Quote:
Originally Posted by greendrake
I detest the tag system, and I'm all for having lakes be C&R. How ever when I go to Pigeon and can catch 60-70 Keeper size fish or Wolf or Wab or calling and about 20 more just like them. I see no reason that these lakes could not afford to allow retention of 3 fish each. For a limited time example the month of June and again in Sept. F&W could monitor through creel samples and test netting to determine population density. Closures and restrictions would come from that. When I was in tournament fishing in the early 80s was when the idea of collapsed populations became a problem these closures like taxes were supposed to be temporary until stocks rebounded. That day has come, let's not let our fishing become a tag for every fish world where families who could use a supplement of protein shouldn't be penalized for lack of funds. Or we have to book in advance stream sections in a lottery system
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A 3 fish walleye limit on lakes like Pigeon and Wabamun or any others within an hour of a major city would result in a collapse of that fishery. If you have fished these two lakes very much the last few years you have seen the hundreds of anglers that fished here even before there were tags. I am talking about back in the early 2000's.
I am not a fan of the tag system either but it is an attempt by F/W to allow some harvest at this lakes, with very little personnel there to monitor. I am not sure about September but F/W have been doing creel samples at Pigeon in the summer months for years.
Unless things have changed in the last couple of years there has been a focus on walleye because they were the most popular fish in the province even though the government refused to spend money on stocking for years. I agree their plan was a fail with regard to diversified species in a lake, but fishery management with the exception of trout has been a fail for many years.
When they started closing lakes back in the early to mid 90's they did so because it was cheap. They just closed the lakes. Then they decreased enforcement and never monitored or ignored the decline in pike and perch populations even though they were told it would happen when they designated walleye as catch and release only.
They refuse to allocate the required funds for a sustained, long term plan for stocking, test netting, or enforcement and that has not really changed much in the last 15 years or so.