Ontario Steelheaders

A Retrospective look at the Saugeen River by Rob Heal   On a cold, hard Sunday in late March of 1994, with an unrelenting wind blowing hard out of the west and driving the frozen rain against my face, I caught my first fly rod steelhead. She was one of three that I hooked and landed among the boulders above the big rapids on the Saugeen River at Southhampton. It‟s a beat that just looked fishy and although none of those steelhead were large, the big, brawling spring flows made each fight epic. It was that day, just after landing my third fish and feeling satisfied while sipping on a cold can of beer in the midst of a late winter storm that I knew I was truly screwed. It‟s what a horse racing enthusiast feels just after his first horse finishes in the money. “That was as exciting as a hell but it‟s going to cost me.”   A year later, on opening day of the general trout season the weather was different. Big, fluffy clouds drifted by a high, blue sky and only occasionally eclipsed the sun. The water was clearer than normal for this time of year as the run off had settled and spring was a full two weeks early. I was floating the Saugeen this time in a Mackenzie River drift boat through a sector in Walkerton and as my guide John Valk had indicated, we were seeing fish. Lots of fish! To be clear, we were seeing lots of redding fish; hundreds of them oriented to the gravel on the shoulders of the main flow and seemingly very content in what they were doing. These were the late run fish that were just finishing or very close to finishing their job as parents and getting back to the business of being trout. This redding activity started in town and continued for the 10 km that we drifted. Just about every inside bend or current break that maintained gravel and a uniform flow held redding fish and to this day, it is one of the most remarkable sites that I have every witnessed. 16 opening weekends later, it still impressed the hell out me. Over my 15 years as a professional guide, I would reckon conservatively that I have drifted that beat or a similar one about 600 times and I‟ve floated, fished and made observations on every inch of the river from Maple Hill dam to Southhampton save for 400 m downstream of the Truax Dam in Walkerton and the same distance below Denny‟s Dam to the trailer park. (Of course I‟ve fished both sections but not from a drift boat.) I‟ve seen it at its best when all of the requirements for great steelhead fishing are in place and I‟ve seen it when nothing seems to go right. I‟ve often lamented that no one complains about the weather more than farmers and fishermen, and feast or famine is the norm. Occasionally though, everything lines up and no matter how hard one tries, it‟s difficult not to catch fish. Spring of 2006 was one of those years. The sun rose on opening day to nearly perfect flows and just enough rain fell for the critical weeks of spawning that the fish and their eggs thrived. Returning kelts left their redds to favorable water temperatures and the eggs that they left behind had near perfect conditions to mature and hatch at a high percentage. The fishing for kelts that year was off the charts with just about every run holding groups of hungry, post spawn fish just waiting for a bunny leach or wooly bugger to drift near them. I‟m not a numbers guy but when the fishing is that good it causes you to take a second look or in my case, a second guess and during that season I often found myself sitting at the rowers bench recounting the events of the day and debating with myself, “My god, was that the 14th or 15th fish hooked?” I had two days with more than 20 hooked fish that year and on one occasion, I had to call my shuttle service and get him to re-shuttle my truck. You see, we had put in at the Tim Horton stairs in Walkerton but hadn‟t reached Lobby‟s park at 3:00pm. We had hooked a full two dozen fish at that point and I began playing a bit of game with myself trying to find a fly that hungry kelts wouldn‟t hit. I didn‟t find one. As I said, I‟m not really a numbers guy but that‟s three fish an hour, not including bumps, hits or brief encounters. That was fish hooked, fought, landed or lost and I don‟t care who you are, that‟s pretty good angling. My spring tally to the 28th of May was 107 fish landed so my guess is you could conservatively triple those figures with fish burned. I also landed seventeen myself that year, so that brings the number to 134. I guided or fished 33 days from April 17 to May 28 so if you do the math, that‟s just over 4 fish a day landed! But I‟m not a numbers guy. Thank the Fish Gods for balance as the following year was a 180 degree difference. 2007 had pretty good fishing in late March and early April but come the opener, it was all but over. May the 8th was the last day that I guided for steelhead and I admit now that I was pushing it. I followed the fish from Walkerton to Southhampton, fishing all beats in between until there was simply no steelhead remaining in the river. Water levels dropped to disastrous levels threatening to de-water redds and exposing eggs to the air and sun. Recruitment for 2007 we guessed would be have been low and we all lamented that 2011 or „12 would yield low returns as a result. Mother Nature gives and takes away. That’s where the Ontario Steelheaders come in.   Even Mother Nature needs a “helping hand” occasionally as, despite her best efforts, things don‟t always go as planned. In the Saugeen‟s case, and during the fruitful years when conditions are good, recruitment can be high. Conversely, one bad year like that of 2007 can set things back considerably. As we know, the juvenile steelhead spends between one and three years in the river before descending to the lake. Here, they grow to maturity and feed on what the fertile lake has to offer before returning to the river one or two years later to spawn. Looking at the math of it, after the low water conditions of 2007, I anticipated doom and gloom for 2010 and „11. But it didn‟t happen. In fact 2009, „10 and „11 would have to be considered bunker years in terms of returning fish and the subsequent recruitment. Why did this happen in the face of such desperate odds? Mother Nature did get her “helping hand” in the form of the quiet help of the Ontario Steelheaders. Through the tireless efforts of the men and women pushing for funding, the volunteers that collect the eggs, transport mature fish up stream and monitor the progress of the fish being reared at the hatchery, the fishery thrived. For the past five years when the conditions were conducive, I‟ve made it a point to drift sections of the river prior to the season opener. What I‟ve observed is astonishing. For the past three years, the number of spawning fish upstream from Denny‟s dam was extraordinary. In one 14 km stretch, while scouting during the third week of April 2009, I estimated 300 spawning fish. That is the number of redding fish that I could actually see and I know that I missed many. Over the span of suitable spawning area, I would guess that there were over 1000 redding fish during that period alone. I would also guess that that number represents only 10 to15% of the fish that had completed spawning or had yet to commence. My conclusion, having observed the river through the years when the accepted number of returning fish was between 5000 and 7000 annually and getting a close look at the spawning activity over that same period, the current number of returning fish has to be between 50 and 75% higher than that of the mid ninety‟s. Not bad for a bunch of unpaid volunteers. All of these figures have little scientific backing but are based on thousands of hours of observation, the journal that I‟ve kept for the past 16 years, and keeping up with the what the Ontario Steelheaders have done over that time. 2011 saw what I consider to be the highest number of spawning fish to date in those same area‟s upstream of Denny‟s Dam but there‟s more to consider than just that. Add to that the fact that much of the spring was unfishable, allowing the fish to get busy without interruption throughout most of the spawning season and then return to lake under near perfect conditions and I‟ll go out on a limb and say that the years following and specifically 2014 and 2015 will yield record numbers. I for one am anxious see the day that the hard work of the Ontario Steelheaders comes to fruition. What is fruition though? To many it means the day that the Saugeen has a viable, self-sustaining steelhead fishery that requires less work to maintain and provides a meaningful contribution to the economy of the small towns that line the river. That day may be a long ways off or closer than we think but I have the feeling, regardless of the rivers current condition, that the Ontario Steelheaders won‟t rest and will continue to be the driving force behind a river with the highest potential. Are we there yet? I‟ll bet if you ask anyone involved, they‟ll say that we still have a long ways to go but the future is defiantly bright indeed.

