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Training day!!

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Can you take pike in Alberta? If so, that's awesome...Now if only you could take walleye and trout.

It's too bad there isn't enough of you around to effectively lobby the government for change. Given the challenges of spearfishing, I don't see why anyone everywhere shouldn't be allowed to take the same that an 'angler' can. I've never understood how a beer-swilling surface hog is some how more reputable...I digress though...
 
I dont understand where the stigmatism came from for spearfishing (60's?). But the laws definitely need to change. I would be funny to see all five of us holding up sighns and chanting a stupid slogan in protest thorofl. But its easier to catch fish on an X-Box so i guess we gotta deal.
 
I have heard from a few people the fish that are on the don't shoot list are the ones that have special size regs and that the you could shoot pike up untill they had the no pike under 63cm size rstriction. They say it is because if you shot one not of legal size you wouldn't be able to put it back. If that is the reason it is some what a legitimate reason. They probably just made it province wide for simplicty instead of making it for only the lakes that actually have a size restriction. If enough people said something to the right people we might be able to change that it is province wide.
 
The size thing does make sense. But if one was even to adress it who would they talk to?
 
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I dont understand where the stigmatism came from for spearfishing (60's?). But the laws definitely need to change. I would be funny to see all five of us holding up sighns and chanting a stupid slogan in protest thorofl. But its easier to catch fish on an X-Box so i guess we gotta deal.

What you need is a hot 20 something naked woman standing on the street corner in protest to help your cause...Works for PETA :) Works for me too :)
 
LOL..I think that would work for anyone I know..Anyone out there got any Hot, Young sisters??:chatup
 
I have heard from a few people the fish that are on the don't shoot list are the ones that have special size regs and that the you could shoot pike up untill they had the no pike under 63cm size rstriction. They say it is because if you shot one not of legal size you wouldn't be able to put it back. If that is the reason it is some what a legitimate reason. They probably just made it province wide for simplicty instead of making it for only the lakes that actually have a size restriction. If enough people said something to the right people we might be able to change that it is province wide.

At the very least, it has some merit now to me. Not much, but some.

Fishing regulations are complicated to begin with, each lake has to be managed on its own. I don't think adding stuff in there to accomodate spearos takes it to another level by any means.

In Saskatchewan, we have some lakes that have designated limits that are different from the norm, we have other lakes that have motor size restrictions, we have some lakes that have portions of them closed to angling and those portions are only specified in terms of land location (township, range, section, quartersection, etc).
 
There are the same kinds of specific restrictions here. Even if the restriction were made for spearos and the limits were low or high according to specific lakes it would open new doors for us. I dont want to overfish an area anyways. Nor do i have the skill to do so. (im a newbie). I just want the options/rights that anglers have. My license costs me the same as it does everyone else. I would be interested to see what the reasons are behind the restricions, other than the size angle. The nature of our sport allows us to pick our target. Its not a shot gun or automatic weapon with a kill zone. The size restriction should be left to our discretion and the consequence should be as such also.
 
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I know JPPLAY talked to someone at the fisheries office one time about it so he might be able to help. Calling the information centre in edmonton might lead somewhere or we could all just mail letters to the fisheries department and see if we get a responce.
 
Pike are not legally taken by speargun in Alberta.
Read that carefully.
We'll talk about this and other topics over coffee in June!
 

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I dont know how far you can go with just phone calls but i bet mail and probing with the phone would be our best bet. Everybody hates parchment!
 
Thats a sweet fish erik. What kind of bait/lure did you use?...Musta fought like a gladiator! :blackeye
 
shhhhhhh

so what are the best eating fish that we have in alberta ??

i herd perch were the best by far ???
 
Ive never tasted one but my buddy says they tasye pretty good. Just kinda bony.
 
