SHEGUIANDAH—The Little Current Fish and Game Club (LCFGC) had another successful week of tours from Grade 4 classes from across the Island last week as students had the chance to learn about the lifecycle of the walleye and of fish conservation.
Almost 100 students from Little Current Public School, Assiginack Public School, Central Manitoulin Public School, Lakeview School and new, this year, Charles C. McLean Public School toured the Bass Lake Creek Walleye Hatchery over four days. Students from Wiikwemkoong’s Pontiac School were also scheduled to come but had to cancel their annual trip.
The educational tour sees the students get up close and personal with different species of fish live-trapped in a hoop net before their visit and learn about the massive amount of eggs that come from one female walleye. If that walleye is harvested before the female lays her eggs, that’s hundreds of thousands of potential fish that will not be born and repopulate Manitoulin’s waters.
The students got to see the hatchery in action with LCFGC President Bill Strain, learn about the native fish and wildlife of Manitoulin with Gary Green, build a bass nest with Manitoulin Streams’ Seija Deschenes, tour Bass Creek and see rainbow trout and walleye in their annual spawn, have a visit with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s Conservation Officer Iain McGale and learn all about the tiny invertebrates found in our waterways.
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- Little Current Fish and Game Club President Bill Strain explains how a hoop net livetraps fish.
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- Bill Strain shows a group of Grade 4 students how the Bass Lake Creek walleye hatchery works, all thanks to the hard work of volunteers.
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- Grade 4 students release a walleye back into Sheguiandah Bay.
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- Grade 4 students from Assiginack Public School and Central Manitoulin Public School work together to hoist walleye high during the annual schools’ visit to the Bass Lake Creek walleye hatchery. – photos by Alicia McCutcheon
At the end of each tour, the LCFGC gifts each student with a high-end rod and reel, encouraging them to get out and fishing while being good stewards of the land with their newfound knowledge.
Mr. Strain told The Expositor that this has been a poor year in terms of capturing spawning females for the fish hatchery. Of approximately 50 fish captures in hoop nets, only four were female and only two of those females had eggs.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the late year,” Mr. Strain said. “Perhaps they spawned out on the shoals.”
The club has a little less than three litres of fertilized eggs this year. Normally that figure would be around 15 litres.
