Outdoors

Coho's demise greatly exaggerated

In 2005, the Ministry of Natural Resources made a decision.
Due largely to budgetary constraints, it discontinued its coho salmon stocking program for Lake Ontario.
Because of this, it was expected anglers on the lake’s northern shoreline would have one fewer species to pursue once the final remnants from the last seeding in the fall of 2005 came to maturation. Once these fish reach this stage and spawn, they die. To date, there’s been little success in natural reproduction.
But thanks to concerted efforts from conservation organizations and the presence of a fish hatchery in Ringwood, the coho salmon’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.
In early November, members of the Metro East Anglers and Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters member clubs converged at the Streetsville Dam on the Credit River to resurrect the province’s coho stocking program.
Eggs collected from mature spawning coho salmon were transported to the OFAH/Toronto Sportsmen’s Show Ringwood Fish Culture Station where they will be reared to the fingerling stage before being released into Lake Ontario next fall.
The inaugural project was a success, said OFAH fisheries biologist Andrew Lowles.
With two days given to collect their target of 120,000 eggs, Lowles said they only required one day (Nov. 8) to get 150,000. This number, is comparable to what New York State annually injects into Lake Ontario with their coho program.
Of the 150,000 coho eggs collected, he noted close to 140,000 are currently doing well at the Ringwood facility.
But during the incubation process, he anticipated half of the 140,000 will survive until they are to be released into the Credit River.
In electing to collect what seems like a small mount of coho salmon eggs, Lowles said it’s because the Ringwood facility has a limited carrying capacity. Also being reared at the same time, he said, are close to 1.1 million chinook salmon eggs, which were also collected on the Credit River in October. As well, some rainbow trout are currently in capacity at Ringwood where they will be released in the spring of 2008.
Once released, the cohos have a life cycle of four to five years before returning to their home river to fulfill their fall spawning ritual,  Lowles said. Some immature fish, however, will return in their third year, he pointed out.
While the chinook salmon are far bigger in physical stature than their coho cousins, what makes the latter species enticing to anglers is that in Lake Ontario they are generally found in large travelling schools. Thus, it’s not unusual to catch them in rapid-paced fashion and in large numbers.
These fish also provide another species for shore anglers to catch once they enter feeder streams to prepare for fall spawning.
Looking down the road, Lowles sees no reason why the project cannot be an annual affair, provided funding is available.
One thing is certain though —with volunteers from conservation groups such as the Metro East Anglers offering their time to assist in the rearing process, there’s no shortage of manpower.
Whether the numbers to be stocked in future years could increase would be reviewed by the ministry on an annual basis, Lowles said.
“It depends on how the returns go and if there’s any natural reproduction,” he said.

Simcoe's muskie population continues to grow

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. The same thing can be applied to a provincial government project on Lake Simcoe. After launching in the mid 1990s, the Natural Resources Ministry, Muskies Canada and Fleming College in Lindsay have gone full bore re-introducing the muskellunge, once native to the Simcoe, to this province’s sixth-largest lake. Jason Borwick, a biologist from the ministry’s Aurora office, believes the project has gone extremely well. Part of the proof can be found in the stocking numbers this year; close to 1,600 fall fingerlings were seeded into four or five sites. Among those were areas near Pefferlaw, the Talbot River, southeast shoreline of Georgina Island, west shoreline of Cook’s Bay and Barnstable Bay. This greatly exceeds 86 fall fingerlings injected in 2005 and 62 summer fry last year. The reason for the small start was difficulties involved in breeding and rearing captured adult fish. With the adult pool originating from Georgian Bay and the Gloucester Pool, Borwick noted they had difficulty adapting to the artificial breeding environment at a Fleming College hatchery. “It’s not like raising rainbow trout. These (muskellinge) aren’t fish people can culture in their backyard,” he said. “People need to understand that.” As for the fish planted in the project’s first two seedings, Borwick acknowledged it’s difficult to determine if they’ve taken to Lake Simcoe, since they are rarely seen in juvenile stages of growth. “They’re a hard fish to target or find in trap nets,” he said. About the only time they can be found is during spring when they spawn in shallow areas. For the first groups, this won’t take place until four to five years down the road. While this year’s stocking is completed, Borwick said more is coming. Also included in the project, Borwick said, is improving muskellunge spawning areas, work that began two years ago. There are marginal spawning areas that requires enhancement, he said. Among them are Cook’s Bay which has monocultures of cattail beds. Adding soft stem bullrushes or wild rice beds could enhance them, he suggested. To date, Borwick is quite happy with what’s transpired. “Every indication is that it’s been a success so far,” he said. “But time will tell.” Bass champs declared The wind and rain that invaded Simcoe Oct. 27 did not deter 59 two-member angling teams from competing in the 2007 Bass Pro Shops Lake Simcoe Open. Robert Formosa and Jason Saliba pocketed $8,500 as they brought in their five smallmouth bass liveweight limit of 29.22 pounds. Peter Savoia and Gaspare Costibile finished second with 28.60 lbs. and Mark Moran and Joe Muszynski third 27.66 lbs. The heaviest smallmouth of the day was one hauled in by Mark Kulik and Dave Kennedy; it tipped the scales at 7.02 lbs. That fish enabled the pair to earn $2,400. Tournament organizers deemed the event, staged out of Sibbald Point Provincial Park, a success from an angling and economic point of view as many anglers prefished for several days.