Lakers In Touchwood?

Levy · #1 03-02-2012, 08:16 PM

Just curious how many other people think it would be nice to have another trout lake in the lakeland region?

There was from what i have read an abundant native trout population in Touchwood present until the 1920's when it was wiped out by commercial fishing. Local Cree originally called Touchwood "Nameygos Sakhahegan, which means Trout Lake, in reference to the abundant large lake trout found there"(Chipeniuk 1975).

NSRfishing · #2 03-02-2012, 08:24 PM

love touchwood lake lakers would be nice there is some large eyes in that lake

steve · #3 03-02-2012, 08:38 PM

Would love to see that.

highwood · #4 03-02-2012, 08:48 PM

Someone has been browsing Lakes of the Lac La Biche Region.....good read

fishunter77 · #5 03-02-2012, 10:11 PM

Sounds great.

avb3 · #6 03-02-2012, 10:19 PM

If Touchwood historically had lakers in it, then I would very much support looking at re-establishing them there.

There may be legitimate constraints, but on the surface, yeah, we should go for it.

pickrel pat · #7 03-02-2012, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NSRfishing

love touchwood lake lakers would be nice there is some large eyes in that lake

whats to love about them? there are none.......there are large eyes in the lake now........ really large.

rmillsfishing · #8 03-02-2012, 11:25 PM

i would love to have a chance at catching a laker in that lake. Grate walleye, grate pike, lake trout would make it the only lake i would ever fish hahaha

HunterDave · #9 03-02-2012, 11:51 PM

It looks like a suitable lake for lake trout. Why did they stop stocking it?

Fish Stocking Data
Species Date Released # of Fish
Lake Trout 27-May-87 45,026
Lake Trout 26-May-87 44,996
Lake Trout 10-Jul-86 89,794

Rosaire1 · #10 03-03-2012, 12:37 AM

Ive fished that lake for years. There still is a very small laker population in it. The last one i saw come out was last year in a commercial fishermans net. It looked like it was about 8-10 lbs and it was given to the local fish and wildlife office.

pickrel pat · #11 03-03-2012, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NSRfishing

love touchwood lake lakers would be nice there is some large eyes in that lake

srry, missinterpreted your statement without comma's.

super mario · #12 03-03-2012, 06:57 AM

i thing they stock some in 1988

Penner · #13 03-03-2012, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosaire1

Ive fished that lake for years. There still is a very small laker population in it. The last one i saw come out was last year in a commercial fishermans net. It looked like it was about 8-10 lbs and it was given to the local fish and wildlife office.

FYI they are not commercial fishermen!

blackonblackfx4 · #14 03-03-2012, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HunterDave

It looks like a suitable lake for lake trout. Why did they stop stocking it?

Fish Stocking Data
Species Date Released # of Fish
Lake Trout 27-May-87 45,026
Lake Trout 26-May-87 44,996
Lake Trout 10-Jul-86 89,794

I heard at least one of these was dropped by air tanker in slow flight but was still fast enough to knock all the fry out.

HunterDave · #15 03-03-2012, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penner

FYI they are not commercial fishermen!

Well there you go. Perhaps the reason that SRD stopped stocking it.

Levy · #16 03-03-2012, 01:20 PM

Great feed back so far might be worth bugging the biologist about next time i run into him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosaire1

Ive fished that lake for years. There still is a very small laker population in it. The last one i saw come out was last year in a commercial fishermans net. It looked like it was about 8-10 lbs and it was given to the local fish and wildlife office.

Thats interesting that there are a few left in there. I wonder if its one of the ones from the 80's or if its one of their offspring. If they're reproducing maybe they will rebound on their own.

Rosaire1 · #17 03-03-2012, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penner

FYI they are not commercial fishermen!

I agree that this lake gets netted relentlessly by non-commercial fisherman, no doubt. But the laker I saw taken out was by a commercial fisherman netting whitefish. I know him personally. He says that they are very few and far between and the last one he caught before this was 6 years ago.

