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Chironomid

Chironomid (2/10)

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  1. Not my post but important info that was posted on the redneck forum. All,I attended the Edmonton Trout Club monthly meeting last night - Jan 16, 2018 where they had guest speakers from Alberta Fisheries talking about the proposed closures for the North Central Trout Recovery program.I am not a member of the Edmonton Trout Club and would like to thank them for allowing me to sit in on the meeting.The speakers discussed the plan for the potential river closured and the factors impacting the reduced numbers of fish they say they are seeing. The river systems they are closing - no longer proposing - and confirmed last night they are moving forward with a five year closure on include 7 watersheds; the Upper Ram system, the Upper Clearwater system, the Berland, the Kakwa, the Upper North Saskatchewan, the Upper Red Deer and the Pinto systems. This ISN'T just the main stems of the rivers, but the entire watersheds including the tributaries to these systems.During their presentation, they provided a number of factors as part of their ongoing study. The main factors impacting of watersheds being: 1) Fragmentation of the watersheds - this is where culverts, roadways and other changes to the landscape cut off traditional migratory routes or oaths that allow fish to travel up and down systems to access cooler waters, spawning grounds etc, 2) Overfishing and Poaching - they gave the example that if you have a mortality rate of 10% on each catch and released fish, the compounding impact of catching that same fish would translate to a mortality rate of 90% x 90% x 90% - or 73% survival rate, 3) Erosion due to OHV and other back country activities, 4) Agricultural impacts such as livestock access further impacting sedimentation of our systems.They then spoke of the studies they have undertaken to determine fish densities. If I recall properly, they employed 4 people and undertook 175 tests on the seven watersheds in question.They spoke of the on-line survey that was filled out. They said approximately 2,000 respondents took the survey, and they received a 60% positive feedback that people would support the seven river closures being proposed. So, they are taking 1,200 Albertans (2,000 x 60%) to solidify or support their claim they have engaged the public and Albertans support this initiative or management technique. Out of 300,000 registered fisherman in Alberta.They then spoke of potential other management techniques they are contemplating - such as restricting access to our river systems like they do in the Maritimes where only a certain umber of anglers are granted access on a given body of water for any given day, week, season. Issuing special licenses to control his access.They spoke of their modeling technique to access the FSI - or Fish Sustainability Index which I wont go into a lot of detail, but it's their modeling technique to assess the health of a watershed with 20 different factors all multiplied out to determine a score. This score is then going to drive the assessment of our rivers moving forward and which watersheds can sustain retention, catch or release or closures moving forward.They opened it up for questions. They were willing to answer questions, and did so for more than an hour. Then session ended sometime around ten. So, good on them for allowing discussion.Questions were asked regarding engaging industry to repair culverts, etc. They said they have no jurisdiction over industry and talked about the federal fisheries act and department of the DFO. They said they are unable to make industry repair our damaged rivers. They can only "request" companies to do what is right. However, dependent of cost and the willingness of these companies to act, they would continue to work with industry in the coming YEARS to correct damages.Questions were asked about rolling out catch and release techniques - single barbless regulations. They again said due to the fisheries act they couldn't legislate this. When asked why or how the BC government was able to legislate this, again they couldn't answer. When asked if they studied fish mortality rates when using bait, when using treble hooks, fly fishing only regulations - again they couldn't answer. They have lumped all mortality in with fishing hours - no differentiation between methods.I also asked as to why they are deploying this strategy of closing our watersheds when retention of fish is or was still in place such as the Ram system. Catch and Release works - look at the North Ram - one of the most pressured or fished systems in Alberta and yet with a bait ban and catch and release put in place many years ago - continues to thrive.When asked about their testing techniques to ascertain the fish densities in our systems, they couldn't provide and detail or clarity regarding the number of test, methods or sites in which they undertook for each watershed. They couldn't answer dispersement, time of year, etc. They seem to have gotten their answers they wanted and now the closures are moving forward. They said they "think" implementing the fishing moratoriums or closures should have a positive impact on these systems.They have a slogan for this campaign - "Make Change Now" or something to that affect. They are closing our fisheries down because they can't or aren't doing anything except asking industry to repair the damages to our rivers that they have caused, but can't actually enforce it - or aren't willing to lower our GDP. So they are closing our rivers to fishing because that's all they can enforce.When asked about the increased pressure that closing these seven