LHFC January Newsletter

Hi all...here is the latest newsletter. There is some help needed with respect to fin clipping rainbows. If you are interested, U2U met and I can get you in touch with the hatchery manager. Interesting article at end of newsletter and ties in with some recent discussions on this site.

Lake Huron Fishing Club's Newsletter

January 2011

Incorporated 1983
P.O. Box 355, Southampton, Ontario, N0H 2L0

Club Website: www.lakehuronfishingclub.com Derby Website: www.chantrychinook.com

President’s Message

This past month I sent in my money to renew my fishing and hunting licenses for the next 3 years. Actually, I did it over the phone, for the first time ever, and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. The total bill for these permits was just under $160 of which about $30 allows me to fish for the upcoming year. Thirty dollars to permit me to fish every day of the year if I wish, in any of the hundreds of thousands of lakes, rivers and streams in this big, beautiful province and to keep a full daily limit of dozens of different species of sport fish.

I will definitely never complain about not getting full value for my money when it comes to fishing licenses. Especially, since I know that every dollar from my license fee goes right back into protecting and enhancing the natural resources of my province. All hunting and fishing license fees go into what is called "a special purpose account". The only places where this money can be spent are related to fish and wildlife. This money pays for things like fish hatcheries, conservation officers, CFWIP programs, biologists, fish and wildlife studies, etc. It cannot be used for health care, paving roads or sending my MPP to a sunny location for a "fact-finding mission". I am extremely proud that the hunting and fishing community I am part of pays its own way.

This year, sport fishermen are expected to contribute about $40 million in license fees towards fish and wildlife programs. Compare this to the $900 thousand in royalty fees from all of the commercial fishermen in the province.

Since you are reading this in the Lake Huron Fishing Club Membership Newsletter, you already are a believer that fishermen pay their own way. Take pride in your sense of responsibility. I take pride in being associated with you! Al Wilkins President

Salmon Hatchery Report

All the eggs have hatched and we are about two weeks away of transferring the first batch of eggs to the rearing tanks and starting feed. We had a significant die-off during the hatch of the second batch of eggs. These eggs looked much better than the first batch that had a large number of unfertilized eggs. When the second batch started to hatch there were three trays where a large number died as soon as they hatched. This has now stopped and things have settled down. The next critical stage will be starting them on feed.

The rainbow trout are doing very well. The aeration system is allowing me to use more well water, therefore maintaining a higher temperature. They are presently well over 9 grams, this is over 2 grams more than what we had at this time last year.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Trout Hatchery Report

The reports for 2010 have all been filed. Our two stocking trailers have been put away for the winter. Thank you to John KleinHaar and company for a major repair job on one of the trailer's brake system. In the spring, we are going to make some more repairs to one of the trailers and modify the dump line with a lever valve. Roberto Rossi from Guelph has offered to do the metalwork for us.

We have 41,000 rainbow trout spending the winter in our hatchery, along with 8,000 yearling brown trout. These fish will have all of our large tanks filled by spring. Fin clipping of our rainbows will probably start around the 3rd week of January. If you would be willing to help with this, please contact Al Wilkins.

Thank you to the Ontario Steelheaders for the donation of the proceeds from a 50/50 draw. Every donation helps pay bills.

We received a new batch of 68,000 brown trout eggs today from the Tarentorous Fish Culture Station. We were worried when Purolator mistakenly sent them to Guelph and it was a total of 48 hours for the eggs to be dry and cold during shipment before they arrived in Kincardine. Our initial impression was that the eggs survived remarkably well. I will have a more complete report at our next meeting.

Teeswater School Salmon Hatchery Report

The Salmon are doing very well and a hatchery video may be viewed on You Tube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTdp2LEwhE

Next General Membership Meeting

The next general membership meeting for the Lake Huron Fishing Club will be held 7:30 pm, Thursday, January 13th at the Underwood Community Center. Please plan on attending and bring a friend. As per the wishes of the members, general meetings will be held every other month for the next year. That means the meetings for 2011 will be January 13, March 10, May 12, July 14, September 8, November 10th. Mark these dates on your calendar now so you do not forget. Winners of the "2010 Meeting Attendance Awards" were Doug Swan and Jim Beange.

We will be starting a new contest in January. The next winners will be drawn at the December 2011, Christmas Party.

Membership

New Members: Corey Biswanger and Tera Saunders from Ripley

Lake Huron Facts

Lake Huron is the second largest Great Lake by surface area and the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world. It has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes, counting the shorelines of its 30,000 islands.

Manitoulin Island is the largest freshwater island in the world.

Early explorers listed Georgian Bay as a separate sixth lake because it is nearly separated from the rest of Lake Huron by Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula.

Georgian Bay is large enough to be among the world's 20 largest lakes.

Huron receives the flow from both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, but water flows through Lake Huron (retention time) much more quickly than through either of them.

Huron was the first of the Great Lakes to be discovered by European explorers.

Shipwrecks are scattered throughout the lake, with five bottomland preserves in Michigan and a national park in Ontario designated to protect the most historically significant ones.

Wisconsin Report On Lake Huron Fishing

Salmon fishing has essentially disappeared in the Michigan waters of Lake Huron, a phenomenon most experts believe was triggered by two factors.

Chinook salmon numbers exploded because the Pacific natives that biologists figured needed to be stocked annually had quietly begun naturally reproducing in big numbers. That phenomenon, coupled with a mussel-driven collapse in plankton levels, doomed the invasive alewife, the chinook's primary food source.

But something unexpected has happened following the salmon-and-alewife collapse: Native species such as perch, walleye and lake trout are making something of a comeback.

"The walleye are dominant, everywhere you look in Lake Huron," says Johnson, noting the number of juveniles has increased several fold in recent years.

Johnson suspects the disappearance of alewives is a big reason for the change; those little invaders feasted on juvenile native species while providing a miserable diet for native predators like lake trout.

"This huge, massive chinook population isn't there anymore, but now we have a little bit of this and a little bit of that," Johnson says.

"It's this ironic thing that has happened and it involved invasive species, but we're actually getting our native species back because of it," says University of Michigan biologist David Jude.

Still, the lake's overall amount of fish pales in comparison with historical numbers, primarily because so much energy is now tied up in the invasive zebra and quagga mussel population smothering the lake bottom, a phenomenon also plaguing Lake Michigan.

This point is made clear with annual water clarity surveys. Scientists drop a plate-sized disc into the water and measure how far down it remains visible.

Historically on Lake Michigan the disc would disappear at depths of around 20 feet. This spring tests showed the disc at a depth exceeding 100 feet.

Full story: www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/111329844.html

Lake Huron Fishing Club
P.O. Box 355
Southampton, Ontario N0H 2L0