Harvest An Unlimited Number Of Brookies, Legally

[jstelfox]

How would you like to legally harvest an unlimited number of brookies!!?? If so, please read on.

 

With opening season for many streams only a few days away, I thought that this would be a good time to make a pitch for your involvement in the Stewardship Licence Pilot Project. When the Stewardship Licence Pilot Project was initiated in 2009, we intentionally kept it low-key (see attached data summary) to ensure that we could iron out the bugs before involving more anglers.

 

The Stewardship Licence Pilot Project is a spin-off of the Quirk Creek Brook Trout Suppression Project, which was initiated in 1998 and is still ongoing. The attached background information sheet provides some basic information about both of these projects, which have the same objective — to facilitate recovery of native cutthroat and bull trout populations, where there is still a chance for recovery.

 

If you are interested in participating in the Stewardship Licence Pilot Project, you must annually pass the fish ID test, which consists of 16 pictures of the three fish species (brook, bull and cutthroat trout) that are found in the streams covered by the Stewardship Licence. You can take the test either at our Fish and Wildlife office, which is located on the 2nd floor of the Cochrane Provincial Building at 213-1st St West, Cochrane, or at Trout Unlimited Canada's office at Suite 160, 6712 Fisher St SE, Calgary (phone 403-209-5185).

 

Anglers who find it inconvenient to take the test at either of the above locations, can also take the test by e-mailing me or Brian Meagher and requesting that the test be e-mailed to you, so that you can do the test and then e-mail your completed test sheet back for marking.

 

After your test has been marked, you will then be e-mailed the key and informed as to whether you passed (i.e., got 100%). If you didn't pass the test on your first attempt, you will be permitted to do the test a second time, this time while using the key, and will then e-mail your completed test sheet back. (Note: Anglers who take the test by e-mail and have never done a supervised outing may be asked to do the test again, in person, when they participate in their first supervised outing. This will be at the discretion of the person running the supervised outing and will enable us to maintain quality control. It should also take no more than a few minutes, considering that you would have already done the test and should have also memorized the key identifying features for the three species of fish involved.)

 

Anglers who have previously done a supervised outing can then be issued a Stewardship Licence. Anglers who have never done a supervised outing will have their names put on the list of anglers who will be contacted when supervised outings are being planned. After completing a supervised outing, you can then be issued a Stewardship Licence, which will permit you to harvest an unlimited number of brook trout from the specified streams.

 

Jim Stelfox

Senior Fisheries Biologist, Southern Rockies Area

Fish and Wildlife Division, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

Box 1420, Rm 228, 2nd floor, Provincial Building

213-1st Street West

Cochrane, Alberta, Canada T4C 1B4

Tel. 403/851-2205, Fax 403/932-2158

Jim.Stelfox@gov.ab.ca

 

2011_Stewardship_Licence_Pilot_Project_creel_data_summary.pdf

Stewardship_Licence_pilot_project_background_information_2012.pdf

[Taco]

Not one reply.... interestin'...

 

Hey Uber get one of these and we'll go fishin' on willow

[ÜberFly]

Already there (or half way, at least)!! Deb and I both got 100% on our ID test and just waiting for our supervised outting!

 

[Taco]

Cool

 

You too bluenose 'cept you can go fishin' on your own.

[Guest Grinr]

Cool

 

You too bluenose 'cept you can go fishin' on your own.

Probably best if I did....wouldn't really be fair or very fun for you to share a brookie stream with me....but on the bright side,the goal of annihilating brookies would be accomplished.

[RCable]

I passed the tests in mid may, haven't heard anything about the supervised outing yet. I know that Pipestone is in the same boat, in waiting mode for some supervision.

 

[ÜberFly]

From Jim's reply to Deb, it is supposed to start today, but obviously need to wait until the water comes down to allow access (fording)...

 

P

 

I passed the tests in mid may, haven't heard anything about the supervised outing yet. I know that Pipestone is in the same boat, in waiting mode for some supervision.

 

[jstelfox]

I passed the tests in mid may, haven't heard anything about the supervised outing yet. I know that Pipestone is in the same boat, in waiting mode for some supervision.

Supervised outings will begin after June 15, but only when flows in the Elbow River are determined to be below 15 cubic meters per second from the following website. http://environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/...tionID=RELBBRAG

This is because the Elbow River must be forded at Cobble Flats to access the lower reach of Quirk Creek, where most of the supervised outings are conducted. Brian Meagher of Trout Unlimited Canada will notify you by e-mail when supervised outings are being planned. Registration requests in response to his announcements will occur on a first-come first-serve basis (i.e., the first five people who notify Brian of their interest in a particular supervised outing and who have completed the Fish ID test). Supervised outings are usually restricted to no more than five participants, so as to ensure that each angler has at least 1 km of stream to fish.

 

[Guest NamasteMushroom]

I was up in the Waiporous<sp area on Saturday. Managed 1 'Brookchovie' (part Brookie / part Anchovy). I did, however, hook a few Cutthroats (10-11 in.). I think that area has some potential, but....

 

I watched several dirt bikes and ATVs drive up and down the creek, right in the center. And the garbage left by campers is unreal! I know people complain about the Livingstone area (and it is bad), but Waiporous has it beat hands down. There were piles of used Coleman propane canisters, beer cans and bottles everywhere, plastic in its various forms, barbecues left in the bush, etc. And the refuse spanned for km's.

 

I don't have answers; I just hope the people that are responsible for the mess and poor behavior in those areas stop breeding.

 

 

[Taco]

Sneak down to Willow, it needs some help. Caught 24 brookies, 1 cutthroat and 1 rainbow in 3 1/2hrs Friday evening. The brookies ranged between 15 and 25 cm and all on a single muddler minnow.

