DonAndersen Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Guys/Gals, 1] Alberta uses a domestic strain of rainbow whereas BC uses a broader range of wild fish for their stocking program. 2] BC's broad range of trout allows fish managers to stock fish that are suited to the water quality 3] All Female trips are the top of the heap when it comes to quality fish. Alberta won't be using them. Costs too much. BC uses them all the time 4] Jacking is sexual maturity w/o sexual act. Think of them as steers. They look like spawners but don't spawn. Jacks generally die. 5] Stocking trips is pointless if a kill fishery is allowed. 6] The food resources in Police Outpost Lake may take 2>3 years to recover if the stocking #'s are decreased to 0 And lastly and most importantly, triploids may make the problem of over-stocking even worse. Rather than the fish dying @ 4>5 years, they last longer resulting in more fish chasing ever smaller amounts of food resources. Examples of this type of thing abound where aeration was placed in lakes that occasionally winter killed [ Police, Alford, Mitchell et al]. Winterkill resulted in allowing the food resources to recover and the fish size to increase. If the stocking numbers remained high after areaion, this resulted in more fish chasing ever diminishing food resources and the fish size shrank. The growth rate @ Police Outpost Lake will not increase dramatically until the 250,00 fish stocked last year die which will take 3 more years. Do not expect high growth rate of Bullshead. catch ya' Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sundancefisher Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 The premise of using strains specific to an area of water body is smart thinking...proactive thinking...good management...but this is Alberta. We have to take what we can get cause as a special interest/lobby group fishermen in Alberta are meaningless to the government...past-present and future. Until that changes we have what we have. Trips are probably still fine in a kill fishery from a value perspective but only if a good minimum size is used... and I would say to start it should be 22 inches Stocking numbers/rates is the biggest issue as it relates to growth rate, size and available food resources. Hopefully the ice fishermen did their number on the lake this winter. F&W should also have a handle on population and food resources and future stocking rates. Regardless of the issues you mentioned...this fishery will be better than ever and can only improve further as the bugs are worked "into" the system! Cheers Sun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Don, Things have to start somewhere. Sure, I would prefer AF3Ns and C&R regs. Fact is that won't happen overnight. Don't agree at all though about the overstocking - if you slash the stocking numbers and keep an eye on things, it will reduce the pressure on the food supply. Food consumption rates should be more or less proportional to biomass of trout. If you've got 1/4 of the fish at 4 times the size, I would think that the amount of food that gets eaten would be the same in the worst case. Rome wasn't built in a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tako Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 You still need a minor kill fishery. Say one fish over 50cm. Basically to help out the natural mortality, keep the density around the right area, or you get stunted fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloom Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 When Bullshead was first initiated, maintaining a kill fishery was mandatory. Having this lake for 'everyone' was one of the big selling points and was needed to get everyone on board. Not sure we would even be talking about Police Outpost right now if BH didn't start as a kill fishery. That being said, things always change (ie. the move towards trips), and you never know what may happen to these lakes in the future...at least things are moving in the right direction (in our view), and people are passionate about this lake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adc Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Guys/Gals, 1] Alberta uses a domestic strain of rainbow whereas BC uses a broader range of wild fish for their stocking program. 2] BC's broad range of trout allows fish managers to stock fish that are suited to the water quality 3] All Female trips are the top of the heap when it comes to quality fish. Alberta won't be using them. Costs too much. BC uses them all the time 4] Jacking is sexual maturity w/o sexual act. Think of them as steers. They look like spawners but don't spawn. Jacks generally die. 5] Stocking trips is pointless if a kill fishery is allowed. 6] The food resources in Police Outpost Lake may take 2>3 years to recover if the stocking #'s are decreased to 0 And lastly and most importantly, triploids may make the problem of over-stocking even worse. Rather than the fish dying @ 4>5 years, they last longer resulting in more fish chasing ever smaller amounts of food resources. Examples of this type of thing abound where aeration was placed in lakes that occasionally winter killed [ Police, Alford, Mitchell et al]. Winterkill resulted in allowing the food resources to recover and the fish size to increase. If the stocking numbers remained high after areaion, this resulted in more fish chasing ever diminishing food resources and the fish size shrank. The growth rate @ Police Outpost Lake will not increase dramatically until the 250,00 fish stocked last year die which will take 3 more years. Do not expect high growth rate of Bullshead. catch ya' Don 1) Don't think Police gets triploids this year.. 2) Stocking last year I think was 132,000, not 250,00.........Maybe 50,000 this year 3) It was a good year for ice fishermen and I hope they did well..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonAndersen Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 My apologies folks - should never rely on memory. ADC is right 133,000 it is for Police Outpost. Shoulda had a derby down there and invited 250.00 of our close friends to a fish fry. Sun... Pressure group are the only thing that slows the downward slide. We now have a bunch of lower/no-limit lakes & C&R waters through pressure groups. The evidence is clear. Pressure groups work! We also have a Quality Lake management policy only through the efforts of anglers that care. And Rusty, I recall when there were 7+ lb fish in Police, Dipping Vat, Beavius, Lees and on and on. Now, you might get one 2 lbs. Groceries or the lack of grits resulted in the lousy growth rate. No girts means skinny fish. As far as keeping an eye on things. F&W did a K factor on Struble in 1968 - we [me and a bunch of like-minded anglers] did another 39 years later. So much for F&W keeping an eye on things. I can send you the results if you like. K factor on Struble was cruddy. Bloom - Beaver lake and Muir lakes were several years ahead of Bullshead in reduced kill and size limits. If I recall correctly Beaver was stocked in 1999 and Muir in 2001 meaning the planning phase was about 2 years earlier. But now we have 2 C&R lakes in Central Alberta. Pressure helps. Or we can do like ADC and get things changed. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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