LAKE KAGAWONG—The United Fish and Game Club and Gore Bay Fish and Game Clubs, with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, released 1,600 healthy walleye in Lake Kagawong that the clubs have raised over the summer this past Monday. With the fish release earlier this week and an earlier release this summer, a total of 1,810 fish have been raised and stocked in the lake this year.
“Today we stocked 1,600 advanced walleye fingerlings,” said Ian Anderson, interim chair of the UFGCM and member of the GBFGC on Monday. “What is significant is that we had really good survival rates of the fish that had been raised in the nets (on Lake Kagawong). This year’s crop of fish had the highest percentage of survival success we have achieved yet, raising them from fingerling size,” he said, pointing out this was the fifth year that this program has been in place.
“In one of the nets that we have been raising the fish there was a survival rate of 45.5 percent and for the second net the rate was almost 60 percent (59.9 percent),” said Mr. Anderson. He said the small fingerlings had been transferred from the fish hatchery in Kagawong to the nets on Lake Kagawong on July 19, “and we’ve been raising the fish since then in the nets.”
“We want to note a special thank you to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, in particular Paul Methner, John Pennie and Wayne Selinger, for their support and help,” said Mr. Anderson.
Mr. Anderson explained, the walleye had been provided through the Blue Jay Creek Fish Culture Station. “We ended up with exactly 1,600 awful big fish to release (for this week’s release). They grew on average from 1.65 grams when they were stocked in the nets, and grew to an average of 19.6 grams in one net, and in the other net from 1.50 grams to 32.16 grams. This is phenomenal growth,” he stated, noting the biggest fish “were on average five inches long.”
“One of our reasons for raising the fish-and not releasing them earlier is to allow the fish to overcome predation in Lake Kagawong,” said Mr. Anderson. “The lake has a high yellow perch population, and they would have fed on the fingerlings if we had released them earlier.”
“Our club’s feeling is that although we are not feeding-raising large numbers of fish, the ones we have raised and released are very healthy and in really good shape. They have a really good chance of surviving to adulthood,” continued Mr. Anderson. “And if we can successfully plant 1,600-1,800 fish every year they have a chance over time to become a self-sustaining population on the lake.”
Mr. Anderson noted the club had also release 210 walleye earlier in July. These fish had been known cannibals who they were unable to train to eat fish pellets/artificial feed and removed because they were consuming other smaller walleye.
Mr. Anderson said the club acknowledges and appreciates the work carried out on this year’s projects by Red Merrylees and Randy Germin, who could both be found every day feeding the fish in the nets from early July until their release this week. They were assisted by Ron Snell and other volunteers that played an integral role in raising the fish included Al Holroyd, Jim Sloss, Ches Witty, Jeff Cunningham, Al Clark, Ken Clark, Bob Mullis, Ian Anderson and Paul LeClair. Ron Orford, with the use of his tractor, brought in the nets and floating platforms to the nets and removes them from Lake Kagawong on an annual basis.