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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gst" data-source="post: 91259" data-attributes="member: 373">Spoke with a commercial fisherman while on a trip back from  the Pas. He fished on i believe 13 different lake with his permits. It was interesting. He actually had done netting for the Dept of Fisheries  for their studies. They targeted different  size/age fish thru the use of various size nets. He had a lot of information that was found out that had not been filtered. the first thing he explained is that I think it was 11 years ago there was a perfect storm during spawning. Water levels being held up for extended periods impacting spawning above what is normal in a positive manner like had rarely ever been seen. That is why here the last few years the large  fish have been coming out of this lake and others in the area. He said that is going to start declining simply because the life age of the walleye there was 14 years. They are being caught or dying naturally. (he also mentioned how many blind walleyes were being caught and said they determined that wa from being caught in cold temps kept out of teh water too long and then returned, these cloudy eyed/blind walleyes weighed less/age  than healthy walleye) He talked about lakes the fisheries had built staging ponds on the rivers filling them and other practices  that aided in higher spawning rates that were very effective in creating larger numbers of age class walleye that long term will build fisheries better than many other things. He also talked extensively about the "eco sustainable" designation of Lake Waterhen. (we were in a resturant just 30 miles from that lake) As someone who makes his living selling fish he said yes they did have a demand by consumers in geographic markets wanting these "eco" fish, but the demand was NOT what the group trying to influence the fish board was claiming it was. (I would image it is about the same percentage of consumers that are "demanding" "sustainable" beef which is about 12% (they want it but do not want to pay more for it ) They had done independant studies and found about that percentage of consumers demanding this "eco" fish. He is involved in creating an independent marketing coop outside the fish board and was extremely knowledgable about marketing fish. He said the fish board is a bit like the mafia and the govt is as corrupt as anything. And this"eco certification" will be used to control and remove fishermen from the lake. I understand he is a commercial fisherman but he spoke a great deal supporting some of the things they need to do to maintain the lake and improve it, even talking about changing the multi species quota sytem. It seems the largest concern in this video in the "eco certification" and this guys veiw on that was allow the market itself to determine it as to recoup a value rather than force an agenda which becomes a cost. It was a very interesting conversation. I guess when you see the words "Wildlife Federation" (the sponsor of the video) one thinks agenda driven policy that should maybe be taken with a grain of salt.</blockquote>

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