New pike regs for Lesser Slave?

[Bushleague]

Yesterday I was fishing with my daughter in the Slave River and had a CO check us out. We mentioned we had released a nice Pike and he told me that there are plans in the works to make the regulations for pike in Slave Lake zero retention, C&R only. Not sure if this is actually set in stone yet or not, but having conflicting feelings about it I figured I'd see what others think of the idea.

My take is as follows, Slave Lake is not putting out trophy pike the way it used to say 15 years ago, and I wouldn't mind having more big pike in the lake. Yes, I'd even be OK with seeing a few less walleye... fishing walleye in this lake is stupid easy and I can handle having to work a little harder for them in exchange for more big pike. Friends in SRD have told me in the past the commercial fishery took lots of them as bycatch, and since it has been shut down it does seem like the pike numbers are starting to come up.

But... as I said this lake is boiling with walleye, and more years than not they look pretty skinny, I'm not so sure the lake has enough feed to support any more lbs of fish than it already contains. So IMO at least as important as releasing pike, would be removing walleye if the goal is quality fish. Maybe F&W think that a larger population of trophy class pike will thin out the walleye on their own? From I can see most pike caught in the lake itself are already released though, the majority of pike that I see kept are by shore anglers out of the Slave River, where the regulations apparently will remain unchanged.

Anyways, its an interesting idea and its nice to see F&W show some interest in promoting a better balanced fish population for once, as well I'd enjoy tangling with 40"ers on a regular basis again... not sure if I'm 100% convinced that their current plan is going to be effective though.

[Dragless]

Well 3 is a pretty big limit for alb i would imagine they would just reduce it to 1 over a certain size before closing the retention completley the politics involved is more complicated than you think being that some outfitters rely heavily and bag limits to draw in customers. Whos guna a rent an ice shack or stow their boat at the marina or rent a lake lot if you can only keep one walleye and thats it.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Dragless

Well 3 is a pretty big limit for alb i would imagine they would just reduce it to 1 over a certain size before closing the retention completley the politics involved is more complicated than you think being that some outfitters rely heavily and bag limits to draw in customers. Whos guna a rent an ice shack or stow their boat at the marina or rent a lake lot if you can only keep one walleye and thats it.

True that, as well bringing up the size limit to at least the provincial standard rather than 55cm would be a good move.

Not opposed to C&R pike, I just don't know that it is addressing the entire issue very well. I like catching the slimy buggers a whole lot more than I like eating them, not that I don't like the way they taste, but having a good one start stripping line is about as exciting as it gets IMO and I'd rather let big pike go than eat little ones.

[cube]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Yesterday I was fishing with my daughter in the Slave River and had a CO check us out. We mentioned we had released a nice Pike and he told me that there are plans in the works to make the regulations for pike in Slave Lake zero retention, C&R only. Not sure if this is actually set in stone yet or not, but having conflicting feelings about it I figured I'd see what others think of the idea.

My take is as follows, Slave Lake is not putting out trophy pike the way it used to say 15 years ago, and I wouldn't mind having more big pike in the lake. Yes, I'd even be OK with seeing a few less walleye... fishing walleye in this lake is stupid easy and I can handle having to work a little harder for them in exchange for more big pike. Friends in SRD have told me in the past the commercial fishery took lots of them as bycatch, and since it has been shut down it does seem like the pike numbers are starting to come up.

But... as I said this lake is boiling with walleye, and more years than not they look pretty skinny, I'm not so sure the lake has enough feed to support any more lbs of fish than it already contains. So IMO at least as important as releasing pike, would be removing walleye if the goal is quality fish. Maybe F&W think that a larger population of trophy class pike will thin out the walleye on their own? From I can see most pike caught in the lake itself are already released though, the majority of pike that I see kept are by shore anglers out of the Slave River, where the regulations apparently will remain unchanged.

Anyways, its an interesting idea and its nice to see F&W show some interest in promoting a better balanced fish population for once, as well I'd enjoy tangling with 40"ers on a regular basis again... not sure if I'm 100% convinced that their current plan is going to be effective though.

I for one would gladly welcome it. But as you say reducing the number of walleye would be the key to have it succeed.

[DiabeticKripple]

close it for 5 years, then add a slot of 55-63cm. but knowing AB they will just reduce it to 1 over 63cm

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by DiabeticKripple

close it for 5 years, then add a slot of 55-63cm. but knowing AB they will just reduce it to 1 over 63cm

Amen... close the pike for 5 years, open the walleye up to 2 fish a day for the same amount of time. At that point you might have a fishery that's starting to put out some nice fish again.

[ROA]

No no I got an idea. Close down the pike fishing for years on end untill the lake is full of them. Once there are millions of pike in the lake sell a million tags to all the suckers out there and profit all in the name of conservation. And just to make it better charge a fee just to have the chance to buy a tag.

[Supergrit]

Put a size limit on any fish never works out.

[V45 sabre]

I had heard it mentioned last year and thought it would be in this year's regs so it may happen at some point.