What Was It Like Back Then?

[wongrs]

So, I've only been around Calgary for 3 years now and am actually leaving at the end of this year but I'd like to know what fishing was like prior to the catch and release regs coming in during the late 90s.

 

What were the regs before? Take all the fish you like?

What were the stocking programs like for streams?

How were the regs implemented? Phased approach?

Were there less fish caught?

Smaller fish caught?

More land erosion/degradation/pollution/garbage on the streams because people were less conscious of their impacts?

Water quality improved?

Insect life changes?

More/less people on the waters?

 

Just curious if anybody has looked back at the changes in the regs and had any perspectives on any of the above or others that they'd like to share as I'm sure I'm not the only one that's moved to Calgary in the past 3 years. It would also help inform board members on fisheries management (as I know I'm almost entirely ignorant on this subject).

 

My apologies if this is a contentious issue. Thanks for sharing!

Rich

[gravelman]

I grew up on the sheep. 15 years ago there was fish every where easy to catch. I

[rhuseby]

I started fishing in 1962, when we lived in Rocky. Access was limited on most streams due to oil indistry just getting going on exploration. Catch limits were 10 trout, and I think 10 whitefish, 15 pike, 10 walleye, and 30 perch. There no restrictions on bait and no size limits. Sad to say, my dad was not the world's greatest fisherman so I'm not sure about catch rates and size. Those I remember were about the same size range as now, and Dad pretty often got his limit. I never caught a fish until I was 11, after we had moved back to Blackfalds. My first fish was a 10 " trout from Shunda Creek. I caught a lot of goldeye and some walleye in the Red Deer at Burbank, and the Blindman River had a lot of small pike. Catch limits started being reduced in the mid 70's, with the first one I noticed being the drop to 10 pike. By the time I started flyfishing in 76, access was a lot easier and you were seeing a lot more fishermen west of Rocky. The first Buck for Wildlife project in Alberta was the restoration of parts of Stauffer Creek (North Raven), and the wire mesh gabion and iron bank support stakes were all fresh the first ime I fished it. The David Thompson highway was paved past Nordegg and a day trip from Red Deer was a reasonable thing. In 1982, the North Ram was made the first catch and release water in the province. I had fished it in 81 for the first time and caught 72 cutts in 4 hours, with the biggest only 13". Unfortunately, the massive flood of 82 seemed to cause a serious reduction in the fishery for a number of years and I haven't been back since about 84 when I was working south of the Trans-Canada. Limits were also reduced to 5 trout around this time, and the Bow had a closed season in April and May downtream of Calgary. The Kananaskis Lakes were poor fisheries relying on stocking of 100,00 rainbow a year. A few bulls came out of the Lower lake each year, mostly to ice-fishermen, and most were promptly smacked on the head. Up to about this time, fishing in all streams tributary to the therivers the size if the Sheep, Elbow, Highwood, etc were on the alternating open year system. One year all of the tributaries that flowed in from right hand side would be open and the left side tribs would be closed, and the next year the reverse would occur. I remember going to an Alberta Fish and Game conference in 1983 where the raging debate was whether stream stocking of rainbows and cutts should continue. It was not long after that that the alternate year rule was dropped, and stocking in streams ended. Over the next ten years there were incremental changes in the regs but nothing very drastic. In the early 90s thing really started to change, with size limits and bait bans becoming widespread, closures to protect spawning fish and just generally much more specific management tools being used. In 1995, the bull trout given complete protection and the profile of fisheries management really seemed to take off. This has been a bit rambling but a few specific points are in order. There were far fewer people fishing in general, due to fewer people in the province, about 1 million in 1965. I fished the Crowsnest a few times in the 80's and don't recall ever seeing another fisherman. One change for the better has been the fact that a lot of ladies are now fishing and they seem to have a better ethic about conservation than many guys. There were few serious issues with stream damage by recreational use. Although 4x4s were common, few people used them for anything other than access to areas to hunt or fish and no one tried to use streams as playgrounds. Litter was mainly confined to well-defined random campsites, alothough you certainly found the odd pop or beer bottle along the stream. Going by the number with caps still on, I think quite a few were stashed to cool off in the water, and then never recovered. Industrial and agricultural abuse on stream was reasonably widespread but improved remarkably fast with educational programs about stream impacts. The worst industrial impact in my opinion has been logging, with clear cutting contributing to stream warming and siltation. Cattle damage has been greatly reduced on many streams but is still an issue as onyone fishing stretchs of the Dogpound or some of the foothills strreams can attest. Overall, I'd say that, given the increase in population in Alberta in the last 50 years, the fishing has held up remarkably well. We are faced with over-crowding by our standards, but nothing like the east faces, or the popular waters on the west coast. Fisheries management has generally managed to keep up and although we would all like to see more enforcement, there are serious penalties in place when offenders are prosecuted. Because the management has developed to a high standard, reading the regulations carefully and understanding them has become a significant issue for fishermen. The insects have probably changed, but I'm not a big bug guy, so maybe someone else with a greater knowledge on entomology can give a lot more detail. There will be a number of others responding to this thread who will be able to supply a lot more detail and some different recollections. At least we lived out the ancient Chinese curse "we lived in interesting times".

[Taco]

Interesting questions Rich and not contentious in the least IMO. I'll do my best to answer but it will be from my perspective of fishing southwestern Alberta flowing waters over the past 40 some yrs ... other people's mileage may vary.

 

What were the regs before? Take all the fish you like? 10 trout, 15 pike, 10 'eyes, 30 perch, 100 whitefish. The smaller foothill and mountain streams were closed to fishing on alternative yrs. Example; Racehorse/closed, Dutch/open one yr, the next yr the opposite all up and down the ES. Fish were considered more of a food source than a recreational resource for most people IMO. You also have to remember the population of the Province was about a 1/3 of what it is now.

 

What were the stocking programs like for streams? Both levels of Senior Government were actively stocking mostly non-native fish in flowing waters as late as 1989(?)

 

How were the regs implemented? Phased approach? The regs are always in a state of flux or should be, as needs or knowledge changed so did the regs but at a governmental pace.

 

Were there less fish caught?Yes and no. When a ck opened for the season fishing would be pretty good but the more popular areas would get fished out pretty quick. I remember as a kid, people I considered oldtimers telling me "Such and such will never get fished out...too damn hard to fish" and I quickly caught on; the tougher the access the better the fishin'. Another side note; when I used to mention to those same oldtimers that I'd had a good days fishin' up SoandSo, they'd usually seemed to answer "Yeah but you shoulda been here in the old days...that was fishin'!"

 

Smaller fish caught? Yes, they never had a chance to get big if they got bonked was soon as they reached legal size. That said there is such a thing as carrying capacity. The NW branch of the OMR was closed to fishing for 10 yrs or more, opening again in 1964. My old scout master tells me that they used to parked at the campground, walk to the falls and fish back to campground using a 3 wet fly rig, damn near every swing was a double or triple header but no fish was over 10" long. Stream had too many fish for any of them to get any bigger.

 

More land erosion/degradation/pollution/garbage on the streams because people were less conscious of their impacts? Same old round and round. People were definitely were less conscious of their impact but there was less of an impact because there was less people......make sense? I think it's worse now.

 

Water quality improved? Yes but that can cut two ways; less pollution=less fertilizer for plant life= less bugs= smaller and fewer fish. And no, too many demands on a very limited resource.

 

Insect life changes? see above

 

More/less people on the waters? Way more people but I still can find places where it's just me and some bear tracks.

 

Take Care