John from CRAA

Breathable waders do not stop the electrical current from the shocker so you might get some tingle where you don't want it!  I'm sure MNR has extra rubber waders...check with John Sager when you contact him. 

 

John

 

 

 

Oh come on guys...really?  It's a Chinook, 100%, no question.  Some of you need to brush up on your fish ID.

 

John

 

Thanks for posting.

The meeting is Feb 11, 6:30-9:30 at the Crooked Cue in Port Credit - 2nd floor. Come on out if you have a chance. Learn more about the clubs projects, recent activities and sign up to help out on projects.

To reply to a few of the comments above, there are no unanswered e-mails in the CRAA in box. So if you never heard from CRAA regarding volunteering you either e-mailed the wrong address or your message was spammed (which is unlikely since that is checked every couple months). CRAA is easy to find and easy to reach.

www.craa.on.ca
[email protected]
Or on the CRAA chat board

Now is your chance to come out and learn more, get involved and create a great fishery. No excuses, you know the date.

CRAA posts notices on our website and all the local trout/salmon chat boards for volunteer events, plus in our newsletter. Some projects like the fish lift and transfer are limited to numbers of volunteers by the MNR and their access agreements. Meanwhile other projects need hundreds of people, yet 20 show up. If you think buying a fishing license is enough to make a fishery you are kidding yourself. Less than 10% of the salmon and trout run is the result of MNR stocking at present, Most steelhead are wild, produced by CRAA's transfers and most chinooks came from Ringwood or natural reproduction. And the OFAH bit is funny...they are opposed to lowering steelhead harvest in Lake Ontario (was lowered a bit by MNR anyway) and OFAH opposed better access up the river for chinook, coho, brown and steelies so they can spawn.

The alternative is simple. Do nothing and if not enough people help then the projects stop and you loose the lower Credit fishery. MNR's budget has been cut deeply again. MNR stocking only accounts for 1,500-2,000 steelies at best in the river. Without CRAA working with the local city governments the rivers would be closed to fishing all together. Doing nothing is easy, but the costs are very high. If I and other CRAA volunteers had done nothing 20 years ago the fishery would be closed. Mississauga was pushing MNR to stop all stocking back around 1990 and planned to close Erindale in the early 90's to fishing. Yet CRAA, led by me turned it around, worked with the city, MNR and managed to open all this new water. Perhaps if you got involved it will get even better.

John

Is it still too soon for steel? Or does it seem there are less fish coming up due maybe to less stocking? Or have most of them returned to the lake?

The steel come up to feed on salmon eggs, right? Well they are done so some steel might be locked in the streams and can't go back down and are waiting for the spring to spawn. Maybe I just expected lots of steel in the streams.

Steelhead run locally from late August to late May (depends on river, genetics, etc)...so it's not too early. Most steelhead (like 90-95%) are WILD in southern Ontario rivers so stocking has nothing to do with runs except on the Saugeen (maybe 25-35% hatchery), Credit (15% hatchery) and Humber (mostly hatchery). Runs are weak thanks to the this very dry fall. Otherwise our steelhead population appears to be the largest in the history of the lower Great Lakes (based on NYSDEC catch stats and the massive 08 and 09 year classes).

Steelhead do not come in the fall to feed on eggs...where does this crazy mis-information come from. Why would a fish leave the lake (safety, temperature, buffet food) to come into a shallow river that has predators, low water, is cold and next to no food? Steelhead that run in the fall stay in the river and hold over the winter and spawn in early spring for the most part. Sure there are always exceptions as the odd fish will drop out (oops...wrong river), and the odd fish will spawn in fall or winter. These fish are programmed to run in the fall to take advantage of high water in tributaries in early spring and run timing also dates back to western rivers where they had to travel 500-1000 miles or more to spawn. There was a strain of steelhead that spawned in Idaho in the Snake River (tributary of the Columbia) that had to enter the river 12 months before spawning just to reach thier spawning areas over 1,000 miles from the ocean.

I have very little time to fish so I only go when conditions are good...so I have not been skunked in about 20 years on a river. Perhaps some of you guys that are fishing over and over on days that are slow should put that time towards rehab work with a local club. Far better use of time and the outcome is more days with fish on!

John