Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: chris gadsden on April 27, 2005, 03:56:03 PM
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Just received information a sturgeon was caught in Cultus Lake yesterday by the FOC research staff while doing a study on pike minnows. Not only was it a bit odd to see a sturgeon in Cultus Lake but I was told it was a green sturgeon not a white.
Apparently it was caught up in the researchers net and after some photo's it was released unharmed.
I was told it was in the 4 to 5 foot range. Will try to track down a photo to post.
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Crazy Cultus.
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Monsters now roam in its depths, beware. ;D ;D
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Coooool!!!! :D I wonder how it came to be in there; given they're supposed to be ocean fish mainly?
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Maybe it is an ocean fish. Remember no one has found the bottom of Cultus Lake yet.
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Maybe it is an ocean fish. Remember no one has found the bottom of Cultus Lake yet.
Wow!! Is that right?
I feel a mystery coming on! Shades of the Bermuda Triangle and Loch Ness.
Are you suggesting a possible subterranean link to the ocean? It seems that's one of the explanations of where Loch Ness monster got into Loch Ness.
Colin
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there are sturgeon in Hatzic lake as well, many reports of them jumping later in the summer and fall
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This is a Green Sturgeon-note the snout.
Also-they don't get nearly as big as Whites.
(http://www.sportfishworld.com/America/SubmittedPhotographs/images/sturgeon-green-01a.jpg)
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It's my understanding that Sturgeon will live in a damp gunney sack for a long time. It was probley transported there.
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Before I went away for a few days passed info on to a reporter at the Chilliwack Progress to investigate this.
For the story go to http://www.theprogress.com/
By looking at the photo that is not posted with the article it does not look like a green sturgeon but I am no authority on them.
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Cultus Lake sturgeon photos can now be viewed on this page (http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/050503.html).
Photos supplied by Fraser Valley Salmon Society (http://www.fraservalleysalmonsociety.com/). Become a member now!
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Then...why would there be low amounts of returning Salmon to the creeks that flow into the Lake...
Dunno if you've ever checked out Cultas in the fall but I wouldn't exactly call its run of salmon small. One day a few years ago I saw 4 out of the 5 species of pacific salmon spawning on its shores. Another thing to consider is the massive popualtion of NPN which can consume massive amounts of juveniles.
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The sturgeon has been identified.
http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=23&id=435718&more=
The mystery of the dark-tinged sturgeon that turned up unexpectedly in a gillnet at Cultus Lake last month has been solved.
Or at least the part about what type of sturgeon it turned out to be is now known.
Recent DNA lab tests by Fisheries and Oceans Canada have determined it was a white sturgeon and not the much rarer green sturgeon variety. It surfaced in a volunteer’s net at Cultus in April during a pikeminnow removal program.
The precise facts about how it got there are unclear, say officials, but rumours about locals stocking the lake 30 years ago still abound.
“What made us think it was the rarer green variety was the shovel-shaped nose and its darker than normal colouration,” explains fisheries technician Dave Barnes from the Cultus Lake Salmon Lab.
“I suppose we expected all along this was a white sturgeon because they are so much more common than greens.”
The darker tinge of the prehistoric-looking beast is most likely “an adaptive feature” that most fish possess – that is the ability to blend in with their surroundings, Mr. Barnes adds.
It was likely darker than the white sturgeon typically found in the Fraser River because it is living in clear water, as opposed to the turbidity of the Fraser. The darker colour would make it easier to blend in with the bottom of the lake.
“We still suspect this fish was put into Cultus Lake by anglers,” he offers.
Cultus Lake may be the most studied sockeye-bearing lake in Canada, possibly the world, the DFO fish tech suggests.
“And as such, we have nearly continuous data on sockeye in Cultus since 1925,” he says.
The data-collecting initiatives include fish-counting fences and traps on Sweltzer Creek, which is the migration path from the Fraser River to Cultus Lake, and many research programs on the lake itself.
“If sturgeon regularly travelled between these two waterways (Cultus Lake and the Fraser River), I think a few more would have been captured or observed,” Mr. Barnes posits.
The popular lake just south of Chilliwack is full of food sturgeon like to eat, such as crayfish, sculpins, snails and more.
“So however many fish may be present should do well,” he says. “There should be no cause for alarm from lake users as sturgeon are not dangerous to humans.” ( :D )