[Pipestoneflyguy]

Hey Taco

 

Pete, Deb and I are in for the Willow outing on July 28th.

 

Look forward to seeing you again Jim !

 

 

[McLeod]

Sneak down to Willow, it needs some help. Caught 24 brookies, 1 cutthroat and 1 rainbow in 3 1/2hrs Friday evening. The brookies ranged between 15 and 25 cm and all on a single muddler minnow.

 

Hope you fried up that Rainbow as well !

[birchy]

My boss (slingshotz) has the day off today because he's down on a supervised Willow outing..

 

Hope it goes well!

[Taco]

One more Willow report;

 

27 brookies 5 cutthroat in 5 hrs, fish ranged from 15 to 30 cms and still all on a muddler. Nice to see a few more cutts. Walked in about 5-6k and fished back.

 

Peter, lookin' forward to it.

 

McLeod, thought about thumpin' it, it was legal size but not quite sure about the legalities or explanations required about possessing 25 any size brook trout and 2 rainbows over 30 cm.

[McLeod]

One more Willow report;

 

27 brookies 5 cutthroat in 5 hrs, fish ranged from 15 to 30 cms and still all on a muddler. Nice to see a few more cutts. Walked in about 5-6k and fished back.

 

Peter, lookin' forward to it.

 

McLeod, thought about thumpin' it, it was legal size but not quite sure about the legalities or explanations required about possessing 25 any size brook trout and 2 rainbows over 30 cm.

 

 

Considering what Jim's goal is it make no sense to have a MIN size limit on the Rainbows.

[slingshotz]

Our group of 5 (including the leader) pulled out about 35 brookies in the day on the outing. One rainbow and two cutties were caught during the day. I stayed after everyone left at 6 until 10 and got 30 more brookies out of there including a LDR on a decent cuttie.

 

I only fished a stretch of water maybe 300m long as there were some holes that I kept pulling brookie after brookie out, after about the 6 or 7th one, just when I thought there are no more, another one would come up and slam the fly . The amazing thing is that the average size I harvested was about 15cm long but lots of them were full of roe already. There are so many of those little buggers in there that any bug in the water doesn't stand a chance and the cutties definitely have a hard time competing.

 

Gonna head up to Elbow or Meadow this Sunday and see what the brookie population is like.

[midgetwaiter]

I was on the supervised outing on the 17th, 7 of us managed 85 brookies in 4 or so hours. Rain in the higher areas had Johnson running very muddy so it was not nearly as good below the confluence with Willow after 3:30 or so. Any fly would do but a parachute caddis emerger and para adams seemed to be the hotter ones. As slingshotz said, every hole seems to be just full of the things.

 

I managed one very nice cut and I think 2 others in the group did as well.

 

 

[DonA]

Jim,

 

A couple of questions:

 

 

1) Are there any barriers to rainbows migrating from Chain lakes to Willow Creek.

2) what happened to the bulls stocked in Chain lakes years ago?

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Don

[Taco]

Y'all re register Don?

 

No physical barriers that I aware of. However, of the nonbrookies I have caught in the past 2 yrs the relatively pure looking cutthroat have almost all been above the month of Iron Ck. The rainbows and crossbred cuttbows have all been below that point. No bull trout are left in Willow that I'm aware of.

 

Of the 250 fish or so I've recorded in the creek so far, less than 10% have been nonbrookies

 

 

 

[ÜberFly]

I pretty sure Jim had mentioned on Saturday that the last bully (hybrid I think) from Willow was back in '74?!

 

P

[jstelfox]

Jim,

 

A couple of questions:

 

 

1) Are there any barriers to rainbows migrating from Chain lakes to Willow Creek.

2) what happened to the bulls stocked in Chain lakes years ago?

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Don

 

No barriers.

 

Unlike Upper Kananaskis Lake, the stocking of bulls in Chain Lakes Reservoir and upper Willow Creek was a bust. Likely reason for failure is that Chain Lakes Reservoir is warmer than UKL and Willow Creek is full of brook trout, which would have made it tough for small bull trout to survive.

[DonAndersen]

Jim,

 

A couple of other things.

 

Just read Lorne's lament for the Crowsnest Bulls. Any chance that bulls would be stripped and stocked into the Crow Lakes?

 

Isn't there some concern about hybridization with the rainbows/cuts or do we rely on a thermo-barrier on Willow?

 

regards,

 

Don

[ÜberFly]

Don,

 

Jim did bring that up on Saturday and mentioned that if we did catch a (legal sized) Rainbow that he would "encourage" us to keep it (one guy caught one just shy of legal size)!! He also mentioned that there is the possibility that Rainbows could/will be added to the program in the near future (for Willow/Johnson creeks)!!

 

P

[jstelfox]

Any chance that bulls would be stripped and stocked into the Crow Lakes?

 

Isn't there some concern about hybridization with the rainbows/cuts or do we rely on a thermo-barrier on Willow?

 

regards,

 

Don

 

Don,

Regarding your first question, while it is possible, that decision would be up to Matthew Coombs, who is managing the fishery for that area.

 

Hybridization of rainbows with cuts is definitely a concern. We aren't relying on thermal barriers in Willow or any of the other streams. This is because, as Willow and the other streams become warmer in the coming decades due to global warming, we expect that rainbows and hybrids will move further upstream in these waters. Ultimately, it is not a very rosy picture for the few remaining populations of pure, resident (never stocked) westslope cuts that are in streams which don't have a waterfall to prevent upstream movement of rainbows.

 

Regards,

Jim

[robertboyce]

Hi all,

 

I was researching some Tenkara material and stumbled on this website http://www.eatmorebrooktrout.com/. The sites title is "Eat More Brook Trout....Save the West. Kill a Brookie".

 

Seemed a good fit with this topic.

 

Robert