07 April 2011

Since the change of ownership, one of our priority was to identify the fishing potential of  the lakes in order to accomplish a better management of the resource. There was a old map  from the previous owner that we could have used, but it proved to be full of surprises and not quite up to date.

Pike was abundant everywhere, but brook trout was quite rare: only 3 lakes were known and accessible, one of them not very easily. It was necessary to find natural trout sources or lakes without pike or perch to allow the seeding of trout.

In order to do so, we asked and received an experimental permit in order to install a gillnet in order to identify the large fishes present. Other techniques were used to identify smaller fishes. As a result, during the last 3 years, many lakes have been explored and  probed; their oxygen concentration was measured. Some of them were situated deep in the territory, where no road or boat were presents.

Many encouraging findings were made: here a deep rocky lake with pike, there one with only white sucker, deep holes, cold water, abundant oxygen, perfect for trouts. The best is when we find an empty lake: without any type of other fish, even small ones, the trout that we can seed quickly become dominant in its water. 5 of them have been found until now. 4 of them were stocked with small trouts (3 inches long) of natural origin. In the first two, we created spawning grounds. Last autumn, the trouts were already 11-13 inches long and able to reproduce.

This coming spring, those two lakes will be open for fishing.  The first one, Lac à Luc #3 will be accessible after a 20 minutes walk, while the second one, Lac à l’Oeil, will be reachable with a SUV or a pick-up. In order to protect the newly established population, the quota will be fixed at 5 per person (as in our lakes with natural trout population).

In spring 2012,  two more lakes will be added to the previous ones. As they will only be accessible by foot, it will probably help to control the fishing pressure.

Finally, we also seeded larger trouts, ready to be fished the same year. These fish are more expensive, and may not adapt very well to the lake, and die. It is the reason why we are developing a better expertise in order to reach a better survival rate. In larger lakes, we also stock 3 inches long trout: as soon as the first year has passed, those trouts will be acclimated, and have good chances to live long, become large and make many fishers happy.

We now have 14 lakes seeded with quality trouts. Some are small and can be fished with a rowing boat, while other offer many area to explore. This type of lake allow a quota of 10 trouts per person. Whichever cabin you are at, there generally a lake containing brook trout nearby where you can go fishing. Generally, you will be the only people on the lake. This is what holidays at The Pourvoirie du Milieu are like!

As for Yellow Walleye, we have started to stock fry three years ago. Only lakes where Walleye has been present can be stocked with Walleye. Up until now, we haven’t heard from our fry. Those Walleye have to compete with Pike and Perch, two challenging competitors. Some of our seedings have been made on potential spawning area, and we hope that once adult, they will come back on this river gravel. So keep an eye open as it might be that in a few years, the Pourvoirie du Milieu will offer a lot more Walleye than now!

• Comments Off