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[chris gadsden]

A very brief summary on the Pike Minnow derby held on Saturday at Cultus Lake. Around 250 anglers caught 929 pike minnows with13 of them sporting the tags. One fellow caught 2 of them out of 30 he landed. There had been around 1000 tagged pre derby.

A number of great prizes were handed out and specal thanks to Peter MacPherson, Fraser valley Salmon Society, FOC, BC Family Fishing Society and all the volunteers and merchants and others who donated prizes, the tents etc.

Also a great job by guides Greg Larson,Joe Pomeratz, Sean Mahovic, and Dean Werk from Great River Fishing Adventures along with Greg Wolf from Len's Sportsfishing who donated their time, tackle and their guide boats for taking special needs and wheelchair kids out on their boats for some fishing.

God job guys.

I have sent Rodney a more detailed report with all the results which he will post some time today.

[DragonSpeed]

So, to a rough approximation, we can assume 71 460 Pikeminnows in Cultus Lake.

Lake circumference  = 13.493km

If we assume that Pikeminnow tend to be within 40m of the shore, that gives us a Pikeminnow density of: 132 401/km^2

or 0.0132 fish/m^2

Of course, if only about 80% of the shoreline is good habitat, then you get:
0.0166 fish/m^2

I wonder how this compares to places like the columbia river,  with it's problems.


*Assumptions were largely pulled out of a hat.  What percent of the lake REALLY is PM habitat?

[DragonSpeed]

Pike Minnows are evil to salmon right?  Was this derby a "kill" type derby?  Where the real winner is the species that the derby target has a good dent put into its population?

Hmmmm - 929 of the estimated 71K - pretty small dent.  More like a ding.

[DragonSpeed]

DragnSpd...you need to go fishing

YES!

[Buckeye]

Pike Minnows are evil to salmon right?  Was this derby a "kill" type derby?  Where the real winner is the species that the derby target has a good dent put into its population?

The Pike Minnow derby was very succesful this year.
Yes it was a kill derby
A lot of fun was had by many and some awesome prizes were given out.
The purpose for DFO's involvement was to collect data only. They don't know enough about the impact of these fish on the Sockeye, and want to get a rough estimate of the population. The idea was certainly not to negatively affect any population of fish, including the Pike Minnows.
It isn't as simple as it would appear on the surface, like all things in nature there is a delicate balance. For example, the Pike Minnow is known to feed on Sockeye fry. Eliminate the Pike Minnow and all sockeye fry survive...
Cultus Lake also has a large population of shiners. These shiners feed on plankton and directly compete with Sockeye fry in doing so. Pike Minnows also feed heavily on shiners and their fry. Now the question is who are more of a threat to Sockeye fry survival, the Pike Minnow or the shiner? Not an easy question to answer without a lot of dependable data.
I guess we had better understand as much as possible before we attempt to interfere with natures balance.  

[Buckeye]

Yeah I know....
I need to go fishing too  

[Rodney]

Fishing? What's that?

Complete derby report can be read here.

[DragonSpeed]

Hey Rod, as the resident guy with letters after your name that have something to do with fish, how close am I with my guesses?

[otto]

what do shiners like to chase after? bait, fly, or lure?? limits??