Oct 1st, 2011 – Ontario Steelheaders President’s Address I trust everyone had a great and relaxing summer, and you are now looking forward to the beginning of another exciting fall steelhead season. I know it’s the beginning of autumn, as I just got back from my annual duck, grouse and walleye trip with my son Kevin and two of his buddies; Cameron and Matt. More ducks than grouse this year… too many leaves on the trees still to see the grouse, but as we all know, we can’t control old Mother Nature. I’m either getting older, the young guys are getting faster, or the trails are getting longer because I was really tired at the end of each day. Good thing I brought my liquid medicine (Forty Creek) to help with the tired bones. Well, where do I start? There are many things to bring to your attention, as it’s been a very, very busy first year for all of us. Late spring, Rod Jones, Darryl Choronzey and I were invited by the good folks at the Owen Sound MNR office, to the opening of the new and improved Walkerton fishway. It was an informal get together to thank all those involved in the improvements to the existing fishway. We got to meet the MNR’s, Shawn Carey and Jody Scheifley; the people primarily responsible for getting this done. And of course, our own Darryl Choronzey, who had a very large part to play as well. Others in attendance were the contractors who did the work to the fishway, other MNR personnel taking pictures, and a few LHFC directors. It was a great day, and despite it being very cold, Jody did a great job on the BBQ, even in the gale force winds. I left that meeting with a positive sense, that everyone was ready and willing to work together to make a real difference on the Saugeen, and that the improvements to this fishway was just the beginning. As some of you may or may not know, Hammond Power Solutions donated $1500 to the Ontario Steelheaders to be used for future conservation projects. A huge thank you to Bill Hammond! We thought it would be a great idea to show our appreciation of their most generous donation by presenting them with a granite plaque. Stefanie Bradley, head of Human Resources at Hammond Power Solutions in Guelph, graciously accepted the plaque on their behalf in June. Their contribution, combined with advertising revenue, corporate donations, fundraising activities and our operations at Denny’s Park all contribute to our financial commitments in fisheries enhancement, and meeting our objectives. On Sept 25, 2011, the Ontario Steelheaders Board of Directors held a meeting to discuss current and future business. On that day, our Constitution was unanimously adopted for immediate implementation. The Ontario Steelheaders now has a very comprehensive set of guide lines to build on for the future of this great organization. I’d like to take a moment to thank my fellow Directors for all their efforts in this first year of office. Thanks to Carlo Baldassarra, Dave Munro, Don Power, Madeline Walker, Al Frenette and Harold Curtis. A big kudos must also go out to Darryl Choronzey, LHFC, the MNR, and the Ontario Steelheaders volunteers for the amazing amount of work that was accomplished this year. Our long list of outstanding achievements, is something that as a member of the Ontario Steelheaders, you should all be very proud of. It is also why now, more than ever, it’s important that you renew your membership and get involved. The goals and objectives of this organization will not only benefit you as a member but all future members and the general public who share this very precious resource with us. This is also a very important time for all of us to rally the spirit of cooperation. Teamwork will make us stronger and better prepared to meet the challenges ahead of us. We can do far more as a group than we can as individuals, so let’s stay focused on working together, and in harmony, towards our goals. If you have any questions, ideas or comments please feel free to get in touch with any of the Directors of the OS or myself, and we’ll be glad to discuss them with you, and if we can’t give you an answer right away we’ll make sure that as a group, we try to get you one. In closing, I’m very proud of our outstanding progress this year. You’ll see in the pages of this newsletter that there’s lots of great news and interesting stories to read about. Most of all, I’m looking forward to the projects that lie ahead of us and the fun we’ll have doing it together! Yours in Fishing! Karl Redin President Ontario Steelheaders

