Calling Lake Age Classes amazing!!!!

[Drewski Canuck]

Had another great weekend at the cabin. In the AM jigs with leeches, and when we ran out, switched to minnows.

Late Afternoon / evening when the fish flies where hatching and swarming, had to get off the bottom with Canadian Wigglers on a fast troll. LOTS OF DOUBLE HEADERS!!!

Age Class is very impressive. Lots of small fish as small as 8"!!! hitting the jigs, and lots in the 30 - 45 cm, and lots in the slot, and of course lots of big ones.

The recruitment continues to be impressive, and with this year's high water, I expect that we will see a solid hatch from this year's spawn.

Seeing more pike this year as well, and all the fish are very, very healthy.

Water is high and the river is running hard, so water quality is still very good.

Drewski

[FISHBATTEREDBEER]

Good to hear!! Same at Pinehurst,many diff sizes and a lot of pike being harvested.I fished Calling a few yrs ago and the walleye were skinny with large heads and hardly any pike to be had.Did you land any perch?

[Talking moose]

Yup good to hear in a province where most lakes have a prominent age class resulting in 95% of the fish caught. Really sucks when you know exactly the size of the fish before it even grabs your hook.

[dfrobert]

Cool. That's some good news.

[FISHBATTEREDBEER]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

Yup good to hear in a province where most lakes have a prominent age class resulting in 95% of the fish caught. Really sucks when you know exactly the size of the fish before it even grabs your hook.

Agreed,this is why i dont go to slave.Every fish is 17".....yawn

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by FISHBATTEREDBEER

Agreed,this is why i dont go to slave.Every fish is 17".....yawn

South buck to. All 45cm. Zzzzz Zzzzz zzzzzz

[Kim473]

I've found that the walleye from Calling tastes a little off compared to other lakes. Could it be from algae or something else ?

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Kim473

I've found that the walleye from Calling tastes a little off compared to other lakes. Could it be from algae or something else ?

Did you catch them in the middle of an algae bloom?

[deanstr8]

I have fished both South Buck and Slave this year, and although there are a lot in the 45cm range, I was still able to catch larger and smaller on a regular basis, especially at Lesser Slave. We landed 24-27 inchers for 3 hours straight in early June between dog island and the townsite. Buck is a bit harder to find big ones but they are there, my bud caught a 5.5lber there this year. All about patience, timing, location, presentation...which you all know already.

Any day on the water catching multiple fish is a good day...the amount of people I talk to that say the fishing is slow are either lying to me or have no clue what they are doing...I have been out 10+ times this year to several different lakes and it has always been a wide variety of walleye sizes. Just my 2 cents...

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by deanstr8

I have fished both South Buck and Slave this year, and although there are a lot in the 45cm range, I was still able to catch larger and smaller on a regular basis, especially at Lesser Slave. We landed 24-27 inchers for 3 hours straight in early June between dog island and the townsite. Buck is a bit harder to find big ones but they are there, my bud caught a 5.5lber there this year. All about patience, timing, location, presentation...which you all know already.

Any day on the water catching multiple fish is a good day...the amount of people I talk to that say the fishing is slow are either lying to me or have no clue what they are doing...I have been out 10+ times this year to several different lakes and it has always been a wide variety of walleye sizes. Just my 2 cents...

I have been to buck 4 times this year. 3 people in the boat each time. Calhoun bay, the park, and south end town site locations. Each time we have averaged about 15-20 fish each person. That's roughly 200 fish so far. All fish(walleye) have been between 42 cm - 52 cm. with a very vast majority around 45cm. South buck Has a terrible variance in walleye size.

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

I have been to buck 4 times this year. 3 people in the boat each time. Calhoun bay, the park, and south end town site locations. Each time we have averaged about 15-20 fish each person. That's roughly 200 fish so far. All fish(walleye) have been between 42 cm - 52 cm. with a very vast majority around 45cm. South buck Has a terrible variance in walleye size.

Do you feel the tags will now change that? Say over the next few years?

I'm asking as it seems to make some difference at Pigeon. Not a lot but some.

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

Do you feel the tags will now change that? Say over the next few years?

I'm asking as it seems to make some difference at Pigeon. Not a lot but some.

You are allowed 1 fish over 50cm at buck, pretty much once a fish reaches 50, and is caught, it's kept. For the last few years I've caught lots just under 50, I kept saying that there is gonna be lots of keepers next year. There's not. I believe tags would be better for that lake because as of now, as soon as a 50 is caught it's kept.

[Talking moose]

Found this just now. Kind of confirms my thoughts. Especially the last paragraph.



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[SNAPFisher]

Interesting.

Yeah, I also forgot it wasn't tags already.

[fish99]

south buck has been this way for over 20 years no numbers of walleye over 50 cm. the same as it was back in the 1980s . the only fish that were big were the perch and lake white fish , even the ling were small.

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

Found this just now. Kind of confirms my thoughts. Especially the last paragraph.



