SimcoeLlakers

[dada2727]

With the trout grounds hardening up, I was thinking about how I have never caught, or even seen for that matter, a native simcoe lake trout. I've heard of people catching them, but never even seen a pic. Anyone ever seen or caught one, or better yet have a pic?

 

Also, does anyone know if the stocked lake trout in simcoe reproduce at all?

 

Thx

[Rob]

With the trout grounds hardening up, I was thinking about how I have never caught, or even seen for that matter, a native simcoe lake trout. I've heard of people catching them, but never even seen a pic. Anyone ever seen or caught one, or better yet have a pic?

 

Also, does anyone know if the stocked lake trout in simcoe reproduce at all?

 

Thx

 

They sure do. The Ministry has cut back the stocking program in order to see if the Lake trout can be sustainable on it's own now that they are reproducing naturally. I have caught non clip trout in the last few years but more whitefish than trout.Time will tell how well this new initiative is working.

 

Rob C

[asdve23rveavwa]

Made it out on Simcoe for the first time last March. Our group caught five lakers, and if I remember correctly, three of them were naturals (no fin clips whatsoever).

Pic of one that I caught and released

 

[12footspringbok]

Caught quite a few of non clipped lakers and whities the past few years.

 

[MCTFisher9120]

The 11lb 8oz that I got last year on Simcoe was a native fish, fish was not clipped.

[Fishing4Tails]

Caught a bunch last season that were clipped and natural reproducing fish !! Good to see but Simcoe get lots of pressure all year .

[Sinker]

The year before last, I caught and released more lakers than I've caught in simcoe my whole life. A lot of them were naturals. Last ice season, I didn't catch a single trout thru the ice. Lots of natural whities though. Weird.

 

S.

[Rob]

The year before last, I caught and released more lakers than I've caught in simcoe my whole life. A lot of them were naturals. Last ice season, I didn't catch a single trout thru the ice. Lots of natural whities though. Weird.

 

S.

 

 

I caught more lakers than I wanted to. I didn't catch a whitie until late February.

 

Rob C

[Familyfisherman]

I attended a meeting last year on the subject with Jason and a couple others from the Ministry...simply an excellent presentation.

 

The gist of things is that due to many factors, the O2 levels have been rising on Simcoe for many years now, and have been above the 4% range -- which is critical for reproduction. When the levels are below this, the fish still reproduce, however the small fry have to go up off the bottom to find acceptable O2 levels so they can survive, and they're eaten by larger fish...their survival is much better if they can stay right on bottom.

 

They do some type of netting in some of the deepest parts of Simcoe in KBay each year, and for the last few years have consistently found small native trout -- very small hatchlings right on bottom. Prior to this they did not -- so things have really been improving.

 

They cut the stocking from 100,000 annually to 50,000 annually to allow the native fish to fill in the gap with spawning -- they won't if the trout numbers are too high -- nature has a way of knowing how many fish can live and how much food is available.

 

The native fish survive better, fight harder, and overall provide for a much healthier fishery. So they will try the lower stocking number for 5 years and evaluate at that point if they should keep it the same, lower it further, or increase it based on the results.

 

Native catches for both trout and whitefish have been steadily increasing -- last year I myself caught well over 30 native trout -- the largest was about 8.5 lbs jigging in May. These results have been consistent by many anglers in the area.

 

I find native fish are more colourful than stocked fish, and are much more spry. I couldn't easily find any pics to share but there are some above, I just thought to summarixe the presenation for you might be of interest.

 

Good luck as the water hardens! Another guy went through off Willow Beach, and one off Innisfil Beach this week, so don't rush it, ice is still very unpredictable.