Leaderboard

It would be no skin off my ass, or most other hardcore stillwater anglers I know, to not be able to fish a perch-infested lake for small unhealthy trout. None of us bother to fish them now anyways as it stands. You are correct in that nothing has been done to deter the idiots, it is pretty miniscule in the regulations about transporting live fish, the people who did it know they were doing something illegal and obviously took steps to ensure they wouldn't be caught. Education is a big part - but the principle still stands that these ass hats shouldn't be rewarded for their efforts. I think the next logical step is to close the lake, so everyone knows it shouldn't be done. From there it would sure be nice if a rotenone application was pursued. Then if only they could prioritize trophy trout lakes over put and takes. Stock less fish in most of the lakes and tighten up the regulations, better management, and all the extra fish can be dumped into the sacrificial put and take lakes for each area. Some very simple fixes from where we sit to create manitoba or bc-like fishing opportunities here and boost tourism, but I don't believe things will ever get to that point due to all the bureacratic BS. It's guys like Brian and Don that keep fighting and holding our management personnel accountable, that have gotten us where we are so far. We need more people to do the same. I have no problems putting my money where my mouth is, I feel bad spending so much in BC and SK and MB to fish each year, knowing I could spend that locally and help our economy...We got it bass ackwards in Alberta.

Sorry Smitty - get your facts right, Cow Lake never contained perch and pike until stocked in there. I shspect Hassee was the same. The Alberta record rainbow at one time came outta Hassee, Perch create tiny trout. and here we sit - doing nothin. I was part of the group getting fines up to reconditioning mode, modern Fisheries made illegal stocking worthwhile. Talk we, do lots of that - doing one thing - nope. Don

Smithy, we keep loosing Lakes to perch. The Anglers and govt sit on their asses. We need some cattle prods installed wired for 220v. If I could fix this idiocy, I would. This level of contempt for fisheries would get you skidded. Don

Don: May remember this.Anyways was at a mtg.in either Edmonton or Red Deer,when the chair told us of the illegal stocking of Bullhead fish,in a pond in FT.Mac[2015].F&W had to bring in a tech person from the US.Because none of our F&W staff knew how to handle Roetone.They killed of that pond off & trained appropriate{F &W] staff on the handling of Roetone.To this day the only other place that i have heard Roetoned ,were in the town of Okotoks.That town killed of a pond infested with goldfish,because they didn't want them getting into the Bow/Highwood/Sheep drainage.They did this at the towns cost..So F&W staff are trained & still no action.Why. Is it costs.Then have a habitat regeneration fund ,dedicated specifially to iradicating invasive fish species.If they are not to be in a said lake.Then action should be taken...FT.MAC eg.happened in 2 days........

Ah! Now I see. Yes, 100%. I could closing a lake as a viable alternative, but that also punishes the anglers targeting trout. And, the biggest downside to closing lakes is that makes alot of lakes right now eligible for closure. Can you imagine closing, what ten to 2 dozen lakes? I don't even know how many infestations there are, province wide. Yeah, I totally agree; these guys already are doing something illegal, we're not going to prevent them from poaching. Seems like the best course would be (1) close the lake (2) rehab the lake rotenone, turn off aerators (3) signage and educational campaign blitz (4) toughen the laws for the live transport of fish, dumping goldfish, koi, perch etc where-ever. Education is a big component here. Too bad there aren't reverse aerators where they "suck" the oxygen out of the lakes...though I am sure PETA would have something to say about that..

Access as in non-retention. I probably could have chosen better wording. As for not getting caught, that’s what I’m saying. You’re never going to get caught illegally stocking something. So the only way to disincentivize the act is to make it pointless. “As soon as my illegally stocked perch are established and fishable, they will make it non-retention/close the lake/kill the lake, so what’s the point of bothering to do so?” IMO non-retention does nothing because if these guys are willing to illegally stock perch, they are also pretty likely to “poach” perch. They are making rules for themselves. closing a lake makes it much more observable someone is breaking the rules.

Of course it makes sense to limit access To someone’s illegal stocking fishery. That’s the ONLY way to shift cost/benefit of them taking the risk to transplant perch in the first place. They’re never going to get caught in the act. Angling is never going to knock down perch populations, especially with a limit. Who’s the guy here always on perch patrol on sundance lake? How’s that worked for them? As far as I last read, there’s still a *hit ton of them. Fisheries needs to take a hardline approach on this. That’s the only way to get through to people. As soon as foreign species identified, body is closed until it can be rectified. Due to cost constraints, pick a handful of “protected” lakes and put the resources there.

Right. Exactly my point. We've tried different policies, none seem to work. So you try something different. I'm all for the poison, except (a) that the government won't ante up the funds and (b) they don't have the political stomach. I have more practical viewpoint on this (sorry, but it is more practical): since no one has cited any evidence that a zero perch retention has done anything, why not try the opposite? Forget the "philosphy" of it rewarding the idiots, isn't the bottom line that we want better trout fisheries? So, short of rotenone, isn't the best way to do that is to reduce perch numbers? Additionally, you could turn off aerators, hope for a complete and total winterkill? I'm saying we've stuck to the principle of "let's not reward the idiots". Great. Awesome. And it's got us a whole lotta nothing except perch infested lakes where (until the regs changed back this year), I wasn't allowed to kill the little buggers. So... do you draw your sword on a hill of principles and rant about it....or do something practical? We're all frustrated. Again, if anyone has some actual evidence to support the policy of zero retention perch, great. I suspect it is non-existent. So...back to chasing our tails. Maybe a new gov't will do something... (yeah right). So sure, let's go for the poison. That is the practical solution actually: if Alberta could even come close to replicating the Manitoba parkland experience, like Don says, anglers will vote with their feet. The increased angler related tourism revenue could help offset the costs of poison. Seriously, what else is there to do? You gotta kill the perch or kill the lake. Having a zero limit makes no sense in lakes already infested.

Over 40 years nothing has been done about illegal perch except reward illegal stocking. Remember Cow Lake which was raising trout to 15 lbs.. Illegal finally stocking with perch resulted in rewarding that insult with stocking of pike, i was at Cow Lake last spring opening day. Me an one other guy. When trout were in there, the place was packed with people from across Alberta, Anglers vote with their feet. Get rid of the perch/pike. Don

We've been at the "might as well try this now" stage for quite some time in a few lakes here. I understand Don's frustration and agree with him wholeheartedly. Above and beyond rewarding these idiots, it leaves more places for them to get perch to transplant to more lakes. Enough is enough, might as well poison all the lakes. The sooner we can start rectifying this problem the sooner we can get our trout lakes back.

There is a large group of people that are purely catch and keep anglers who would rather have a bucket full of small perch than the pleasure of catching a trophy trout. I have run into them all over the province and most noticeably in Central Alberta, caught some very nice browns on Stauffer one day and when I ran into a group at the access point, they asked how I had done. When I replied about the fish I caught they asked where the fish were, I said I let them go. The response was "Yeah right, good one". Your not a successful angler unless you keep what you catch.