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Originally Posted by Penner
Nice idea but the issue is that firstly it is extremely costly to raise/stock Walleye and secondly Walleye stocking in water bodies where fish populations are already established are likely only going to provide real expensive fish food. It took years and a gazillion Walleye fry going into Lac La Biche to re-establish the Walleye with the ultimate intention being to establish a naturally reproducing population.
Arm chair fisherman need to understand stocking Trout in water bodies naturally void of fish and stocking Walleye in water bodies with natural fish populations are 2 completely different games. It isn’t that simple.
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What fisheries needs to do is rethink their walleye stocking program...
200 million walleye fry were practically wasted on Lac La Biche... They could have used those same walleye to stock almost every lake in the province but instead they dumped it into a single lake... The walleye were then left as C&R in hopes the population would take hold but once again Lac La Biche has shown to have recruitment issues and instead of recovering the population it appears like they primarily succeeded in filling the locals nets and the odd person that will be able to fill a tag before they are gone again...
So what did fisheries accomplish with that stocking program? A put and take fishery for the local native population? What a waste of money... If the natives want to net their lakes into oblivion then let them have that lake and they can learn to take care of it like their ancestors used to...
Saskatchewan stocks walleye across the province and maintains walleye populations in those lakes(many of which have recruitment issues) by stocking 5-20 million each per year. They could maintain their walleye stocking program(of over 40 lakes) for around 15 years with the amount of walleye that were wasted in Lac La Biche...
We literally spent more trying and failing to recover a single lake then what our neighbours spent to maintain multiple lakes. That isn't even taking into account the number of walleye stocked in a few other lakes as well(Wabamun for example).
Spread the fish around. Instead of putting 10-200 million walleye in single lakes put 100k-1m walleye in each lake to help offset the poor recruitment that we know happens in many of these lakes.
You won't see pigeon like numbers(except in lakes that don't have recruitment issues) but you will see steady populations in lakes that are not maintaining populations even with current C&R "recovery" regulations.