Assessment of the Status of the Sport Fishery for Walleye at Floatingstone Lake, 1997
Author(s)
Bill Patterson, M. G. Sullivan
Summary
To recover or maintain Alberta's walleye fisheries, a new walleye management strategy
was implemented in 1996. In 1996, the walleye fishery at Floatingstone Lake was classified as
a collapsed walleye fishery and a zero (0) daily bag limit was implemented. In order to monitor
the status of the walleye fishery at Floatingstone Lake, a creel survey was conducted during
May to August 1997. Since the last creel survey conducted in 1985, the estimated number of
anglers had declined 93% from 19840 to 1372 anglers. Angler effort declined by 94% from 76.9
angler-hours / ha to 4.8 angler-hours / ha. During the 1997 survey, only 5 walleye were reported
released in 505 hours of angling.
Historical information mentions that Floatingstone Lake was pretty much fished out in
1975 and shamefully overused since around 1960 (Chipeniuk 1975).
Based on the absence of walleye in the sport-fishery sample, historical information and
the criteria used to classify walleye stocks in Alberta the walleye population in Floatingstone
Lake should retain the classification of “collapsed”.