General Sportfishing Regulations & Regulation Changes

The information provided below is for reference purposes only and may not encompass the complete scope of sportfishing regulations in Alberta. For complete regulations please pick up a copy of the most recent Alberta Guide to Sportfishing regulations, free of charge, at your license issuer.

For more information refer to www.afga.org

Each Watershed Unit of the Fish Management Zones has it’s own open and closed seasons. Check your copy of the 1999 Alberta Sportfishing Regulations for open and closed dates in the area where you plan to fish.

Catch Limits

the word limit refers to the number of fish you are allowed to keep in one day or have in your possession.

Important Catch Limit Details

The number of fish you are allowed to keep during one day of fishing at a water body is equal to the limit listed for each fish species or group of species. This limit includes fish eaten or given away that day, and those fish stored at your home. This means that, if for instance, the daily limit for Whitefish is 5 in total, and you already have 3 Whitefish at home in your freezer, you are only allowed to keep 2 more Whitefish.

The number of fish that you may possess at the end of a fishing trip lasting more than one day is equal to a one-day limit, and includes fish stored at home. This means that you cannot stock-up on any species of fish during an extended fishing excursion.

General Sportfishing Restrictions

In the province of Alberta it is unlawful to;

- Use more than one (1) line when angling in open water

- Use more than two (2) lines when angling into ice-covered water

- Be more than 30m from any fishing line that is in the water.

- Use a line equipped with more than 3 hooks, 3 single-hook lures, or one multi-hook lure

- Use a hook or lure with more than 3 points on a common shaft

- Release live fish or live fish eggs into any waters except back to the waters form which

they were caught.

- Possess live bait-fish

- Possess live game fish unless they have been lawfully caught by angling and are within

100m of the waters from which they were caught

- Use live fish for bait

- Set-out, or use bait, to attract fish unless it is attached to a hook used in angling.