Garfisher

That just makes me want to find fish of those size in the Bay even more. Those are some true beauties!

The muskies when they do it in the hatchery its usually because they're stressed as hell (although i can see them doing it with food to use gravity to their advantage to help food slide down). Gar do it because they are breathing.

Well that "NIMBY" is also someone who probably has THE best knowledge of Sturgeon Lake's fish populations (he has all the info from past SSFC Fish Camps which sample Sturgeon in the fall). If he has issues, there's a reason behind it. He wouldn't go out of his way to hinder a bass or panfish tournament on that lake...

I am by no means trying to push an agenda to eliminate all tourney fishing (nor a member of P3TA), hell I'm for tournament fishing. Tourneys are a lot of fun, they do bring in money into the local economy, and everyone has a great time. What I am against is a tourney where a coolwater species is targetted during a warmwater period on a lake where the population has dropped a substantial amount. If this tournament was held either within the 1st 2 weeks of Walleye opener, or from late sept. into the fall when the water is cooler, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I do believe the anglers did their absolute best to make sure that the walleye they were bringing in were as healthy as possible, and treated as well as possible. I believe more of the actual damage would have been done due to temperature shock induced by putting the warm-acclimated walleye into water that had been iced (Preslie observed this, and I haven't seen any other accounts as to what the release boat water was like so this is really the only info on that), and that more fish might have died being put from the chilled water (being already stressed from the firsth thermal shock) back into the warm lake.

I should have actually talked about the picture when I posted it, instead of just posting "found this, this looks like more than 25% mortality" (and if I offended anyone in that post or any of my previous posts in this thread, I am indeed sorry for it). It's a picture Preslie himself took while at the tourney (as mentioned before by Sinker). Considering that picture (I'm guessing 40-60 fish) was only on the saturday, there were probably more fish on sunday due to it being a lot warmer. Plus there were released fish that were reported to have died as well, and fish that organizers took home, although exact numbers aren't certain for sure. What exactly happened that tourney, as in how many fish died, we may not know for a couple weeks/months (if there is an investigation), or we may never know (and I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, again I'm sorry for that). All we can really do is wait and offer possible ideas until new information is uncovered/released for us to look at and interpret.

Found a pic online of what was hidden in the release boat:

 

Looks like plenty of dead fish to me, mortality was much much higher than 25% judging from that picture. Both days were apparently like this.

From the one account I've heard suggesting something went foul, the release boat had iced water in it, so released walleye would have been shocked temperature wise twice (going in the boat and being released into the much warmer lake). The shock from warm to cold might have killed many fish, as it was reported by the same guy that there was a lot of fish that weren't released because they had been killed by the shock. I believe the MNR is investigating, it'll be a while yet before we get the "official" statement on what went on (so all we can do is really offer ideas/opinions about what might have happened until then).

So you haven't been on Sturgeon this year last year or the year before or the year before that.

 

The water temp. was 65.4 main lake and 67.8 way up Goose Bay and the river too the rail line. Hardly high water temp.

 

Just so you "Know" The sat. before Canada/US I caught 5 walleye in the 12.5 - 14.5" class That's 1 year class.

 

Just so you "Know" on tues. before the Canada/US I caught 9 walleyes in the 8-10" class. Yes I was swimming crappie tubes for crappie. That's another year class.

 

The lake is crammed with slot's. That's another 2 year classes.

 

The overs I caught were between 4-6 lbs. That's another 2 year classes.

 

And I heard of fish over 8 lb. This is another year class or 2.

 

Hardly a fragile fishery.

It's probably considered fragile because the population is nowhere near the population it was before zebra mussels. After zebra mussels, the water cleared right up, which caused a lot of walleye to hunker down in the weedbeds, which made the fishing excellent for a while (Lots of fish in concentrated areas compared to lots of scattered fish when the water wasn't nearly as clear). Add in a ton of panfish and crappie, which thrive on clear waters and are voracious egg/fry/small fish feeders, and you quickly have a reduced reproductive success since adults do not care for the eggs after they are laid. Plus it's a relatively popular lake for fishing.

Yes Sturgeon Lake may have a variety of year classes, it's how many fish are in those year classes (especially the ones that reproduce) that is of importance. If a lot of slot fish are taken in a given year on the lake (especially with the potential of this tourney if there were in fact a lot of fish deaths), that means there are not many fish left over that become those prime spawning fish. This can cause a great reduction of younger fish over the next couple years as the leftover large fish slowly die off, and the prime spawner population slowly drops as the slot size population drops.