AxeMan · #18 03-03-2012, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HunterDave

It looks like a suitable lake for lake trout. Why did they stop stocking it?

Fish Stocking Data
Species Date Released # of Fish
Lake Trout 27-May-87 45,026
Lake Trout 26-May-87 44,996
Lake Trout 10-Jul-86 89,794

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackonblackfx4

I heard at least one of these was dropped by air tanker in slow flight but was still fast enough to knock all the fry out.

From [url]http://sunsite.ualberta.ca

1967 - 31,000 fingerlings
1968 - 61,000 fingerlings
1986 - 90,400 juveniles
1987 - 90,000 juveniles
1988 - 90,000 juveniles

I read an article once that said the traditional spawning habitat in Touchwood for lake trout is not as it once was for lake trout. I wonder why the stockings were unsuccessful? Perhaps it was the methods they used as mentioned by other members here. Perhaps the predators now outnumber the stocking levels so badly that the juvenile trout all become pike and walleye feed. Perhaps it is the spawning conditions now.

I would like to have an SRD biologist comment on this subject.

Square Lake also once contained a native lake trout population but their demise is another story.

Good thread, btw. Lakes of the Lac La Biche District by Chipeniuk is a great read.

blackonblackfx4 · #19 03-04-2012, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosaire1

I agree that this lake gets netted relentlessly by non-commercial fisherman, no doubt. But the laker I saw taken out was by a commercial fisherman netting whitefish. I know him personally. He says that they are very few and far between and the last one he caught before this was 6 years ago.

Could the trout be hiding in the depth's of the lake and are hardly ever bought because they are such slow growers?

When are where does a trout spawn?

BIZJAY · #20 03-04-2012, 03:20 PM

lakers typically pawn on shoals(from what I know) and and in the fall. I know on my lake back home the population suffered huge due to over fishing and the fact that during the spawn the trent system would drop the lake levels so much that the spawning areas would be exposed. It happened for a long time and the population as continued to decline

AxeMan · #21 03-04-2012, 03:56 PM

A few years back we saw some big echos on the fish finder at a depth of 60 feet in 90 feet of water off bareass point on Touchwood. I have always wondered what they were were. Perhaps large pike go that deep in summer but I'm not sure. Lake trout? We tried fishing for them but no bites.

blackonblackfx4 · #22 03-04-2012, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AxeMan

A few years back we saw some big echos on the fish finder at a depth of 60 feet in 90 feet of water off bareass point on Touchwood. I have always wondered what they were were. Perhaps large pike go that deep in summer but I'm not sure. Lake trout? We tried fishing for them but no bites.

Time to drop the camera down!

wallycranker · #23 03-07-2012, 09:04 PM

Stupidest thing i have ever heard! Only place deep enough to produce some descent lake trout is the narrows. Narrows usualy means narrow part of lake wich means not that big of an area! touchwood is deep yes but only in the narrows. It produces great walleye and pike why try and make it better hasnt there been enough destroyed lakes in this province calling lake for example. Yes touchwood can handle lake trout im sure but how big are they actually going to get If they did transplant lake trout years ago how are they doing now havent heard to much about lakers being caught there.

wallycranker · #24 03-07-2012, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

whats to love about them? there are none.......there are large eyes in the lake now........ really large.

good point

wallycranker · #25 03-07-2012, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AxeMan

A few years back we saw some big echos on the fish finder at a depth of 60 feet in 90 feet of water off bareass point on Touchwood. I have always wondered what they were were. Perhaps large pike go that deep in summer but I'm not sure. Lake trout? We tried fishing for them but no bites.

they are pike i wondered what those archs where before, i ran jig heads and minnows. Caught 2 nice pike both did not survive from the pulling them from the deep

Levy · #26 03-08-2012, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallycranker

Stupidest thing i have ever heard! Only place deep enough to produce some descent lake trout is the narrows. Narrows usually means narrow part of lake wich means not that big of an area! touchwood is deep yes but only in the narrows. It produces great walleye and pike why try and make it better hasn't there been enough destroyed lakes in this province calling lake for example. Yes touchwood can handle lake trout im sure but how big are they actually going to get If they did transplant lake trout years ago how are they doing now havent heard to much about lakers being caught there.

