The annual commercial walleye catch on L.S.L. is less than 10,000 kgs, or about 3% of the mortality rate on walleye released by recreational fishers. We could easily reduce this number if the regs would allow propper qutoas on the walleye for anglers. Commercial fishers do our best to avoid walleye on all of our lakes. We do not want to catch the walleye but someone has to. We hope that the regs will change to allow the sports fishers to keep at least three untill the population comes down to a level that the feed in the lake can sustain. On lakes like L.S.L. the numbers of walleye are so high that our avoidance strategies that used to be successful are now seeing a few walleye. The walleye on L.S.L. are unhealthy to the point that the majority of the females are no longer spawning. This lack of spawning females has caused our government to abandon the L.S.L. spawning beds which used to provide a large percentage of the walleye roe for the spawning program. The walleye spawning camp is now a fly-in site at Bistcho Lake in northern Alberta. This makes the program much more expensive. As commercial fishers we love success stories on our lakes and we believe that cooperation and proper lake management would see a lot more success stories.
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