F&W just need to think outside the box and make it work. I have proven this formula.

There are no perch in Hasse any longer. It winterkilled hard for a few years in a row. It still remains to be seen if the stocked rainbows will survive a summer. Water quality may be marginal.

I suggest those folks who want quality stocked trout fishing need to let AEP know. When Dolberg was changed to a quality fishery, some Barrhead area locals, in particular the County and the Barrhead F&G club, complained bitterly, saying that their lake should be managed for families, not elite fly fishers. That, despite knowing that only a very small number of lakes are managed for quality or even capable of providing it.

I don’t think that thinking outside the box is a problem. The challenge is probably dealing with competing interests and loud voices.

So... the people catching ,sorry keeping, fish in local sloughs (swamp) enjoy eating said fish? Fished it back in the hey day. Came of the lake with catching and releasing a few good ones. Checking with the other guys success, after coming off ,to find they are keeping the midgets!

This is a great notion, fishing would be far superior and sustainable!!

No kidding. Unless you are catching them within two weeks of the stocking truck...
I've tried one from a local pond a few years back and have never taken one since. Disgusting flavor.
Strictly C&R for me on our prairie ponds.

Eons ago we moved here from the coast. My first local outing was to Star Lake, caught a beautiful silvery 'bow on a lech pattern and said yum, trout tonight. We ended up ordering pizza! And don't even think of eating trout out of Hasse!

Wow. I’m surprised no perch survived. I would still recommend stocking some browns just to be sure.

One thing people need to decide is are stocked lakes just a storage repository for trout before going into a freezer and is it a free for all to kill them all as fast as possible...

Or...

Should it be a controlled release of trout over time while affording a recreational past time that is rewarding due to a catchable population of trout.

In other words managing a lake for catch rate versus kill rate.

For those wanting to catch and not kill...the recreational component remains critical.

For those wanting to kill...a consideration is that over time a quality fishery will allow a harvest over a longer period. Combine that with fish of a much larger size...the ratio of meat to number of fish killed remains fairly even.

Consideration some don’t give to the conversation is a harvest of five 10 inch trout likely gibes as much meat as one 20 inch trout.

But the best thing is...having a lake to catch fish in the day after stocking or 6 months later provides way more value to the community as a whole.

F&W can do a survey however, no one wants a lake with nontrout in it.

My feelings on the subject.