Whitey/Lakers stocks?, Any idea if population has grown?

[iceicewalker]

The one perspective my brother and I have discussed is that the stocks of Lakers and Whiteys would have had an easy year last year and again we are thinking this year is looking that way. Are there any OFFICIAL estimates of population as of last years lack of harvesting? Or the lack of harvest's impact on the prey species of fish like smelt and herring? Two short ice seasons must be helping the predator stocks.

[Bayliner]

Interesting point you have there iceicewalker. With the lack of hard water last season, I was hoping for success on the soft water this year, as a lot of others were. Went out opening day with Admin, Nsfisher and we fished for nearly 13 hours. We marked tons in the grounds around structure, went upwind and anchored over that spot many times and they were gone. Other than a few dink perch, we were skunked. My boat is a gas pig, thus, I never went back. Not many good reports for the season either.

I'd sure like to know what's going on down there.

[nsfisher]

That was the most enjoyable day I had on the water in years even though we did get skunked. John is correct, we marked tons of fish until we dropped anchor then they hid better than Bin Laddin
Although I have yet to catch one, it is my opinion that Simcoe has so much fishing pressure the whities scram at the 1st sign of anything strange. In winter you can be a bit more stealthy and therefore catch them easier. (Or some can) only my theory so please don't go to town on me. I do think the population should be slightly increased over last year due to the poor ice season.

[Trapline]

How many lake trout and white fish do they stock in simcoe and how often do they do it?

[ThorahGuy]

Lake Trout and Whitefish are stocked annually. It varies some from year to year. In recent years I seem to recall approx 100,000 Whitefish and approx 120,000 Lake Trout were stocked. There is talk of cutting back on the Lake Trout number because of evidence of natural recruitment, not sure where that stands at the moment. All of this is from the fog of that thing called my memory.

[fishermandan]

last numbers i heard were around 50 000 lakers and 120 000 whities a year

[walleyewarrior]

http://www.web2.mnr.gov.on.ca/fish_online/...xplorer_en.html


they showed me this website when i was taking fish and wildlife in school.
shows most sticking. for some reason lakers isn't coming up for me in Simcoe, they used to. but it says around 150,000 whiteys a year. i believe lakers is around the same number.

[fishermandan]

link1





link2

[ThorahGuy]

Thanks for all those links guys. I have also emailed a contact of mine at the MNR asking several questions, both general and specific. I will post any response once received.

[backwoodsmanbob]

Although fishing was slow and I was in move mode, we did have a reasonably successful spring for whities but not lakers. The season was not like years gone by, but I would like to know why they are not schooling. We would mark a few fish here and there and then have to go looking for them again. Also they are not in traditional locations.

[fishermandan]

last ice last year i marked some of the biggest schools of whities ive ever seen.i had fish under my boat for 4 hours when i took my boat out last march

[ThorahGuy]

Just received the following from Wil Wegman at The MNR. Besides asking him about stocking and populations I had also asked if the results were available yet from last years netting which I had observed at a number of locations.

"So both lake trout, whitefish and even cisco are reproducing on Simcoe. For the last 3 or 4 years, MNR has reduced stocking efforts for lakers from 100,000 annually to 50,000. This move was done to allow the wild population to take off. Whitefish are still stocked at the same rate as always- 140,000 per year. They are reproducing as well... Cisco have basically two successful year classes- 2004 and 2008. They have a closed season though until more of a trend in natural reproduction begins to show.

That netting was likely the annual summer index netting done by MNR’s Lake Simcoe Fisheries Assessment Unit. Results can take a couple of years before they are published so I don’t think they are available yet."