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[scute]

heard through the grapevine st mary lake was stagnating and new airation system is being installed. Fished it since the 80's and fishing and fish size was fenominal when old system was operational.Does anyone have any info on this?hope it's true.

[Sam Salmon]

It would be interesting if that happened but I wonder where the money will come from?

I haven't seen any evidence of so called stagnation but then again I don't drink the stuff

From my POV there are still all kinds of Trout large and small in the lake you just have to be there when they're on the feed, Bass are smaller than ever because too many people are releasing them, Perch should be killed outright of course.

[Terry D]

Why should "Perch should be killed outright of course". They are just another predator fish like bass and trout and have just as much right to be another fish species in our BC waters.

[mykisscrazy]

I am disappointed to hear that some Bozo's have gone and illegally introduced perch into another Lake where they are not supposed to be. Just once I'd like these people to be caught.

Largemouth Bass have been illegally introduced into the lower Fraser waters and are now unfortunately doing quite well. They are now found up at the top end of Pitt Lake all through Red Slough. Time will tell if they disrupt the cutthroat up there. Then look at all the sloughs in around Pitt Polder. There used to be good coho fishing all through there....but not anymore. I have even seen Largemouth Bass caught off Annacis Island and down in Mc Donald Slough in Richmond.

Time will tell if all these nonnative introductions will have an effect upon our native fishes.

[Terry D]

I would just like to add that I am totally against illegal stockings of non-native fish, but I do not have any problem with naturally occuring native fish species. Like people, they are all part of life's rich tapestry.

[Rodney]

Why should "Perch should be killed outright of course". They are just another predator fish like bass and trout and have just as much right to be another fish species in our BC waters.

Terry, both bass and yellow perch are invasive species and do considerable amount of damage to native fish (not just salmonids, in fact most damages are not conspicuous) in British Columbia. In sportfisheries, fish that are being illegally introduced take a big chunk of our license money. Yellow perch are particularly worse than other non-native species due to their ability to breed rapidly. Lakes that have been introduced with yellow perch have seen a complete wipeout of trout in Interior BC. Once that stage is completed, their population continue to explode due to a lack of predation and fishing pressure (although good table fare, the amount of harvest is dwarfed by recruitment). The population eventually reaches carrying capacity and all perch become stunted (similar to what Sam has said about the smallmouth bass in St Mary Lake). Once this stage is reached, the lake can pretty much be considered useless for anglers as the fish are too small for anglers to be interested in eating them.

Biologically speaking, non-native species are not just bad for existing sportfisheries, but lethal for non-sport native fish species. Beside perch and bass, uneducated individuals constantly dump unwanted aquarium fish species into our watershed. These species may not affect our sportfish, but they do tremendous amount of damage to other native species that we are not aware of by predation, competiton of space and food and habitat degradation.

Quite often when the issue of invasive species is brought up, there is a misconsumption that BC anglers are simply against bass and other freshwater spiny ray species. This is entirely false. As an angler, I enjoy fishing for all fish species. I enjoy my annual trip to St Mary Lake where an existing smallmouth bass fishery is available. Other than that, I believe that people should be travelling to where the fish are, not bringing fish to where they are. We live in a province where the ecosystems are only tampered slightly compared to the rest of the world and it should be our obligation to protect.

The Ministry of Environment and the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC have expanded their effort on tackling invasive species. Unfortunately, they are currently at the losing end and will probably continue to be unless more support is generated from the public. Some of the projects that have taken place this year include closures of several lakes and poisoning of these lakes to start all over again. There are rewards (up to $10,000 I believe) being offered by the Ministry of Environment and BC Wildlife Federation for catching individuals who are illegally introducing fish into a new watershed.

