How Many "keepers" Did You Catch At Bullshead?

[Taco]

you forgot bloom there Tim

[DonAndersen]

Guys,

 

Bloom is right here. Stocking #'s on Bullshead went from 2003 @ 68,000, 2004 @ 40,000, 2005@ 70,000, 06@ 35,000, 07 @ 34,800 and 08@ 39,000. Stocking numbers are down a lot. The 2005 fish will mostly die over winter helping the growth rate a fair pile.

 

The Triploids stocked are AF3N's from Trout Lodge see: http://www.troutlodge.com/. They were eyed eggs bought in 2006.

 

Tim,

 

Swan maintains good growth and low kill due to it's location - far from people, lower stock rates, summer kill, heavy duty algae blooms, lousy campground and fish cysts. All in all, guaranteed to reduce fish takes. And the bears - lots of them.

 

Dolberg growth rates are down a lot from even 4 years ago. 2005 @ 8 lbs. to today @ 3 lbs. or so.

 

And Muir - the catch rates are up. No surprise. The growth rates, I haven't a clue although I've heard that several fish were landed over 20" this past summer. These are probably 5 year old fish. Once they are gone, who knows. I'd suspect that the lake might level out about 14>16" as the best fish. A far cry from the management objective of 20" fish.

 

regards all,

 

 

Don

[bloom]

Guys,

 

Bloom is right here. Stocking #'s on Bullshead went from 2003 @ 68,000, 2004 @ 40,000, 2005@ 70,000, 06@ 35,000, 07 @ 34,800 and 08@ 39,000. Stocking numbers are down a lot. The 2005 fish will mostly die over winter helping the growth rate a fair pile.

 

The Triploids stocked are AF3N's from Trout Lodge see: http://www.troutlodge.com/. They were eyed eggs bought in 2006.

 

Tim,

 

Swan maintains good growth and low kill due to it's location - far from people, lower stock rates, summer kill, heavy duty algae blooms, lousy campground and fish cysts. All in all, guaranteed to reduce fish takes. And the bears - lots of them.

 

Dolberg growth rates are down a lot from even 4 years ago. 2005 @ 8 lbs. to today @ 3 lbs. or so.

 

And Muir - the catch rates are up. No surprise. The growth rates, I haven't a clue although I've heard that several fish were landed over 20" this past summer. These are probably 5 year old fish. Once they are gone, who knows. I'd suspect that the lake might level out about 14>16" as the best fish. A far cry from the management objective of 20" fish.

 

regards all,

 

 

Don

 

 

Thanks for the info Don (pm sent also). I was thinking the stocking this year was around 29,000...even a drop from the previous years 'standard' of 35,000.

[dryfly]

All good points. Thanks to everyone.

 

SPECIAL THANKS to bloom for his hard work and wise council. Well done Tim!

 

Will be great to see how this all plays out. If Police develops even close to BH, it looks like we have indeed increased the opportunities for quality lake angling here in Southern Alberta. I might even become a lake angler one day. I just don't want to fish when Andersen is on the lake. I hear he's pretty good.

 

Why am I not fishing anywhere today?!? (Couldn't get out .. doing favour for a friend. )

 

Cheers!

 

Clive

[TimD]

Tim,

 

Swan maintains good growth and low kill due to it's location - far from people, lower stock rates, summer kill, heavy duty algae blooms, lousy campground and fish cysts. All in all, guaranteed to reduce fish takes. And the bears - lots of them.

 

Dolberg growth rates are down a lot from even 4 years ago. 2005 @ 8 lbs. to today @ 3 lbs. or so.

 

And Muir - the catch rates are up. No surprise. The growth rates, I haven't a clue although I've heard that several fish were landed over 20" this past summer. These are probably 5 year old fish. Once they are gone, who knows. I'd suspect that the lake might level out about 14>16" as the best fish. A far cry from the management objective of 20" fish.