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You mean they've learned to grow to 48cm then stop?

Amazing!!!

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

You mean they've learned to grow to 48cm then stop?

Amazing!!!

An adaptation for survival.

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

An adaptation for survival.

A 45-55cm slot would fix em up!

[Talking moose]

Should be 1 fish under 50 or tag system imo.

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

Should be 1 fish under 50 or tag system imo.

I think a slot size is the best system out there. If all walleye lakes in Alberta opened up to 1 walleye between 45 and 55, not only would it help fill my plate, it would take a lot of pressure off of the lakes that currently allow general retention, and help to promote a healthy walleye population province wide. At least that's my guess.

[JD848]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

I think a slot size is the best system out there. If all walleye lakes in Alberta opened up to 1 walleye between 45 and 55, not only would it help fill my plate, it would take a lot of pressure off of the lakes that currently allow general retention, and help to promote a healthy walleye population province wide. At least that's my guess.

x2 your very right ,they have done this in Ontario in some places and those places are great fishing.

[Drewski Canuck]

The only improvement on a slot size is that at some point, a walleye gets too old to ensure successful spawn due to age, and the fish either dies naturally, or meets its fate with the "square hook crowd" who then sell it to certain restaurants for steamed pickerel.

After 15 - 20 years, the genetics have been passed on thousands of times.

A tag for trophy fish, say over 28 inches, would be a fair use of the resource.

Drewski

[mickeyjim]

Where are the best trophy walleye lakes? How many walleye can you keep out of them?

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[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by JD848

x2 your very right ,they have done this in Ontario in some places and those places are great fishing.

I wondered how long before this came up again, again, and again. It will not happen.

From the latest sticky posted in this forum:

The limits of slot limits

Slot limits are popular with anglers because they seem to offer great promise; let anglers harvest small fish and simultaneously create quality fisheries for protected big fish. This can work in jurisdictions with warmer water and fast-growing fish, but with Alberta’s combination of naturally low productivity and increasingly high angler pressure, slot limits don’t succeed. Overharvest is inevitable, fisheries decline and anglers lose opportunities.

Fortunately, there is a proven solution; keep harvests at sustainable levels with simple minimum size limits. Minimum size limits protect fish to grow to adult sizes and let them spawn a few times. Once they’ve made their contribution to the sustainability of the fishery, they then can be harvested. Anglers get opportunities to catch and release fish, and have the chance to take home a larger fish, if luck is on their side.

While this practice does not satisfy everyone, minimum size limits are simple, work very well for Alberta’s biological situation and have good compliance by most anglers. Using minimum size limits, many of Alberta’s walleye and pike fisheries have recovered from being poor quality, collapsed fisheries to now becoming some of the best sport fisheries in Canada. This success has created new opportunities for anglers to go to local lakes and experience wonderful catches of fish that even our grandparents would have seldom experienced.

if you still feel the need to beat that drum then I guess you know better than the bios.

[MathewsArcher]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

I wondered how long before this came up again, again, and again. It will not happen.

From the latest sticky posted in this forum:



if you still feel the need to beat that drum then I guess you know better than the bios.

Agreed, would be nice if we had more lakes and less pressure but it is not the case. Once the slot was fished out the spawners would eventually disappear.

If we can fish out all the fish over 50, why wouldn't we fish out all the fish in the slot.

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

I wondered how long before this came up again, again, and again. It will not happen.

From the latest sticky posted in this forum:



if you still feel the need to beat that drum then I guess you know better than the bios.

How's that working out at buck lake?

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

How's that working out at buck lake?

Which is why they will surely bring in tags. The sticky that was posted was good info but it didn't speak much about the tag approach and why they are using that in addition to.

That will be interesting to see once they do add tags to Buck and several years have past. Or longer...

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

Which is why they will surely bring in tags. The sticky that was posted was good info but it didn't speak much about the tag approach and why they are using that in addition to.

That will be interesting to see once they do add tags to Buck and several years have past. Or longer...

What's your take on opening up walleye province wide to alleviate pressure on the lakes which are currently open?

[SNAPFisher]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

What's your take on opening up walleye province wide to alleviate pressure on the lakes which are currently open?

You seem to be rehashing the same old topic that comes up every time. Just do a search and you find lots of discussion on this. It really has been beat to death on here. If you are that committed to changing things and you haven't already, you can attend public consultations, take surveys, join a local fishing chapter, etc. Lots a person can do to try and change things.

[huntsfurfish]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

I think a slot size is the best system out there. If all walleye lakes in Alberta opened up to 1 walleye between 45 and 55, not only would it help fill my plate, it would take a lot of pressure off of the lakes that currently allow general retention, and help to promote a healthy walleye population province wide. At least that's my guess.

And crash the fisheries again. Then another 10 year or longer rebuilding.

Its best not to guess.



Please read:

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=325447

It confirms what some of us have been saying on here for years.