In the winter and early spring, several open houses occurred hosted by our Fisheries Managers here in Alberta. These open houses were a breath of fresh air to allow the public to interact with our fisheries specialists here in the province. Many of my fly fishing friends attended and were very pleased to have a face to face opportunity to voice their concerns and to make suggestions.
There is a tremendous amount of angling pressure in the Central Alberta region. Many anglers have lobbied heavily to allow the retaining of walleye on Gull Lake, Sylvan Lake and Pine Lake.
My wife, friends and I spend a lot of time enjoying angling on Sylvan Lake. Now that anglers can retain one walleye a day (new) plus 5 white fish (that is not new), along with many other circumstances, the angling pressure has been incredible. Unfortunately so many fish are leaving the lake on a daily basis.
Yesterday was our fourth trip to the lake. We see the same fishermen every day we are there. The fishermen we see retain the maximum number of fish every day we are there. I estimated between 50 and 75 fishing boats on the lake yesterday. The retention of fish is a given for those who wish to retain their catch.
All three of these fisheries will be severely impacted at the rate the fish are leaving the lake. I do know that the ice fishing season also severely impacts the number of fish that leave the lake.
I cannot see natural recruitment keeping up with the number of fish leaving the lakes. There has to be a balance so the fishery can be enjoyed for years to come.
I do have some suggestions for Sylvan Lake since that is where I mostly fish!
1. Close the entire Marina Bay area until July 1. This is a spawning area and post spawn area with very vulnerable fish.
2. Continue to have catch and release for pike.
3.Limit the retention of lake white fish to two.
4. Allow the retention of walleye by tag only or have a limited season (month
of July, one per person) or a slot limit that does not impact the larger spawning females.
Yesterday I watched 9 fishermen who I see every day I am at the lake. They take
the maximum number of fish out of the lake every day. That is 54 fish that can
leave the lake legally every day. These fellas have no sense of conservation. They
turn their back when you try to talk to them.
Enforcement is next to impossible. Our Fishing and Wildlife Officers are already stretched to the limit!
The damage to Sylvan Lakeʼs fishery will be done this season if we do not stop how many fish are leaving the lake. It took so many years to build up this wonderful fishery for all to enjoy. Letʼs keep it that way.
Enforcement is next to impossible. Our Fishing and Wildlife Officers are already stretched to the limit!
The damage to Sylvan Lakeʼs fishery will be done this season if we do not stop how many fish are leaving the lake. It took so many years to build up this wonderful fishery for all to enjoy. Letʼs keep it that way.
2 comments:
I understood the plan was to begin stocking walleye in these lakes and create a put and take essentially like a trout pond. It’s a fine line between pressure to maintain fishery and appease antlers who want to keep a fish or two.
I agree with a slot size just like Gull & Buck but disagree with tag system it’s a poor management tool and just creates a cash grab, paying $15 to keep fish?
The pike & Perch fishery in Sylvan has been decimated by the other abundance of stunted walleye. The same thing has happened at Buck Lake and Pigeon Lake. The goal is to reduce the population of walleye and allow for bigger fish (slot size will help) and with the zero retention on Pike it’ll create trophy opportunities.
I personally would love to see Sylvan return to the trophy pike fishery it was and allow for Gull to continue to manage Towards a trophy walleye fishery like pigeon once was, you used to be able to catch 10+ pound walleye in pigeon now just a pile of 17-22” fish.
As for the whitefish the limits could be reduced 2-3 seems reasonable.
I’d be curious to see how many fish those regulars have stocked in the freezer either your eating dish every day or your probably exceeded retention limits.
Just my thoughts and opinions be interesting to see how the next few years play out
The SRD needs to develop a stocking program for Sylvan Lake as natural recruitment/reproduction in a walleye population does not occur without a river system or abundance of wind swept gravel shoals. 3 things need to happen for Sylvan lake to be able to support a proper walleye fishery 1. the stocking of an large amount of fry yearly, probably 1-2 million based on the size of the lake 2. a rearing pond where some of the mentioned fry are raised to fingerlings to increase survival rate 3. slot limits to protect fish in the 4 to 10lbs class that have the best shot at reproducing should it occur. The main problem with walleye management in Alberta is the SRD's failure to recognize that natural walleye reproduction rarely occurs in lakes that aren't part of a river system. Saskatchewan recognized this in the 80's.
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