Outdoors

Club works to improve angling in Toogood Pond

Toogood Pond in Unionville isn’t exactly a hotspot for largemouth bass when the season opens the fourth Saturday in June.
But down the road, the Hawgtown Bassmasters hope it might be a body of water that will play host to a healthy population of these fish.
At the same time, they hope it will provide future anglers the opportunity to catch these fish within an urban setting.
Just recently, several members of the Hawgtown Bassmasters volunteered their time to begin this process by creating 23 spawning beds in the pond, on Carlton Road just west of Main Street, Unionville.
It stems from the club’s mandate of at least one conservation event a year, club secretary Duane Gonsalves said.
In conducting the project, Mark Gillson, club president, noted they initially approached the Town of Markham and held discussions with them about it.
At first, he said, their intentions were to place spawning benches in the pond, to which the town was receptive.
But the club made a minor alteration to its proposal when after applying for a Community Fisheries and Wildlife Program grant, it was suggested it instead create spawning beds.
“I believe this was a better option for this pond, based on our observation and surveys of the pond,” Gillson said.
Prior to the physical work, which took place April 27, club members surveyed the pond for two days to determine the best locations for the beds.
“We found the north end of the pond had a narrow perimeter of loose rock that extended out approximately six feet from shore. For the most part, it was silted up with quite a bit of mud and beyond this narrow band, it dropped off into very soft and deep mud that’s hazardous to wade in. In our opinion, this did not appear to offer much in the way of quality spawning habitat,” Gillson recalled.
“On our first visit, we noticed several people walking dogs, with some of the dogs running in the water along this narrow band of shoreline, which would certainly disturb any spawning activities or nests. There was a narrow, featureless rocky shoal about 10 feet wide that runs across the north end of the pond out in front of the bullrushes. It is narrower in some places and again, it quickly drops off on either side into deep mud. This shoal appeared to be the best natural spawning area for the resident fish and wasn’t subject to the disturbances of the shoreline areas.
“It was along this shoal we decided to make the spawning beds and place attractors to break up the otherwise featureless bottom.”
The club had two yards of river rock donated and delivered to site by the Jolly Farmer Garden Centre, a North York company.
Three buckets of rock were used to create beds about three feet in diameter bed and about 10 inches thick on the bottom, Gillson said. The beds were placed on the edge of the shoal in two to three feet of water just before the dropoff into deeper water.
“We also placed a crescent-shaped arrangement of bricks to act as an attractor on the shallow side of each bed and facing the deeper water,” he said. “The 20 beds along the shoal were placed about 10 feet apart. The remaining rock was placed around a large tree trunk that was laying in the water and would serve as a attractor. It is just off the shoal and is surrounded by some rocks and a lot of mud.
“We placed about 20 bucket loads of rock around the tree, which should provide good spawning habitat for a few fish.”
Area residents were quite interested in what they were doing and reacted positively to the work, Gillson said.
“It gave us a good sense of accomplishment and we felt our efforts will definitely make a difference to this body of water,” he said.
As satisfied as the club is, there’s still more work that can be done on Toogood Pond Gillson said. In particular, he feels the pond needs more aquatic vegetation and hopes the club can get the green light to continue its work.
A chapter of the Ontario BASS Federation, part of the worldwide BASS Federation, the Hawgtown Bassmasters sports a membership of 20 people who hail from around the Greater Toronto Area and welcomes new members, including youngsters and women.
The club meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Crossroads Restaurant at 6211 Main Street, Stouffville.
For more information, e-mail [email protected] or visit eteamz.com/HawgtownBassmasters

Fishing clubs focus on environmental protection

It might be assumed fishing clubs are geared primarily for people who like to tell tall tales about the big ones that did or didn’t get away or for those who seek further knowledge to help improve their angling skills.
While members of the York Bassmasters might engage in those topics during their meetings, their activities extend beyond those parameters.
In fact, one of their mandates is to protect the environment, which, in turn, will create angling opportunities for future generations.
The group earned accolades by winning the Berkley Conservaton Award for their work on the Bogart Creek restoration project.
The annual award isn’t just given to angling clubs, Tony Dean, club treasurer and conservation director, said.
When potential nominees are chosen for the award, other conservation groups are taken into consideration, he added.
But receiving this year’s award, the club was honoured and humbled
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d win because there are so many great conservation projects that are being done,” Dean said. “We are proud of the work we’ve done (on the Bogart Creek Restoration project) and look forward to the challenges ahead.”
The club’s involvement in the Bogart Creek project stemmed was inspired by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, which began work last fall in the East Holland River clean-up.
This was a multi-year, $17-million campaign to restore the most degraded and populated river in the Lake Simcoe watershed.
In the East Holland River Clean Up, erosion control, tree planting, manure storage and septic system upgrade projects are being conducted to improve the water quality in the river and in the lake itself.
Since Bogart Creek feeds the East Holland River, the Bogart Creek Restoration project is part of the larger East Holland River clean-up.
“We discussed the partnership idea with Ted Bomers from the Bogart Creek Restoration and we knew it would be a great fit for our club,” Dean recalled. “These folks are dedicated to results and we as a club are going to assist them in the future to make sure it gets done.
“We will continue this spring by doing aquatic plantings, clearing obstacles from the creek and bank re-stabilization. This is a long-term project and we will be there until the end which we hope will be the successful re-introduction of brook trout,” he said.
A chapter of the Ontario BASS Federation, part of the worldwide BASS Federation, the York Bassmasters began in the spring of 2006 and currently sports a membership of 25 people who hail from around the Greater Toronto Area.
Dean said the club welcomes the addition of any interested individuals wishing to join them. This, he said, includes youngsters and women.
The club gathers every last Thursday of the month at the BassProShops in Vaughan in the seminar room.
For further club information, log on to: www.yorkbassmasters.com

