Arctic Grayling

[jstelfox]

Here’s a short update for those of you interested in the Arctic grayling fisheries near Calgary. Last week we stocked Bear Pond, Big Iron Lake, Quarry Lake and Wedge Pond with just-hatched (1-cm long) Arctic grayling from the May 19 egg take at Quarry Lake.

 

Since Big Iron Lake winterkilled during the 2005-06 winter, and the creel data indicates that the grayling stocked in 2006 did not survive the following winter, there is no point in fishing Big Iron Lake until 2010. By then, the grayling stocked this year should be in the 20 to 25 cm size range, provided that they overwinter.

 

Bear Pond overwintered and there were lots of grayling rising when I stocked it. The creel data (attached) indicates that catch rates have been improving following the 2006 stocking.

 

Because of reports that catch rates have been low in Wedge Pond and Quarry Lake, we increased their stocking rates. However, since we don’t have creel boxes at these lakes, it is not possible for us to monitor these fisheries as readily as at Bear Pond and Big Iron Lake, which have creel boxes.

 

If some of you keep a fishing diary and would like to help us monitor the fisheries at Wedge Pond and Quarry Lake, I would really appreciate hearing from you. I can e-mail you a creel card template that you can fill out for each fishing trip. The resulting data on catch rates and size distribution will enable us to determine whether the stocking rates should be increased or decreased.

 

By the way, the biggest grayling that we handled during the egg take at Quarry Lake had a fork length of 38 cm.

 

Jim Stelfox

Senior Fisheries Biologist, Southern Rockies Area

Fish and Wildlife Division, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development

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

Cochrane, Alberta, Canada T4C 1B4

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

Jim.Stelfox@gov.ab.ca

Bear_Pond_Creel_data_summary.pdf

[Simpson]

Thank you for the info Jim and for all the hard work you do taking care of resource!

 

Appreciated!

[trailhead]

Yeah thanks for contributions, and if it helps I only fished Quarry once last year in the middle of June and managed two fish one that was 31 cm and the other 25 cm, I fished for about 3 hours.

[McLeod]

 

Thanks for the information.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Thanks for the information.

 

Good job Jim and the rest of the F&W team!

 

Grayling have always been a target of mine and having these populations to fish down south have been awesome. Quick question...egg collection is done specifically from these lakes and then used for restocking. Is there any need to replenish the genetics once in a while with some eggs and milt from the wild or do you see this egg collection being self sustaining for a long long time?

 

Cheers

 

Sun

[theiceman2]

I was at Wedge pond two weekend ago. There were lots rising but I had no luck. Beautiful little lake

[jstelfox]

Quick question...egg collection is done specifically from these lakes and then used for restocking. Is there any need to replenish the genetics once in a while with some eggs and milt from the wild or do you see this egg collection being self sustaining for a long long time?

Sun,

 

If we need to replenish the genetics in the future, that option is open to us. However, I don't anticipate that it will be necessary for a long time, since the Arctic grayling in Quarry Lake were established from stocking about 3000 grayling fry in 1997 and 2001, which originated from a spawn take on the Freeman River that involved several dozen adults. Therefore, there should be plenty of genetic diversity in the Arctic grayling in Quarry Lake, which are also successfully reproducing in Quarry Lake.

 

Cheers,

 

Jim

[rusty]

4 grayling over 50cm? Something tells me those were probably all from the same card.

 

Thanks for the info Jim. Very cool.