OPEONGO LAKE TROUT STUDY by B.M.
I first met Gary Ridout at the Bancroft Retriever Club Hunt Trials. Ridout raises Chessies. In discussion I learned that Gary is a Senior Technician at the Harkness Research Lab in Algonquin Park. Each October a team of researchers head out for the spawning shoals of Lake Opeongo to study lake Trout. I was invited to go along. We were to meet at the lab at 5:30 p.m. And so I headed for the Park in the afternoon hoping to arrive early so I could take some photos for one never knows what opportunities will arise.
The previous day had been miserable, wet and rainy. This day proved to be the opposite – bluebird skies and warm sunshine. While standing, overlooking the public access point, a car stopped and the driver informed me that there was a moose in the parking lot. As it turned out it was just the moose and yours truly and while he munched on a meal of alders I took some photos before moving on to meet Gary and his team.
After donning our survival suits – which proved to be most comfortable and warm – we headed out onto the lake in two boats, a Wahoo Boston Whaler look-alike with Biologist Trevor Middel at the helm and we in our Volvo powered floating research lab. Patrick Busby, a Laurentian grad, assisted Middel and Lisa Moreira, an Environmental Sciences student from Guelph U., helped Ridout.
As most readers who are familiar with Opeongo know the lake can be wild at the best of times but on this eve it was the proverbial millpond. As we motored to our first shoal Gary commented that the Opeongo fishery is “the best in Ontario. It takes a licken and keeps on ticken.”
“Actually former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said that the government had no business in the bedrooms of the nation but he was referring to people – not lake trout.”
The success of the search was a matter of teamwork. The Wahoo look-a-like would lay teeth nets on the spawning beds. As the name implies the trout were caught by their teeth. When Middel and Busby pulled the nests aboard they would retrieve the trout and place them in a floating ‘playpen’. Then they would move on to another site. In the meantime we would follow and study the fish.
I had noticed that the Tamaracks had turned to their beautiful golden phase and mentioned that “a biologist told me that when the Tamarack come out in the spring the walleye will be spawning.
It appears that when they turn golden in the fall the lakers are doing the same?”
Ridout agreed. The Tamarack, by the way, is the only conifer to shed its needles. As an aside, when my son was studying at Laurier U. in Waterloo, he mentioned that fact to a mate.
“How do you know that?” asked his city raised friend.
“It’s common knowledge at home in Bancroft,” was his reply.
My job on the spawning beds was to be the ‘fish slogger.’ You won’t find that in the textbooks that I am aware. Gary likes to cast about nicknames and this is his moniker. Caution – before you start writing letters of complaint, or calling, rest assured that these fish are treated with the utmost TLC (tender loving care).
Using a net I would remove one fish at a time from the ‘playpen’ and put it in a container of water that had a special ingredient that would calm the fish. Then Lisa and Gary could take their measurements, add the tags and make their recordings. One fish, for example, was first caught on October 21, 1995. It was 410 mm (16”) fork length. This night, October 25, 2004 that same fish measured 591 mm (23”) fork length, weighed five pounds and was 15 years old according to the records.
Beauty may well be in the eye of the beholder and Lisa commented that the female lakers were more so. When I asked how she could tell the male from female she replied that the female was smoother whereas the male has a sandpaper like feel to the touch and then she showed me.
Once finished with the testing Ridout would place the fish in a fresh water recovery container and when it recovered I would gently release it back into Opeongo. Each time I released a fish I would remove a bucket of water and add another fresher more oxygenated one.
When we first set out the sun was beginning to set and as most people know at this time of the year that can be quite quick. I don’t suppose it would be as fast as the famous African sundowner but it did bring that to mind.
As mentioned our craft was a floating lab complete with lights so we could see what we were doing. They carry a tarp for inclement weather for like the legendary postman neither rain, nor sleet nor snow will keep them from their endeavor.
Being on Opeongo in the pitch black of night with the stars shining brightly is one image that will be burned into my mind for a long time. Another image, not nearly so pleasant, comes from an island near Moose Island (where the cows swim for birthing to escape the bears). Half of the island looked ‘frosted’. Reading my mind Ridout replied, “Cormorants. There were 40 nests.” If that is the destructive result of Cormorants then the ministry will have to put a plan into action sooner than later. In two words, it was devastatingly dramatic.
By the end of our outting we had measured 31 fish. By the end of the October census they had studied 524 spawners. When I asked how they determined the lake’s laker population l heard those dreaded words, “It’s easy. I’ll explain.”
Trying to look like I was actually following I suggested that we pursue this back at the lab where Middel waded in to explain. Now I won’t bore you with the mathematical equations but suffice it to say there are approximately 4500 mature spawning age lake trout swimming about.
While walking about the Cookhouse I noticed a pine slab that had been dated to pre-Columbus times. It was over 400 years old when harvested. That makes me wonder about some of those pine trees that I see about that are even greater in diameter.
For students who love to be in the out of doors I couldn’t think of a more practical, hands on educational experience. I met grad students from Trent and U of T who were working on their research. If this sounds interesting to you check it out at both the college and university levels. You never know.
Photo – Gary, Lisa and “Duke” (for the big John Wayne type laker).
AND FINALLY…One of life’s Ironies – Ignorance is Blissful
According to one wit “now that my wife is aware of all my foibles, now that we are retired, we get to spend more quality time together unlike when we were newly weds and working shifts.”