Fish in the Credit are allowed access based on politics and dams. The only way it will ever get better is if each and every one of you set down your rod and show up at meetings to tell MNR how you feel and what you want. Otherwise special interest groups that don't want salmon and migratory fish continue to take away your fishing opportunities.
The Credit River Fisheries Management Plan allows:
Chinook and coho salmon are stopped at Streetsville dam. Very few get over since the dam was changed in 2005, prior to that some did get over.
Steelhead are allowed to Norval, CRAA transfers some WILD adults past Norval dam (MNR sets the number, it was only 800 this spring) to a cold water spawning trib (see link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddwaCYeSADc
Brown trout and Atlantic salmon are allowed free access past Norval to the Forks. CRAA fought for 15 years to get the lake run browns access and still a few complain.
Bass, American eel, sturgeon, sucker, etc on paper have free access, but are stuck below Streetsville. MNR has not allowed CRAA to lift or transfer bass for years now...no reason given yet.
Steelhead were stopped at Norval because a few anglers in the Forks didn't want them there. Chinook were stopped for a convenient egg collection site and the ignorant beleif by many biologists and anglers that they cannot reproduce. Some anglers also argued that migratory fish hurt resident trout (brown and brook) and that they should be stopped.
Yet in 2012 the knowledge we have debunks all the past rhetoric and BS and proves fish should have open access. Look out east (Bowmanville, Wilmot, Ganny) Each river has a run of roughly 10,000 steelhead, plus thousands of coho, plus 5-20,000 chinook each, plus thousands of browns and all three systems have resident brook trout and the odd migratory brook trout. Few dams, open access and great habitat means each small river produces between 30,000 and 40,000 migratory adult salmon and trout each year. The Wilmot watershed is 97km2. Bowmanville is 90km2, Ganny is 278 k m2 (and lake run fish can only access 52% of the Ganny watershed). Data from CVC, CLOCA and GRCA.
On the other hand the Credit watershed is 990 km2, 10 times larger than the Wilmot or Bowmanville watersheds! Imagine how many fish the Credit could have if dams were open and fish allowed to swim and spawn on their own.
Only chinook salmon can reproduce below Norval Dam in Georgetown. Coho, brown, steelhead and Atlantic eggs might hatch, but the fry spend 2 summers on average in the river and high temperature, few springs and flooding decimate the small fish preventing much reproduction. Yet as soon as you pass Norval there is lots of groundwater, springs, and cold temps all summer. Chinook fry hatch in April/May and leave the river by June of the same spring, thus avoiding the hot summer water temperatures. This situation is caused by geology - the river is all clay from Norval to Port Credit whereas above Norval you have many moraines, the escarpment and huge groundwater areas.
In NY, the Salmon River now produces an estimated 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 WILD chinook salmon fry every year (NY only stocks 1.2 million lake wide each year). Yet NYSDEC estimates 50% of the fry are consumed by other smolts (bow, brown, atlantic, coho) and resident brown trout every spring. At the peak in late May, chinook salmon fry make up 89% of the resident brown trout diet. The resident browns often hit 6-10 pounds and are plentiful in Salmon River. Some how they co-exist with 100,000 adult chinook, 50,000 steelhead and 30,000 coho just fine and benefit from them. Date from NYSDEC and USGS.
Out east, every stream has huge resident brown trout populations that mix, mingle and co-exist with 30,000 steelhead, chinook, coho and migratory browns just fine. Not to mention brook trout seem to do just fine in healthy, cold water sections of all these streams.
If chinook, coho, steelhead, Atlantics and migratory browns and brookies had open access to the Forks I think the Credit's run would be so large it would shock everyone. Heck, we transfer 800-2,000 steelhead to one tributary above Norval and the run is poking at 20,000 in just 8 years. From Norval to the Cateract there is roughly 70 hectares of stream bottom habitat (700,000 m2) that is all cold water habitat. 100,000 WILD salmon and trout plus resident browns pushing 10 pounds could result. Maybe more!
So the only thing blocking this world class fishery is too many anglers not taking the time to demand it from MNR and speaking up at public meetings.
John