Considering what they were put through at the weigh in (from what I heard) I wouldnt be surprised if all the weighed-in walleye croaked

32" isn't hard for a longnose gar, those are a little below average where I wade (34-35")

A true beauty of a gar

Bottom fish looks like a coloured up common shiner (however I can't see a certain spot too well to see if the scales are that of a common, or if it's a Striped Shiner), top fish isnt at a good angle to accurately ID (straight on view of the side is almost always the best for ID help) , however with the reddish head I would lean more towards a Creek Chub, Hornyheads and Rivers tend to get some to a lot of blue on their head (males) when they are in the mood.

I'm no expert but when they are saying pickerel, they are referring to chain pickerel, not walleye.

 

I think a chain pickerel is a type of pike.

 

I don't think a northern pike and walleye could mate and reproduce successfully. Too different

 

Do we have chain pickerel in Ontario?

 

peter

We have two types of Pickerel actually, Chain Pickerel have recently moved into Ontario waters from New York state, although you can only get them around Kingston and the St.Lawrence River. Our truly native Pickerel is Esox americanus vermiculatus, the Grass Pickerel. These guys are found in scattered populations throughout Southern Ontario, and the biggest size they get to is only 12-13" long. These fish can be mistaken for juvenile Pike when they are captured by anglers. They are a fish I want to target and catch. With respects to the hybrid, the way the head looks to me suggests it does have some Chain Pickerel in it (Ive caught one in Nova Scotia), although smaller Pike that are smaller than 20-24" can show the progression from juvenile barring to adult spotting (which I have gotten into an argument before because someone caught a juvenile pike but people thought it was a Musky because "Pike don't have barring, Muskies do").

How big is that? (I'm thinking high 40's-50" long). Nicely done on the giant

1. Smallmouth Bass

2. Largemouth Bass

3. Rock Bass

4. Pumpkinseed

5. Bluegill (caught my 1st one ever this year lol, caught many since)

6. Northern Longear Sunfish

7. Green Sunfish

8. Black Crappie

9. White Bass

10. White Perch

11. Yellow Perch

12. Walleye

13. Northern Pike

14. Muskellunge

15. Chain Pickerel

16. Longnose Gar

17. Brown Bullhead

18. Carp

19. Bowfin

20. Rainbow Trout

21. Brook Trout

22. Brown Trout

23. Atlantic Salmon (Landlocked)

24. Round Goby

25. Common Shiner

26. Golden Shiner

27. Creek Chub

28. Hornyhead Chub

 

Saltwater

29. Mackerel

30. Haddock

31. Wrasse sp. (don't remember what kind it was)

Well played

Right Emily mentioned something about that. Hopefully we can get another family or two next week, the eggs we received yesterday are doing pretty well

I'm pretty sure the habitat is already in Simcoe, the fish were basically wiped out from Commercial fishing (and apparently there was a stocking program in the 70's that helped with the decline due to using Kawartha-strain Muskies instead of the Great Lakes-strain Muskies [which is why the fish are being trapnetted from "close to Georgian Bay" ]). Dax, I'm pretty sure those eggs today were intended for somewhere else, we didn't get them (I'm the summer employee in the hatchery).

how can you tell its in spawning mode....?

males will have tubercles ("horns") on their head, which means they are very much in the mood

Not all redhorse have red fins, most do have red fins though. Nice fish

Very nice Redhorses (I think they're the Golden variety with maybe an exception of the 3rd fish from Day 1, that might be a Greater)

Hit up the River Scugog for some panfish (need 2 decent gills for a fish necropsy on Tuesday for me and my friend)

I normally use Original Floaters in the 11 size (4 3/8" long). I wouldn't go much bigger than that unless you are chasing gar over 40"

I use Original Floaters for them (although I may try live bait and circle hooks this summer) A cradle is a good idea though, especially if you can't beach the fish.

Or my ankle (ask Aaron Shirley, he was there)

I doubt you would get a gar to swallow anything but live bait . They usually smack at things with their "beaks", so rarely would they actually take a fly or lure and swallow it before they figure out it isn't food

As far as I know there are none in Simcoe, I think they do go inland along the Trent Severn, but I don't think they are that far up the Trent Severn from Georgian Bay.

 

For flies, people do use those rope flies, however the only thing I have against them is that if you break the fish off, it's as good as dead because the fish can't open its mouth. However, you can use a streamer such as a woolly bugger or other various minnow immitators, just add a stinger hook (treble) to it and you can usually improve your hook up ratios (at least that is what Nick Pujic does, he seems to have good success with it).