Some of you may or may not know my wife Madeline is the Membership Director for the Ontario Steelheaders. I have been a member of the Ontario Steelheaders for many years and was very proud of my wife for stepping up to the plate to help out an organization that I actively enjoy taking part in. When Madeline started her role as Membership Director, they had special commerative crests made that were provided to all who signed up as members. I was pretty excited, as it was a very nice crest and I wanted to have it proudly displayed on my fishing vest for all to see when I’m on the river – screaming FISH ON!     When she first started her role with the Ontario Steelheaders, they had, at the time, less than 40 members, and as such they weren’t sure how many crests to order. Well the support from the angling community was huge to put it mildly, and sure enough there weren’t enough crests to go around. Every time a new member signed up, she would go and take my crest so that she could send it to the new member. They would keep ordering more crests but like I said, these things were going faster than a spawning steelhead trying to get up the ladder!     You would think that with my wife being the Membership Director, I would at least get my own crest when I signed up for my membership – NOT! Too make a long story short; I finally got my crest with a new batch that was ordered later that season. As soon as I got my hands on it, I didn’t wait for my wife to sew it onto my vest, as I knew that I would run the risk of never getting the crest onto my vest. Instead I left with my vest and crest tight in hand, and went to a seamstress and had her sew it on the back of my vest.     I’m proud to be part of the Ontario Steelheaders and want to show my support to all my fellow fishermen and women wherever I fish. Join the Ontario Steelheaders campaign to make this fishery awesome!     Oh, and If you happen to receive a vest in the mail with a nice new O.S crest on it… I want it back!