Don't dump unwanted goldfish in waterways

While the Milne Dam fishway on the Rouge River’s primary function is to assist migrating rainbow trout that make their way upstream from Lake Ontario each spring, the Markham facility has been useful in other areas of environmental study.
Mark Heaton, Ministry of Natural Resources’ fisheries technician, noted the fishway has also been an asset in monitoring invasive species inhabiting the river.
Goldfish have become a nuisance snce the fishway began operation three years ago, Mr. Heaton said.
Yes, those same fish people have in their aquariums at home or in the office.
Unfortunately, it has now reached the point where there is a migratory run of these fish on the Rouge River that follows the annual run of rainbow trout, Mr. Heaton said.
Unlike the goldfish you might see in an aquarium, the fish inhabiting the Rouge River are a little bigger in size.
They can be one to 1 1/2 pounds, Mr. Heaton said.
Some of these fish are three to four inches long and are working their way out to Lake Ontario, which is not a good thing, Mr. Heaton added.
He suspects these fish found their way into the Rouge River because people did not wish to keep them as pets any longer and just dump them into the feeder streams or the Rouge River itself.
“The fishway has definitely been a focal point for monitoring invasive species,” Heaton said.
In addition to the presence of goldfish, other invasive species include carp, sea lamprey and coy, he added.
With the presence of the fishway, ministry officials been able to collect various invasive species and remove them from the Rouge River watershed.
Mr. Heaton hopes people will come to the understanding that it is not good to release unwanted aquarium fish, such as goldfish, into the natural watersheds.
“If we can collect these invasive species at the fishway, they won’t be in the Rouge River and it will help improve the water quality of the Rouge River,” Mr. Heaton said. “And, it can help us understand the influences of people and how they can affect the watershed.
“We need to inform people that it’s not good to release pets into the wild.”
As for this year’s annual rainbow trout run, the fishway has assisted close to 100 fish over the first two days of operation that began at the start of April, Mr. Heaton said.
“And, we’ve seen some good-sized fish,” Mr. Heaton said. “Some of the really larger fish were (a little less than) five kilograms.”
With the ministry and members of the Metro East Anglers operating the fishway over the next few weeks, Mr. Heaton hopes they can move some 300 fish or more into the Rouge River headwaters.
As a part of the rainbow trout transfer, they will try to collect any mature eggs and, with the assistance of volunteers from the Metro East Anglers, raise them at the nearby Ringwood Fish Culture Station.
In addition, any fish collected from the cages in the fishway will be microchipped.
This will be done with an attempt to monitor their movements after spawning, Mr. Heaton said.
“If we can get a miccrochip from a fish that we had already placed one on we can find out when the fish was tagged the previous year and then we will know how big they were then and how much they’ve grown since that period,” he said.
Since the fishway has been in operation, Mr. Heaton said it has served its purpose well.
“It has provded some interesting insights as to fish that reside in the Rouge River and those that migrate from Lake Ontario,” he said.

Steelhead run sure sign of spring

The long, cold winter can give anglers the itch to get outside and wet a line as soon as there’s a break in the weather.
For me, it took place just prior to the first signs that spring might finally have arrived as rain washed away a good amount of snow.
However, my angling expeditions didn’t take place in York Region.
Rather it was in neighbouring Durham Region and Northumberland County along feeder streams emptying into Lake Ontario where the angling regulations have designated areas south of the CN railroad tracks below Highway 401 for year-round angling.
It is at this time of the year when rainbow trout that inhabit the waters of Lake Ontario during the summer months begin to make their annual journey upstream to reach spawning areas.
These slower-moving stretches of water offer some of the best steelhead angling you can experience. The key is to find deep holding pools where fish might rest before moving upstream.
While many of the bigger holes are heavily fished, especially on weekends, pay attention to fine detail and check out any potential stretch you think might be deep enough to hold a fish or two. You might be surprised when you run your offering through these areas.
Dime-sized spawn bags tied in bright-coloured nylon material such as chartreuse, hot pink or bright orange are the first bait choices anglers will employ when fresh runs of fish are moving through.
But on days when the fish have seen plenty of spawn bags float by them, artificial offerings can be just as lethal. These include three-inch pink worms, artificial flies, such as a chartreuse and black wooley bugger, small steelhead jigs and even small tube jigs.
These baits can be bounced off the bottom or suspended by using a float.
I prefer to run these type of offerings with a florocarbon leader.
Spinners such as the silver or gold-plated Number Three Mepps Aglia or Blue Fox and black wobbling plugs dropped into a deep pool can also be tantalizing to a steelhead.
The huge runoff taking place over the past few days will definitely be a magnet to attract bigger runs of steelhead to enter the various feeder streams.
Be sure to check the latest angling regulations to make sure you are fishing water that has the year-round angling designation.
And if you are required to have an angling licence, so be sure that you carry it with you.