Walleye and perch are excellent. Walleye are really overfished in Alberta and most places there is a no-take policy that I would abide by, for the same reason an angler should. There are something like 300,000 anglers in Alberta- 1000 per lake on average, and Sask has about 4 anglers per lake on average.
Perch taste the same as walleye but are small, so you need to get more, which is fine! 15/day is the limit for perch in most spots. They are excellent sport as they are small targets, fast, generally skittish, and the big ones usually stay at the back of the school! Sometimes the 2nd-biggest fish in the school will swim right up to your spearshaft and stare it down, fins extended.
Jackfish are usually good if cooked properly- they can be muddy tasting depending on the lake and time of year, so usually frying them in good batter is best.
Burbot also taste excellent. The challenge with these fish is finding them and knowing where to look. Once spotted, you can line up and nail them. Occasionally they get spooked and bolt though.
 
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Here's an article I wrote for some magazine a few years back- a good refresher for us, and maybe new info for some. We wont be diving that deep necessarily, but this technique is really the best way to dive, even from the surface.

How to Equalize at Depth
This is (hopefully) an easy to understand description of 1: why it becomes hard and/or impossible to equalize at greater depths, and 2: how to overcome this barrier.
As freedivers, we descend with our heads down, and the air in our lungs above the areas that we need to equalize: our sinuses, mask, and eustachian tubes. Most of us start out using the Valsalva technique, in which we push air down into our head with our diaphragms (since air rises in water). This works to approximately 30 metres, then the diaphragm is not capable of pushing the air down beyond this point (there are individual exceptions, but this applies to most people). The result is that the diver has a few choices; continue deeper and rupture the eardrums and sinuses and get a mask squeeze, turn head-up so that air will rise into those airspaces, or abort the dive. Since we want to dive deeper and with the least expending of effort, none of those are good options.
There is a combination of techniques developed by Eric Fattah called “The Frenzel-Fattah” which is a much more efficient method of equalizing, and will also allow us to dive extremely deep.
After your breathe-up, just before you tuck and dive, pull your head back, lower your chin (keeping your mouth closed) and blow into your mouth until your cheeks are full and stretched. Close your epiglottis (the valve in your throat that leads to your lungs), relax your head into proper profile, then dive. The valve stays closed until later. Use the air in your cheeks to equalize your ears, mask and sinuses. If done properly, you will easily dive to 20+ metres using only this air in your mouth. If this is as deep as you want to go, then fine.
If you want to go deeper, then there will be a point where there is no air left in your mouth with which to equalize, so you must fill your mouth again. This depth varies among individuals, but most of us need to refill our mouths at approximately 25 metres. The important point is that it is done at a depth where you can still fill your mouth to the max, using your diaphragm. If you wait until deeper, you may not be able to fill your mouth, and this will result in a shallower max depth. If you do it too shallow, you will also limit your max depth. There is a way to pull air out of your lungs using your mouth like a plunger (reverse packing), but it will not fill your mouth properly and it takes effort, so it is much less efficient.
Once you are at the depth where you will refill your mouth, arch your head back, lower your jaw (mouth closed of course) and blow into your mouth until your cheeks are full. Relax you neck back into it’s normal profile and continue your dive. If you are physically capable, there will be enough air in your mouth to equalize 80+ metres! An added benefit is that you have initiated a faster dive reflex by shunting blood out of your limbs and into your chest cavity earlier in the dive.
This is an advanced technique that takes practice. Practice using the surface mouth-fill first to get comfortable, then work your way down. You can try a refill at 10 metres to get a feel for it at depth. Also, since you are shunting blood earlier in the dive, you must be careful with the possibility of lung squeeze. If your chest compresses beyond it’s ability, you can get hurt, so work your way down the ladder slowly. Don’t go from a PB of 42 metres to an attempt at 50 metres (as I did in my first contest). Even if your PB is 42 metres and you haven’t dived to beyond 30 metres in 3 months, don’t attempt to hit that PB again for a while (as I did in my first competition). Your lungs’ flexibility will come back, but not necessarily in one or two days. Go slowly and listen to your body….feel what’s happening during the dive. It becomes more difficult to fell what’s happening in our bodies beyond 30 metres, due to narcosis and CO2 levels.
 
Looks like there may be a performance freediving course the weekend of the 20th. If so Jer and I will likely be attending that. I shot an email to Kirk tonight to see what their schedule is will update you when i hear more.
 
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