What species of Quality Fisheries part 3

[huntsfurfish]

Quality fisheries seems to be associated with trout. This poll will be for the 3 main species. Walleye, Pike and Trout.

What would you like to see if you could?

[maclennanchris]

all three if i could have my way

[huntsfurfish]

How bout a "fishery managed for size over quantity. And where harvest is not the prime focus, but does not mean no keeping of fish". I do not want to use the word trophy cause that gets the hackles up on some people.

[pickrel pat]

Shouldnt this be part 4?...
I would be happy if it were all catch and release and just go to the supermarket if i wanted a fish feed.

[BeeGuy]

How about triploid RMWF?

They fight better than rainbows...

[fish gunner]

We have a few quality fisheries here in south central . Birch, beaver and one other for trout. Sylvan , gull for pike . Red deer river,pigeon and pine until recent years(die off)walleye. They have all produced good quality fish for my self and friends on their day. Imo more education and some fine tuning could bring gull and sylvan into trophy walleye lakes. Some lite restriction on limits on some stocked trout waters and aeration would bring many waters a quality status. No easy answers. Imo hard to keep all the people happy all the time.

[huntsfurfish]

Originally Posted by fish gunner

We have a few quality fisheries here in south central . Birch, beaver and one other for trout. Sylvan , gull for pike . Red deer river,pigeon and pine until recent years(die off)walleye. They have all produced good quality fish for my self and friends on their day. Imo more education and some fine tuning could bring gull and sylvan into trophy walleye lakes. Some lite restriction on limits on some stocked trout waters and aeration would bring many waters a quality status. No easy answers. Imo hard to keep all the people happy all the time.

Agree, same down south. Still have some really good fisheries for some species.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

How about triploid RMWF?

They fight better than rainbows...

or triploid pike?

[AppleJax]

Originally Posted by Cal

or triploid pike?

Now there's an idea!

[BeeGuy]

Hahaha,

I can just imagine the no swimming signs that would circle the lake.

[Cal]

In michigan I remember they had a program for steelhead where they ran the streams on a rotation. C&R on some for a year or two and then swap or rotate. They ran this system in areas that had plenty of streams so it kept everyone more or less happy and the fishing quality increased. In parts of Alberta with an abundance of fishable water this might work.

[BeeGuy]

Sounds like a good idea for some of the central and southern reservoirs.

[LacLaBicheNS]

I'd fish MORE if everything was 100% C and R..

[anthony5]

Would be nice to have quality fisheries everywhere for all species that we have in AB, but the lack of water bodies to support this in the southern part of the province most likely will be difficult. A lot of anglers after the same prize will make it difficult to determine what each angler will consider a quality fishery. Not so long ago in the east slopes region, Racehorse Creek and the Oldman River were open to angling one year and Dutch Creek and the Livingstone River were open the next year and so on. That was a quality fishery then Still a good fishery to this day, but with all of the c&r some pretty ugly, mangled, trout in those rivers

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

I cant vote as there isnt quite fair .

But none the less this is what I care about

Sturgeon , Walleye , Pike .

I think more work has to be done for our entire fishery never just the few . Lots of money goes into alberta's trout fishery perhaps putting more dollars into other Game fish . I will leave it at that , as I get heated up on the topic .

[huntsfurfish]

Originally Posted by BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES

I cant vote as there isnt quite fair .

But none the less this is what I care about

Sturgeon , Walleye , Pike .

I think more work has to be done for our entire fishery never just the few . Lots of money goes into alberta's trout fishery perhaps putting more dollars into other Game fish . I will leave it at that , as I get heated up on the topic .

Sturgeon is already protected - catch and release. I chose the 3 species that are fished the most. Don't vote, cool.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by huntsfurfish

Sturgeon is already protected - catch and release. I chose the 3 species that are fished the most. Don't vote, cool.

And theres lakes that pike and walleye are catch and release also . lOL no diffrence . but Its fine pretty good thread though .

[huntsfurfish]

Thinking part 4 will be along the lines of "would you support a lake or reservoir in your area or within 100 miles of a major city(in AB)."

[Alberta Bigbore]

Channel Cats, and Small mouth bass.. but that wont happen!!

[BeeGuy]

?

Don't we already have lots of fisheries like this?

A list of places where you could catch a trout >5lbs within 100mi of Calgary would not be a short one.

[huntsfurfish]

Originally Posted by Alberta Bigbore

Channel Cats, and Small mouth bass.. but that wont happen!!

Both would be fun to catch. I expected a bass comment to be suggested.

[RavYak]

Need more walleye. I am so sick of barely being able to catch and pretty much not being able to keep walleye. Going to have to spend some more time back in Sask this summer for that very reason.

[huntsfurfish]

BeeGuy. Some areas have good fishing for certain species not so good for others.

[EZM]

Sport fish species management is a huge challenge in our province simply due to the massive pressure we put on our limited resource.

To further complicate matters, our biologists and SRD staff are few, and as anyone who has any knowledge knows, each specific watershed requires specific strategies to be employed to meet prescribed goals.

Until we determine and accept the fact that we require more professionalism resources like qualified biologists and fisheries managers we will likely continue on the same path of applying blanket policies, or worse yet, watershed specific policies that might be outdated based on the rapid changes a watershed can have in a short period of time.

Want better quality fisheries? ........ be prepared to invest more time, money and effort into properly developing better resources to help us achieve our goals.

I would not be opposed to paying twice what I pay for a licence in order to improve the resource we have here.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by huntsfurfish

BeeGuy. Some areas have good fishing for certain species not so good for others.