Hello Steelheaders! These are exciting days for the Ontario Steelheaders indeed. Our advertising support is unbelievable this year. There are so many businesses that want to support us through the Decal Program and through other channels that it‟s been difficult to keep up with them. “Nice problem to have” as the saying goes. Seriously though, the support is sometimes overwhelming but also encouraging! One thing is obvious… the community, industry and affiliate organizations are behind us…Big Time!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the newsletter and website contributors. Without you, there wouldn‟t be anything to publish. Directors, project managers, sportsmen and researchers alike, thank you so very much for your hard work. It means a lot to us, and I look forward to seeing even more in the future.

For my next project, I‟ve initiated a complete website overhaul which we hope to launch this winter if all goes well. There‟s a fair bit of work involved, and tons of details, but hopefully, the end result will be a new, easy to navigate, modernized website complete with all the bells and whistles. Many of our members have made suggestions and ideas for updating and expanding our website; and I can assure you we are carefully evaluating each one of them. I know you‟ll be impressed when we go live!

Al Frenette
News and Media Director Ontario Steelheaders

By Darryl Choronzey

For starters, let‟s just say that the Ontario Steelheaders in partnership with the Lake Huron Fishing Club and Ministry of Natural Resources have accomplished one hell of a lot over the last six months. It‟s been very interesting watching things develop and in a few cases the results have even surprised me. To be honest, it doesn‟t take a rocket scientist to simply raise and release fish. Hell, numerous clubs around Ontario raise fish, but with many; their results are all but nil.

The important questions to be asked though are:

• – do we want the fish to grow and survive?
• – do we want fish to return to our stocking sites to spawn?
• – do we want fish to naturally reproduce and survive on their own?

For too many years, too many angling organizations and the Ministry of Natural Resources have been stocking inferior sized rainbow trout and other species in the wrong locations. Little if any survival has been achieved. Fish have not been imprinted properly and fail to return to generate a sport fishery. If they don‟t return to their release sites they definitely aren‟t going to reproduce.

A little more than a half dozen years ago, the Ontario Steelheaders met with the Lake Huron Fishing Club and the Ministry of Natural Resources to formulate a plan to achieve all three of these goals.

In my estimation, there is only one other club in the province that is presently rearing rainbow trout yearling smolt that can compare with those being raised in the Lake Huron Fishing Club‟s Kincardine and Port Elgin fish hatcheries. The boys from Lake Huron for the most part annually raise some of the healthiest 8 to 9 inch rainbow smolts for spring release. Every April for the past six years approximately 60,000 yearling steelhead are stocked far upstream in the main Saugeen.

Lobbies Park in Walkerton is without a doubt one of the best stocking locations to help achieve our goals on the Saugeen River. It‟s approximately 50 miles upstream on the main system. This location provides „prime‟ imprinting of the one year old fish. For the most part, minutes after being released from the tanker truck the youngsters are down river bound for Lake Huron, but on that journey they are picking up all the necessary imprinting senses they need to return and spawn.

The first part of our goals has been achieved. The first autumn after the initial stocking we witnessed excellent returns of juveniles back to the river. Today, six years after that initial stocking, we are witnessing a tenfold return of adult rainbow back to the river.