More information on this issue:

http://www.gofishbc.com/alienspecies/default.htm

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/sport_fish/exotic/#Perch

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/aliensp/alien_consequence.html

[scute]

thanks for the info Sam.I agree about a diminished smallmouth size ,but I have noticed "muddy"looking water even in January?Would also like to point out that this bass population though invasive has been in St Mary near a century.Have also caught perch, nearly round with spawn this defiantly is a problem as this newly introduced alien begins to multiply

[one more cast]

Back to the topic of the original poster...

I was there the middle of June and they had this big barge type boat moving around.

I asked Mark at Lakeside gardens and he said it was for airation.

So, I guess that they are working on it.

[Terry D]

Rodney, as I said I'm completely against illegal fish stockings and fully appreciate the damage they can do to a 'balanced' fishery. I have been involved with fishery management in the UK with several waters that hold perch. So, what I find it hard to accept, is that perch (on their own) destroy fisheries. We have had perch in the UK for many years and they do not cause the problems you seem to be experiencing (or blaming them for) here. We even had specialist angling groups devoted to perch, see here: http://www.tdvan.freeserve.co.uk/theperchfishers.htm. Maybe there is a need for more detailed scientific research on the subject.

[Rodney]

Terry, they are two different species of perch, even though they look remarkably similar. I enjoy catching European perch whenever I am over there. They grow way bigger than yellow perch in North America.



Yellow perch's original distribution is bounded to the eastern portion of North America. Whenever a species is introduced into a new area, it is likely to do well, much better than native species. In this case, yellow perch do too well by outcompeting salmonids and themselves so growth comes to a halt. Their damages on lake fisheries are well documented in this province. I don't have the information on the computer, but lakes with established trout fisheries that have been introduced with yellow perch have been piosoned and sampled in the past. The sampling always shows a few remaining trout and countless number of small yellow perch. Necropsy of these trout found that just before death, they had ingested lots of juvenile yellow perch. Even though these trout eat juveniles, their demand (and anglers' harvest) does not keep up with the population growth rate. They become extremely expensive for the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, which operates the five trout hatcheries in this province. Stocking trout at fingerling stage (cheapest to raise) would only mean that they become food for yellow perch. Stocking trout at catchable size (expensive to raise, $2 per fish I believe) would result in a lack of food for them to eat since yellow perch feed much more aggressive than them.

It is also a precursor of illegal introduction of other species. Provincial biologists have found that yellow perch are often dumped into a lake first before bass are being dumped in later, since perch serve as a food source for bass.

[typhoon]

Rodney, as I said I'm completely against illegal fish stockings and fully appreciate the damage they can do to a 'balanced' fishery. I have been involved with fishery management in the UK with several waters that hold perch. So, what I find it hard to accept, is that perch (on their own) destroy fisheries. We have had perch in the UK for many years and they do not cause the problems you seem to be experiencing (or blaming them for) here. We even had specialist angling groups devoted to perch, see here: http://www.tdvan.freeserve.co.uk/theperchfishers.htm. Maybe there is a need for more detailed scientific research on the subject.

Wow. Perhaps your lake ecology is not suitable for Perch proliferation.
Perch are so successful that in some B.C. lakes it takes less than 10 seasons to demolish a healthy reproducing trout population.
Small trout cannot compete with Perch for food.
EDIT: Rod's post says the same with more detail.

[Sam Salmon]

EDITED.

Thanks for the info on the barge in St Mary Lake.

[Terry D]

Thanks for clearing that up Rodney, much appreciated. Apologies if we seemed to hijack this thread.

[Rodney]

Yep, sorry for hijacking the thread Scute.

Here is an attempt to bring it back. We'll probably do the group trip again next year to St Mary Lake. This year we went in the first week of May. We caught some bass but mostly had excellent trout fishing. Maybe next year we'll do it in late June or early July again.

This year's trip: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=17775.0

Last year's trip: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=15213.0

2006's trip: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=11075.0

2005's trip: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=7106.0

2004's trip: http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=3709.0

[scute]

Rodney,always did very well first week of June both for trout and bass dependant on water temp .Cold springs and trout are still very active.Warm ones and bass are "on fire" cant miss