Good point.

Fortunately we do not have a pro trout circuit like we do bass and walleye to increase their popularity inordinately.

Still, I suspect a list of places where you can catch a 2lb walleye within 100mi of Calgary to be fairly extensive as well.

Perhaps the issue with walleye is that the C&R culture that persists among trout mongers is not a shared ideal.

I know plenty of people that will wack every legal pike they hook. Not to suggest I don't keep fish, but I mean, we all can't keep everything.


A QUALITY trout fishery is managed for size and is C&R.
What people want in a QUALITY walleye fishery is to be able to take home a limit or tackle the odd 15lb'er.

One of these is MUCH MUCH more easily managed for.

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by EZM

Sport fish species management is a huge challenge in our province simply due to the massive pressure we put on our limited resource.

To further complicate matters, our biologists and SRD staff are few, and as anyone who has any knowledge knows, each specific watershed requires specific strategies to be employed to meet prescribed goals.

Until we determine and accept the fact that we require more professionalism resources like qualified biologists and fisheries managers we will likely continue on the same path of applying blanket policies, or worse yet, watershed specific policies that might be outdated based on the rapid changes a watershed can have in a short period of time.

Want better quality fisheries? ........ be prepared to invest more time, money and effort into properly developing better resources to help us achieve our goals.

I would not be opposed to paying twice what I pay for a licence in order to improve the resource we have here.

It was my understanding that license fees went into general coffers.

There are groups you can donate $$ to that will put it more or less directly into fisheries.

[huntsfurfish]

Some of your licence fee goes to the ACA.

[HunterDave]

I keep hearing how it's not possible to catch "quality" fish and that we need more "quality" fisheries particularly in the southern region. I also always hear that the reason that Wabumun is so good for pike is because it's C&R and they have a chance to grow so big.....That's why we need more lakes like Wab. Right?

Well, I checked the AO Alberta Angler of the Year winners from 1999 to 2011. I was quite surprised at how many trophy quality fish were caught from non-C&R waters (based on the pictures) down south. I didn't bother checking to see if any of those waters had special "quality" fishery regs but I don't recognize any of the trout ones as being any. Are there?

http://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.ca/ang...-the-year.html

So, if there is that type of potential already available throughout the province, and waters with "quality" regs like Muir, Bullshead, Wabumun, etc, are not producing anything in that caliber, why do people seem to think that turning waters into C&R and "quality" lakes will provide bigger fish? How can it be that lakes like Newell with bait and three +63cm keep limit and the Glenmore Reservoir with bait and a 5 trout keep limit, consistently produce trophy pike and trout......seriously?

I voted "Don't want any", as in "Don't want any more". The "quality" and trophy fish are already there with regular regs for those that want to put in the effort and are lucky enough to catch them. The "special" fishermen already have their special lakes that regular people can't ice fish on, use bait in and/or keep fish from. If it's a reclamation project like they did with Muir or a new lake like Pit (??) then that's great but don't take a perfectly good lake like Dolberg that already has "quality" fish in it and put special regs on it because you think that it'd be easier for you to catch bigger fish.

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

I keep hearing how it's not possible to catch "quality" fish and that we need more "quality" fisheries particularly in the southern region. I also always hear that the reason that Wabumun is so good for pike is because it's C&R and they have a chance to grow so big.....That's why we need more lakes like Wab. Right?

Well, I checked the AO Alberta Angler of the Year winners from 1999 to 2011. I was quite surprised at how many trophy quality fish were caught from non-C&R waters (based on the pictures) down south. I didn't bother checking to see if any of those waters had special "quality" fishery regs but I don't recognize any of the trout ones as being any. Are there?

http://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.ca/ang...-the-year.html

So, if there is that type of potential already available throughout the province, and waters with "quality" regs like Muir, Bullshead, Wabumun, etc, are not producing anything in that caliber, why do people seem to think that turning waters into C&R and "quality" lakes will provide bigger fish? How can it be that lakes like Newell with bait and three +63cm keep limit and the Glenmore Reservoir with bait and a 5 trout keep limit, consistently produce trophy pike and trout......seriously?

I voted "Don't want any", as in "Don't want any more". The "quality" and trophy fish are already there with regular regs for those that want to put in the effort and are lucky enough to catch them. The "special" fishermen already have their special lakes that regular people can't ice fish on, use bait in and/or keep fish from. If it's a reclamation project like they did with Muir or a new lake like Pit (??) then that's great but don't take a perfectly good lake like Dolberg that already has "quality" fish in it and put special regs on it because you think that it'd be easier for you to catch bigger fish.

I think you missed the mark on what you think quality is Dave, or maybe I did. How many lakes in Alberta average rainbows of 15 or 16 in. BH does, lots of them. I'm sure there's 30 in trout in there as well but I'm not convinced anyone is going to catch them. There is a lot of pressure and a lot of fish C&R, they get smarter as they get bigger. How many lakes at Wab. latitude and south average the weight that Wab. fish average? None.

I don't think the peak weight is the prize, average weight is, and no lakes that are not hard to access can touch the average size of special fisheries.

I did not want to play the kid's line, but I heard an awful lot of I've got one and it's a big one. Trust me when I say there were a LOT of very happy kids at BH. I think I'm safe in saying they'd rather catch 15" trout than 8" trout. Come down some time, it's a treat, lots of northern anglers agree.

[JohninAB]

Disappointing to see so much time and effort on stocking potholes with trout.

What about a quality walleye stocking program?