watersheds will have on the remaining open watersheds, they say they are willing to accept the risk.I asked about the respondents of the survey. If they gathered data regarding whether the respondents actually had fished ANY of the seven rivers they are closing - they said no. They didn't ask, so they didn't track. It was open to anyone who wanted to respond. So in the end, they are taking the responses of 1,200 Alberta Anglers out of the 300,000 registered in our province, and they are moving forward saying they engaged the public, and the public supports this initiative - regardless of the respondents knowledge or usage of the watersheds.So - for all of those respondents who said they are in support of closing these fisheries, get ready for more and more pressure on your beloved rivers. As an Edmontonian, I'm going to be forced to head farther south to fish flowing water. It' going to translate to more fishing pressure in the remaining open watersheds. This pressure is only going to further intensify as more and more systems are being closed. They started with the Pembina last year, now seven more systems are being closed. Get ready for this to continue and more and more rivers get closed as they can only legislate the fisherman. To hell with industry - their untouchable.So - what CAN we do?? Seeing as they the say "majority" of respondents agree with their plan - they're moving forward with it. A whole 1,200 people. We NEED to act and let them know this isn't acceptable. Changes need to be made - for f-sake - their the government. If they can't make this change, then we're all screwed. They did say that these closures ARE moving forward UNLESS they get inundated with public pressure. If enough people act and express their disapproval then the closures could get rolled back or cancelled.They provided a number of emails to QAB fisheries personnel which I'll include at the end of this. On a regular basis, the Alberta Outdoorsmen forum will show tens of thousands of people reading a thread on a good perch lake, or viewing pictures of a hike in trip to a high alpine lake. We need to action and let Alberta Fisheries know these closures aren't going to be accepted by us Albertans!! We NEED to surpass the 1,200 respondents that support this closure.The emails provided are as follows:Adrian Meinke@gov.ab.caMike.Blackburn@gov.ab.caJessica.Reilly@gov.ab.caCraig.Johnson@gov.ab.caPaul.Christensen@gov.ab.caJohn.Tchir@gov.ab.caKayedon.Wilcox@gov.ab.caI plea with everyone who reads this thread to send an email expressing their concerns with this plan. Send one email and include all seven of the recipients - we need to let them know this isn't acceptable. My fear is closing these seven watersheds is only the beginning. Once this program takes hold, other watersheds will face increased pressure, and lead to more and more closures until everything gets shut down. That seems to be the only real plan they have right now.
  2. My wife was on the I love Chestermere group on facebook a few minutes ago and mentioned to me there was a post from somebody saying there were a bunch of fish trapped in the Indus canal and they are going to be heading there with buckets and nets in the morning at 900 to save them by moving them to the lake. I'm pretty sure a lot of these fish are probably going to be carp and they are just going to be introducing them to another water body! My wife tried calling RAP but they just told her they will pass the message on to an officer in this region on Tuesday, but by then the damage is probably already going to be done! Please if anybody here has the ability to contact somebody directly who can let these folks know that they can't be moving these fish on their own ASAP that would be great! Some people in the group are trying to tell them not to move these fish but they will not listen. Somebody in a position of authority needs to contact these people ASAP! It's the "I love Chestermere" group on Facebook. Thank you to anybody who can help.
  3. Does anybody know if Homewaters Guide Service in Fernie is still around? or if not what outfit Jeff Mironuck is working for these days?
  4. I didnt get a chance to see it before it was pulled but youtube is literally packed with morons damaging our streams and wild areas. All you have to do is type in "Alberta 4X4", "Alberta Quad", or just the stream/area name like "Dutch Creek" and you will have hours and hours of this crap to watch. Here's a guy washing the mud, gas, and oil off his machine in "The Livingston Creek" This group makes a vid every year of ripping apart Dutch Creek And plenty of others, each vid you find will lead you to 10 more just like it and just for good measure, one with some jet boats thrown in ...this comment thread is pretty amusing too. Apparantly the only reason anybody would have a problem with this is because they are jealous that they cant afford the rigpig lifestyle!
  5. Does anyone know if Rocky Mountain Flies is still in business? Its been a few years since I ordered from him and it looks like his website has not been updated since last year. Anyone used him recently?
  6. I built "The One" a few years ago and I love it. I use a 1wt. Rio Pocketwater line which loads the rod very well, even with only the leader and a couple feet of line. I actually fish a mine alot with size 8-10 foam hoppers and beetles and it can handle them with no problem. It still casts well in a bit of a breeze but if the wind really gets up it will become a problem. I would say go ahead and build it up Bloom, I'm not sure what it sells for now but I only paid $65 for the blank when I got mine. You will love the rod and at that price you cant go wrong.
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