 

regards all,

 

 

Don

 

Don,

 

I would agree with Swan that it's distance from major population centers keeps people, except for the RMH and the ETFC posses, from the lake. Most of the people that seem to fish it when I am there put the fish back in and that it is pretty hard to fish over the summer. I have also hear that it gets hammered by the fish-keeping types all winter. I have never really seen Dolberg without a lot of anglers, most of the anglers are fish keepers and it is pretty busy in the winter - it has been this way for years. I found that my catch rates haven't changed and have been pretty happy with average size out of Dolberg. If I were to compare these two lakes with Muir, I would say that they are just as busy on the weekends and Dolberg may even be busier. I wold also say that they both produce better than Muir.

 

Muir's original management objective was for high catch rates with a larger than average fish, when compared to a typical put and take fishery. When we cut the stocking to 2000 from 5000, the catch rates dropped and a number of anglers moved on to other lakes that were less challenging to fish. I was concerned about this trend and pushed to get the stocking rates up again. We will see what happens in the future, but I feel that just focusing on size of fish instead a combination of size and catch rate will limit the positive impact of delayed-harvest fisheries.

 

Best regards,

 

Tim

 

[adc]

We will see what happens in the future, but I feel that just focusing on size of fish instead a combination of size and catch rate will limit the positive impact of delayed-harvest fisheries.

 

Best regards,

 

Tim

 

Agree fully with your last comment Tim..........If SRD moves aggressively and establishes more Quality Fisheries based on their draft proposal then it would be possible to have various objectives---i.e. some lakes with low catch rates but very large fish and some with a good balance of numbers and size....The problem at the moment is there are so few lakes, of the total number of stocked lakes, that are managed outside of the conventional reg's that there simply aren't enough alternatives to go 'round.......

I am concerned with Don's previous comment (either on this thread or the QF one) that the Quality Fisheries proposal may be implemented hard in some regions and not so much in others........I would like to see a minimum number of QF lakes in each region as per the initial proposal..........

 

Cheers.....

 

Al....

[Golfman09]

I spent approx. 20 days at BH this year and noticed a couple of things throughout the year. First off I never caught a fish over 20" although I had alot that were 18" +. http://flyfishcalgary.com/board/style_emot...ridinghorse.gif That would be close to 200 fish in total if my math is correct. NO WISECRACKS ABOUT MY LACK OF SIZE. Through the entire year I never kept a fish from there as I don't think that a trophy lake should be depleted.....thats not what it is there for in my opinion. The only point in which I think a fish should be kept from a trophy lake is when it is near the end of its life. I'd rather see people taking keepers than finding them floating belly up. The difficulty then lies in the fact that both dip's and trip's have been stocked in the past which would equate to different life spans and sizes for their life expectency. If the stocking would be relegated to just trips I would expect that we could use 24"+ as the size reg and there would be several more over 20" to be caught and released. I am making some assumptions there as I am not a biologist by any means. But that would be my ideal situation of the growth rates and stocking numbers could be worked out to that end result.

 

It seemed to me that there was not a shortage of scuds as I had several episodes of cleaning them out of my boots and waders. Maybe there were less than usual as I don't have any past years at BH for a reference.

 

Even though I am a bit of a newbie my mindset is based on leaving things the way they were before I arrived. It frustrated me to see guys running to their vehicles with "something" in the cooler. Some of the sideways glances made me believe that they were smaller is size and larger in quantity than show in the regs.

 

I have no problem with the ocassional fish landing on someone's dinner table....however I think that if we are looking for a true trophy lake with monsters, than the regs could be tightened up and other lakes should be the choice of someone fishing for dinner. There are 2 other lakes not too far away that are known for smaller fish and more of them.....stocking could be and probably is to some degree set with a higher keeper rate.

 

All that being said, the fishing at BH is still very good and typically produces very well compared to other lakes I have been on. Again, my frame of reference is not huge.....however after this past season I cannot wait until opening day next year!