Saturday, July 4, 2015

Tiger Trout in Alberta in 2016

From Alberta Fly Fishing Forum

Re: Tiger Trout

by PeterSL » Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:30 pm
Heard today that the Tiger Trout Task Team has now identified selected water bodies for stocking tiger trout.
Selection criteria for these waters include:
• Must be able to overwinter fish either naturally or through aeration; and
• Must be isolated with no outlet or inlet; and
• Must be able to monitor through trail cameras and/or volunteer participation and/or dedicated area/hatchery participation; and
o For mono-culture fisheries, waters with known or perceived low catch rates will be priority, stocking of existing trout species will be replaced with Tiger Trout, performance can be compared to existing lake information or provincial averages. 
o Mixed fisheries with existing information on trout growth, condition and survival are desirable. 
• Must be physically and socially capable of accepting an increase or decrease in angling pressure; and
o On successful fisheries angler pressure could exceed 400 angler hours per hectare;
o If unsuccessful areas could see a decrease in angler pressure and an increase in angler complaints.
o There should be other angling opportunities nearby.
o Existing Quality Stocked Fishery objective desirable; if not present will need to consult.
• Should have an adequate prey species forage base that does not include species at risk in Alberta; and
• Water should be scattered throughout the province. Total surface area (200 – 400 hectares) should be large enough to accommodate an annual stocking of 15-20 thousand Tiger trout at a stocking rate of 50-100 fish per hectare.


Next steps are to:
• Confirm environmental suitability and social acceptance over summer, 2015
• Final selection of water bodies September 2015
• Stocking of TGTR September – October 2015, Spring 2016
• Assessment throughout 2016 and 2017
• Reassessment of TGTR stocking program end of 2017

The stocking locations with proposed stocking numbers have been prioritized as follows pending further study and consultation this summer:

1 Muir Lake 1,500 
2 Beaver Lake 1,000 
3 Ironside Lake 200 
4 Heninger’s Reservoir 2,000 
5 Black Nugget Mine Pit 2,100 
6 Tyrrell Lake 0 See Note 2
7 Dillberrry Lake 8,700 
8 Kerbe’s Pond 200 
9 East Twin Lake 1,000 
10 Lower Chain Lake 4,300

The above will account for all tiger trout available for stocking in 2015. Next in order of priority are:

11 Running Lake 1,500 
12 Captain Eyre Lake 1,000 
13 Keenex Coulee Reservoir 2,000 
14 Ole’s Pond 1,000 26,500
15 Dolberg Lake 1,700 
16 Foremost Reservoir 600 
17 Hasse Lake 9,000 
18 Peanut Lake 700 
19 Blood Indian Reservoir 5,000 
1 – Stocking rate based on Ontario rate for BNTR yearlings. 50-100 per ha. 
2 – Need to assess survival before stocking, can receive up to 40,000 fish.


Peter

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