FISHING
DAVE BROWN
Fishing: With a Little Help From Our Friends
Being an avid trout fisherman over the
years, I have often wondered how the lakes I fish sustain themselves, either naturally, or with a little help from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF). These days, the Ministry doesn’t go it alone either, as there are a number of community fish hatcheries sprinkled throughout the province authorized to raise fingerlings on behalf of the MNRF so they can be released into local waters. Did you know the MNRF releases
over 8 million fish into approximately 1,200 water bodies each year, and into over 2,000 different lakes and rivers over a 4-year time span? When you include the community hatcheries that amounts to a lot of fish! These fish are not just raised over
night. Trout species are harvested and nourished for more than a year in one of the 9 ‘fish culture’ stations that are distributed throughout Ontario. The closest one to us here in Ottawa is the White Lake Fish Culture Station situated on the
outskirts of Sharbot Lake which opened in 1934. Fish stocking programs are an integral
part of the MNRF’s fisheries management strategy for the province. A primary goal of the strategy is the maintenance of a provincially healthy and naturally occurring fish population that can be used for food and recreational purposes. Stocking programs are intended to
rebuild fish populations that may be at risk in lakes and rivers regularly used by anglers. They are used to supplement the natural reproduction process of the resident fish population by giving the targeted species a gently needed boast in numbers so they can naturally sustain themselves down the road. It is estimated it takes up to 15 years for some species of fish to naturally produce sustainable numbers after the population has been depleted through over fishing or natural causes. Often, dwindling numbers of fish may
not be the direct result of over fishing. As a result, before a fish stocking program
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