Touchwood is a bigger lake than Grist, and has the same max depth. I don't hear many complaints about trout fishing at Grist. I don't know if you have seen a bathymetric map of touchwood before but the north basin is up to 130 ft deep and the south basin is up to 90ft deep with an average depth of around 50 feet over the entire lake. Based on the literature out there Touchwood has produced "abundant large lake trout" in the past, and the stuff i read hasn't mentioned large habitat changes in the lake over the years. In fact measures have been taken to ensure that doesn't happen.

Its a Mesotrophic lake which could mean it will produce larger trout faster than a less productive Oligiotrophic lake. From what I have read on the ALMS website Touchwood’s water column still stays well oxygenated. So a lake with slightly higher productivity a well-oxygenated water column it would seem like it still has some good lake trout habitat.

I don't see how re-establishing a native species is going to destroy a lake. I haven't heard any complaints from people in Cold Lake about the walleye or pike fishing since a severely depleted lake trout population was brought back up by yearly stocking and decreasing DDT levels. Also i don't think pike and walleye occupy the same ecological niche as trout. They may overlap in some instances like where large pike head out in open water to feed on baitfish but its only the large pike that do that so the pike would be in no danger of predation, and i dont think it will affect them much if they eat three 1 ib cisco or one 3 ib lake trout.

As for why didn't the stocking didn't work before, Axeman had some good input on that one. I'll repost on this thread if the next time i talk to the fisheries Biologist he has some good input and says something that hasn't already been said.

sco22 · #27 03-08-2012, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallycranker

Stupidest thing i have ever heard! Only place deep enough to produce some descent lake trout is the narrows. Narrows usualy means narrow part of lake wich means not that big of an area! touchwood is deep yes but only in the narrows. It produces great walleye and pike why try and make it better hasnt there been enough destroyed lakes in this province calling lake for example. Yes touchwood can handle lake trout im sure but how big are they actually going to get If they did transplant lake trout years ago how are they doing now havent heard to much about lakers being caught there.

The deepest part of Touchwood is not in the narrows but straight East from in in the central basin. And the narrows in Touchwood is 2 km long and 1.65 km wide. Have you actually been to Touchwood?

Cheers

Jwood 456 · #28 03-08-2012, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallycranker

Stupidest thing i have ever heard! Only place deep enough to produce some descent lake trout is the narrows. Narrows usualy means narrow part of lake wich means not that big of an area! touchwood is deep yes but only in the narrows. It produces great walleye and pike why try and make it better hasnt there been enough destroyed lakes in this province calling lake for example. Yes touchwood can handle lake trout im sure but how big are they actually going to get If they did transplant lake trout years ago how are they doing now havent heard to much about lakers being caught there.

Here's a link to a depth chart of Touchwood. It looks like the middle of the northern basin is the deepest part and it looks like quite a bit of the lake is 50+ft deep.

http://www.anglersatlas.com/lakes/9154/

unclebuck · #29 03-08-2012, 06:36 PM

I am with you sco22. I have fished Touchwood for in excess of 25 years, and have caught the odd trout where you describe. Yes, some of the lakers have survived since the last plant. The largest problem with Touchwood is the "domestic" nets that one can find at all times of the year!!!

Rosaire1 · #30 03-08-2012, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclebuck

I am with you sco22. I have fished Touchwood for in excess of 25 years, and have caught the odd trout where you describe. Yes, some of the lakers have survived since the last plant. The largest problem with Touchwood is the "domestic" nets that one can find at all times of the year!!!

So true....