Harvest An Unlimited Number Of Brookies, Legally, Stewardship Licence

[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

Great idea! Im really hoping this program can spread into some of the other management area's in the near future. I don't fish that drainage often but would definetly participate if this concept was used further south or up in the Coal Branch. Looking forward to hearing how it works in the future!

[climid]

so this includes the elbow river? ... interesting

[Albertafisher]

I would totally join/register if it involved the northern rockies (i.e. Nordegg to Wilmore)

[Steven Noel]

Based on the statistics provided, and by extension the apparent success you are attaining, I would implore you to make efforts to expand your practice northward. Streams like the Embarras, upper Pembina and tributaries and other portions of the Athabasca watershed need intervention before we further lose our already threatened pure-strain Athabows.

[avb3]

What a truly great proactive way of involving anglers in a positive management area.

Congrats!!!

[McLeod]

Originally Posted by Steven Noel

Based on the statistics provided, and by extension the apparent success you are attaining, I would implore you to make efforts to expand your practice northward. Streams like the Embarras, upper Pembina and tributaries and other portions of the Athabasca watershed need intervention before we further lose our already threatened pure-strain Athabows.

It's not a major priority by SRD. Not sure they have the resources to make it such.

[jstelfox]

Several anglers have asked me why it is necessary to pass a fish ID test to participate in this project. The reason is that many anglers are unable to accurately identify the three species of trout involved, usually because they have never been shown what the key identifying features are. (The attached paper provides some indication of this problem.)

Data from the Quirk Creek Brook Trout Suppression Project also demonstrates that the mandatory testing and fish identification education is working -- only 15 of the more than 9,500 trout harvested since inception of this project have not been brook trout, which is an error rate of less than 0.2%.

[BeeGuy]

Do we need to make an appointment to take the test at the Cochrane office? or is there someone on hand to receive us?

Thanks

[jstelfox]

Originally Posted by BeeGuy

Do we need to make an appointment to take the test at the Cochrane office? or is there someone on hand to receive us?

Thanks

Although I am usually in the office, it's best to call in advance (403-851-2205) to ensure that someone will be here to administer the test.

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by jstelfox

Although I am usually in the office, it's best to call in advance (403-851-2205) to ensure that someone will be here to administer the test.

Jim...don't hit BeeGuy with that frozen burbot for every wrong answer... He is a good guy at netting perch!

[jstelfox]

For those who are wondering when supervised outings will begin, the following is an excerpt from the response being sent to those who have taken the fish ID test.

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/b...ionID=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.