Lonelyangler

The cops can be creative but is seems they don't . Last week I was on sylvan lake the was the usual fishing group on the north side of the lake. Because of the wind that same area was the calm spot so the water skiers were there too. Regularly wake board boats would pass by pulling there skier. They would pass by at 15-20 meters time and time again. Because of the crowd of boats the RCMP were there too. It wasn't until a canoe can out to join the fun did the cops ask the skiers to move out a bit further. They did say something to the canoer's , I don't know what. But the canoer's did leave. It seems only when something happens is there a reaction.

I too agree with Bob's ideas about the Red Deer River, except for the idea of any retention. A zero limit is easier to enforce than a slot size. I fish a lot on the Battle river in the winter time, it is getting more difficult to catch a 63cm+ fish. Besides the absence of the slot sizes there are a lot of dead undersized. By the time the angler measured the fish a few way attempting to make 63 cm the fish is dead. I believe the same would happen on the rdr . Also if you open one species or another there would be a draw of more fishing pressure resulting in more poaching of all species. The underlining issue is again lack of enforcement . I fish the river a lot and I can safely say I have never been stopped or even seen wildlife enforcement . It is only because the majority of fishermen are ethical and conservation minded that we have the fishery we do now.

Yes I agree, that is all you wrote, but the posted video in the context of the thread becomes very damming. If the thread was about jetboating opportunities in Alberta then the video would represent something else. I can safely say that the video portrays only a small percentage of the river boat community. Just like people who leave there garbage all along the rivers edge, they are a very small percentage of the angling community. But, their actions represents all anglers poorly. I do agree that there should be some areas where any craft cannot go. ( boat, quad 4x4 ) there does need to be a place of uninterrupted quite

It is unfortunate that the actions shown in this video are being portrayed as the action of all river boaters. I bought my river boat to get away from the rat race of the lake . When I use the the river, I make every effort to to reduce my impact on other river user. My reason for being on the river is fishing, I am not there to just burn fuel or excelerate errosion, and least of all piss off other people. To paint all river boater with the same brush is no different that environmentalists treating all fishermen the same. If the river boats are so bad why is it that fish and wildlife, RCMP and the fire department have them. I would bet, that there are more tickets written for fishing infractions than there are for boating. I mostly fish the Red deer river ,and yes there is a lot of boat traffic. I would hope if there was a danger to any river user, that the RCMP would be camped out on the river much the same as on the lake and dealing with the issues. Sorry for the rant