The Graham Sustainability Institute and Michigan Office of the Great Lakes are providing approximately $50,000 to each of four U.S. and Canadian research teams to identify and evaluate adaptive responses to changing Great Lakes water levels. During the 18-month Integrated Assessment project, the teams will work with shoreline communities to assess localized solutions and to provide insights for the Great Lakes basin more broadly.
More information: http://bit.ly/22lzuRU
Well it’s that time of the year again to let you know what’s new, and up-and-coming with the Ontario Steelheaders. It’s been a relativity quiet winter for most of us as Mother Nature didn’t allow us to get out on our usual hard water hot spots unless you ventured up to Nipissing or beyond. The Saugeen was good all winter for those brave souls who did get up here to give the winter Steelies a go. As most of you know we did our planting of the advanced fall fingerlings in November and they are all doing well in the Beatty Saugeen. Thanks to the group that helped out at the Port Elgin LHFC Hatchery over two weekends starting Oct 28-29 and finishing them the following weekend, 60,000 plus advanced fall fingerlings were clipped.
The weekend of Jan 28-29 a group of volunteers made up of Josh Choronzey, Tom Hamilton, Will Stewardson, Scott Redin, Travis Forester, myself and Anthony Zadwordi clipped 20,000 plus fish that by this spring, will be some very good sized yearlings. The LHFC took to the task of clipping the remainder and they got all of them done but 5,000 which Josh Choronzey, Dan Gravel, Scott Redin, Erica King and I finished off March 11/12. So a big thank you to the people who helped and also to LHFC for their assistance not only for the clipping but the fine job of raising these little guys destined for Saugeen later this spring. If you have never seen the LHFC Hatchery, go see it! It is a thing of beauty, and you can tell the guys from LHFC take great pride in their Hatchery and also in the great work they do there. We have to give them a big thank you for their assistance in getting the Saugeen’s steelhead runs where they today without it, it would have been an even tougher task than it has been; so thanks to Al Wilkins and his great group of guys at the LHFC. Just think, if the groups in the Georgian Bay area could work together like LHFC and the OS how much could be accomplished.
There are some very interesting things to tell you about that came out of a meeting called by the MNR and inviting the LHFC, Ontario Steelheaders, Sydenham Sportsman Assoc. and a few other clubs form the Georgian Bay area. Rod Jones, Josh Choronzey and I attended the meeting the weekend of Mar 3 /12 on our behalf. Rod and I got snow bound till 1:00am due to an actual snow storm. Good thing Rod and I have gotten older, cause if it was back in the day; Owen Sound may not have survived! The big take from the meeting is that MNR is going to put a lot of focus on the Saugeen River system for the next few years. They will be doing upgrades and repairs to Denny’s Dam staring in July of this year. They will be installing monitoring cameras not only Denny’s, but also at Walkerton, and two cameras at Maple Hill’s fishways for research purposes. Very soon there will be a live site available for you all to look at and see what’s going on as far as water temp and condition as well if any fish are moving at Denny’s. They are also going to do studies of smolt movement and spawning sites. They have a study on the go for the Dundalk Plateau which is the headwaters for a lot of rivers like our beloved Saugeen, the Bighead, the Grand and a number of others. The study is targeted at Wetlands degradation from the time of pre-settlement, and to see what damaging effects are being placed on the wetlands and what can be done to preserve them, as they are a very integral part of the watershed. They also informed the group that they will be doing a lampricide treatment of the Bighead and Nottawasaga river systems this year. We also had an opportunity to speak to Rich Henry and Hart Hill; the two CO’s for the Bruce Peninsula. We addressed our concerns about the issues that we are having on the Saugeen River and they have assured us that it will be addressed and they reviewed with us, the information they need when we call the MNR Hotline. They need vehicle license plate number, type and make of vehicle and a description of the individual or individuals. They have also indicated that they will be doing periodic enforcement campaigns on the river. You will see some new signage this year at various locations on the river regarding poaching, fish limits etc. Spring came very early this year and with that in mind our Fishery guy Darryl Choronzey made sure that we had permits from the MNR for March 1/12 so when the fish ran early, the Steelheaders were ready to move on transferring 1,000 adults to the Beatty Saugeen and Otter Creek. As you’ll see in this spring’s newsletter lots of cool stuff happening with the OS so go out and dig up some new members… the more the merrier and the stronger we become the more we can do! Keep in mind there will be Elections this fall for anyone who feels like getting involved at a higher level.
Good luck to all of you this season!
Yours in Fishing!
Karl Redin
President Ontario Steelheaders president@ontariosteelheaders.ca
