Pine Coulee Change To Trout

[troutlover]

Alberta Environment and Parks has a survey up today for feed back on consideration for Pine Coulee to harvest all Walley as they see it as a failed fishery then change it to trout. PLEASE take the survey and then in the comments section of the survey please ask them to make it a quality fishery. As the Calgary area now has zero quality lakes and more than enough harvest lakes.If someone smarter than me can post the link please do.

Thank You

Jared aka(troutlover the legend himself) <- Monger thats for you.

[jasonvilly]

Here you go:

 

https://talkaep.alberta.ca/fisheries-management-survey-south-saskatchewan-region

[monger]

This would be a great trout lake. Lots of scuds and boatman and a few minnows.

Fish contain mercury so they would be undesirable for the table....perfect!!!!!

A trophy trout lake closer to Calgary would be well used.

Big winds would make for good tube surfing as well.

 

You must do what the Legend Troutlover tells you to do

[BrianR]

Hey i'll bet that alot of them OLD Geezers didn't get the note from parks.They used my win info. Maybe the adminstration on this forum could d o a sticky...thanks for the info.

[relk19]

Done and done. Really short survey, if you want a quality trout fishery closer to Calgary, take this survey to show our support for the idea!

[jpinkster]

Yikes, that's a really big lake. Imagine how many fish they'd have to stuff in there to make it a viable fishery.

[monger]

They used to put over 100,000 in both Police and BH. Now that they put only a fraction of that in those lakes they could throw all those excess fish in Pine Coulee. Under 50,000 would probably work to start with

[Villageidiot]

Everyone on here better buck up and band together to get a ton of support for PCR. The AO forum is "vehemently" opposed to changing it.

 

"Lets waste more of the stocking $ to continuously pump the lake full of walleye that do not reproduce, and continue to show poor growth rates"

 

"theres too many trout lakes"

 

Good luck.

[jpinkster]

Everyone on here better buck up and band together to get a ton of support for PCR. The AO forum is "vehemently" opposed to changing.

 

Exactly the reason I don't post any of OHV content over there. Could you imagine?

[BrianR]

Pinkster: that's why it's a survey,with a comments area.FYI Tyrell lake used to get hundreds of thousands of trout,only to be consumed by pike & the warm water temps.I did the survey comments were to create a QSF of possibly a dual species Tiger & brook trout.Manitoba has had great success in doing these dual stockings,thus creating a trophy type fishery."BUT" before they implement it they MUST have very strict language to protect the Tigers.They would achieve Tigers in a more southerly destination instead of east of Edmonton,or south of the 60 parallel in the n.w. Sorry for the rant.

[dryfly]

My comments. Hard for a mouthy bugger like me to stick to 255 characters.

 

This is a HUGE opportunity and must NOT be lost! As there is no "trout" history here (with locals to complain about their right to kill trout), MAKE THIS A QSF FISHERY with regs similar to Bullshead and Police Outpost. We have few opportunities. Use it!!

One of THE huge issues with creating QSFs is their "history." The old farts who have killed trout in XYZ Pond since the last ice age, feel it is their god-given right. If the walleye are not working out, then trout are a great option to at least attempt. With no walleye stocking and appropriate trout stocking, trout would be the only species within 3 to 5 years.

 

Our neighbours camp there 2 or 3 times every summer. They like to take younger kids and their "grandkids" because they could always catch a lot of fish and they did not care about size and let 'em all go anyway. They really would not care whether they were walleyes or trout. They whack a few trout every summer, but they also love to catch big fish.

 

This is such a huge opportunity.

 

Clive

[jpinkster]

What about the pike? PCR still has a few mud monsters. Trout won't last too long with them around.

[dryfly]

Good point.

 

Wonder how many pike are there. Hard to get rid of them all.

 

If a few remained and ate a few hundred trout annually, there'd be a few monster pike in there. Not a bad thing.

 

I recall John next door using pike lures in there and the never caught any or one or two. I'll ask him.

[dryfly]

Neighbour wrote:

 

We have caught a few pike over the years at PC but have mostly caught walleyes and a few burbot.

[ÜberFly]

Bobloblaw and I caught a few pike there a few years ago.

[dryfly]

Here is what my neighbour wrote this morning. He makes great points.

 

Seems hard to believe the walleye fishery isn't working? During the summer the walleye catch is phenomenal, catch and release, which makes it difficult to understand. The walleye caught are all about 14 to 18 inches long. Perhaps that is an indication of something I am unaware of.

It's been a great place or hot spot to go to have some fun and to take kids or adults that have not fished, as one was almost guaranteed to catch.

Have never experienced trout fishing with such 'frenzy'.

Not sure what is involved in letting a walleye fishery go, or how long a trout fishery would take to mature to the point of allowing any angling.

Over the last couple of years the water level in the reservoir has become very low. It is reported to be about 20-feet down from it's usual level at around 50% capacity. If there isn't more run off and rain, and possibly less demand on the reservoir water, a fishery of any type might be difficult.

[monger]

The walleye are getting pretty ancient. I wonder how much longer they would live with the water temperatures present. It will go from a "frenzy" to nothing pretty quickly I imagine

[RedBeard]

Thanks for the links guys

[dryfly]

The current low water levels do not bode well for a sustaining trout fishery. Neighbour said they dropped very low last year after going down a bit the years before. The reasons and long-term status are unknown.

 

http://www.environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/DisplayData.aspx?Type=Figure&BasinID=10&DataType=3&StationID=RPINERES

 

[SanJuanWorm]

It rained nearly every day in July last summer. How are the levels low?

[Taco]

It rained nearly every day in July last summer. How are the levels low?

We got half the rainfall amount that Calgary received

[albertatrout]

What about the pike? PCR still has a few mud monsters. Trout won't last too long with them around.

 

The pike would be the least of the worries in sustaining a good trout fishery, think more suckers and competition for food (just like Chain Lakes). Without serious thought/ planning, it will produce mostly little fish. If some large predatory fish are maintained (maybe the existing burbot, or by stocking and managing for some large browns) it may be possible to have a decent fishery. That reservoir will have all species present from its inflow (upper willow creek) and the over abundant walleye may be the only reason it's not already choked with suckers. I think it's a waste of resources changing it to trout of any sort anyways. Be better to forget the walleye, add lake whitefish, and manage it for the native burbot and pike. Be better spending money on developing a new pond or two elsewhere imo.

[albertatrout]

.

[dryfly]

In 2016, Pine Coulee wx station rec'd same rain as YYC and both a titch above average.

 

http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/weather-data-viewer/graph.jsp?stations=2049,11715&elements=PRA,PRL&startdate=20160401&enddate=20161031&interval=DAILY&precipunit=mm

 

PC drier in 2015.

http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/weather-data-viewer/graph.jsp?stations=2049,11715&elements=PRA,PRL&startdate=20150401&enddate=20151031&interval=DAILY&precipunit=mm

 

Some mgt thing going with the the levels.

[monger]

Well Albertatrout perhaps you are right regarding the suckers. We never saw any there when we used to take the kids there for burbot, but with no walleye, the suckers could be a huge food sink. I was dreaming of another quality lake beside BH south of Calgary. We need another glacier to dig out a fresh pond for trout fishing.