But our goal is and always has been to achieve self-supporting natural reproduction. That goal now seems to be just around the corner, but we have to get those returning fish around that corner. The main Saugeen below Walkerton may look like prime trout breeding water, but it isn‟t. It‟s a big stretch of river that‟s often too muddy and too warm for adequate and successful steelhead propagation. The North Saugeen is even worse. Over the last two years I‟ve carried out a series of temperature checks in numerous locations above Lockerby dam and the 82 to 85 degree temperature readings are lethal to the extreme. Rainbow introduced here are toasted and fried before most will ever head downstream and reproduction will never happen. As for any lucky fish that do survive the downstream journey to the lake, the dam at Lockerby will prevent them from even getting up into those „supposed‟ spawning waters.

The returning rainbow trout have to get above Walkerton and then make their way into the Beatty Saugeen. The Beatty Saugeen River, from Hanover to Highway 6 is prime trout spawning water. For almost 50 miles it‟s a cold clear steelhead heaven. Besides its natural characteristics, this stretch of pristine flow is almost inaccessible and offers undisturbed protection for producing the „wild‟ strain that we are attempting to introduce.

Let’s have a look at just what we have achieved in the last six months. To be honest, it’s pretty damn impressive. I’m probably more optimistic than most, but even I’m pretty blown away by what has been achieved in this short time period.

What The Hell….Let’s Say It’s Pretty Damn Amazing!

For starters, it has to be remembered that the Ontario Steelheaders have been stocking adult rainbow trout into the Beatty Saugeen for what seems to be eons. Remember, the purpose of this project is to place adult steelhead into the prime nursery waters of the Beatty so they reproduce successfully and their protégé hatch, thrive, and grow 12 months or more in the cold waters, smolt down to the lake and then as adults, return to reproduce on their own in these same waters.

In recent years, the Ontario Steelheaders collected as many as 300 adults at Denny’s Dam. In the spring of 2011 we raised that bar, and attempted to collect 1,000 adult rainbow. I was hoping we would attain this goal in a little more than two weeks. Well, a small group of volunteers reached that that thousand fish target in 4 1⁄2 days!!!! On top of that amazing number we believe that just as many returning steelhead were lifted or passed through the fishway in that same period. Totally frigg’n amazing!

The volunteers that were part of this project were members of both the Ontario Steelheaders and the Lake Huron Fishing Club.

I always hate to name names, because you always forget someone, but I would like to personally thank Pete Gilles, Johnny Campbell, Brian Hambley, Grant McAlpine (and his group of tireless followers), and the two “lid losers” Mike McDonald and Kirk Lund. Once again I hate naming names but to everyone involved…a big thank you!

Remember please, we need your assistance to keep this great program rolling.

Now this has been one hell of year. Here’s what we have accomplished:

• -One great working relationship between the Ontario Steelheaders, Lake Huron Fishing Club and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources – 65,000 amazing steelhead smolt stocked again in the Saugeen River – 1,000 adult steelhead transferred to the Beatty
• – the new improved Walkerton Fishway completed – the all new Maple Hill Dam completed – 65,000 advanced fall fingerling steelhead to be stocked in November in the Beatty Saugeen River – 65,000 steelhead presently in the Kincardine Hatchery for spring yearling release in 2012 in the upper Saugeen -the transfer permit has been received for autumn adult steelhead to the Beatty – An all new MNR Chatsworth Complimentary stocking program for 2013-2016 of 50,000 yearlings annually

  This joint program is more than just working. It’s really something that has never happened that I know of anywhere in Ontario.   That being said, the Ontario Steelheaders need more young members to help assist in these endeavours. Some of us may not admit it, but we need to refresh our membership with new members.   Please sign up some of those young guys that visit the river or troll the lake so they can enjoy the fruits of our labours and help carry some of the load.   Darryl Choronzey Fisheries Liaison Officer OntarioSteelheaders