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VOLUME 24 NO. 03 March 2005
REMINDER ABOUT MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL For those who have not paid their 2005 membership fees, you are in arrears and this is your last newsletter. Please send in your dues or see me at the March general meeting. Thanks John Ford, S S A Membership Chair 2005 Board of Directors and Committee Chairs
President's Corner (incoming) I would like to express my appreciation for the honour of being elected as your SSA President for the year 2005. I am looking forward to taking an active part and participating in the many activities and events for the coming year. I will be relying on the council and wisdom of our Executive and Committee Chairs in addition your support to assist me in my new duties. We truly have one of the premier conservation and outdoors sportsmen's clubs in Ontario, so lets all work together to continue this tradition and make 2005 a very enjoyable and productive year. On behalf of all the members of the Sydenham Sportsmen's Association, I would like to thank and offer our sincere appreciation to Blake Smith who has diligently guided our Club so expertly for the past two years. I would also like to thank all the 2004 Officers and Committee Chairs who have worked hard to maintain, and in some cases expanded the activities we are so proud of. Lastly please join me in extending a warm welcome to the newest members of the Executive committee and the Committee Chairs as I know they will carry on these great programs at there highest levels. Bill Douglas, President Fisheries Advisory Committee The following are highlights from reports done by the Upper Great Lakes Management, Lake Huron Office M.N.R. and Jeff Schaeffer of the U.S. Great Lakes Science Centre. Staff from the Lake Huron Office sampled fish at the Sept. 5th /04 Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular. The three main priorities were: 1 ] fin clip information 2] vertebrae samples from unclipped Chinook Salmon and 3] collection of heads from all salmonids with an adipose clip. A clipped adipose fin has been used to indicate the presence of a tiny coded wire tag in that fish. The information on these tags allows us to track the origins and age of the fish. In addition, all Chinook salmon stocked by the state of Michigan have been marked with the chemical marker oxytetracycline[OTC]. The Lake Huron staff collected information from a total of 904 fish, including 764 Chinook Salmon, 124 rainbow trout, 13 lake trout and 2 brown trout. Fish sampled with lamprey scars was 67 out of 905. The salmon and rainbow trout had scaring and /or wounding rates of 8.2% and 3.2% respectively. None of the lake trout or brown trout had lampray wounds or scars. Chinook salmon ranged in length from 500- 1003 mm with an average total length of 741 mm. Salmon with clipped fins were 21 out of 764. Weights ranged from 2.75 Ibs-20lbs with an average of 7.9 Ibs. Rainbow trout ranged in weight from 3.7-11.9 Ibs. The average was 6.4 Ibs. The number of clipped salmon was extremely low[2.7%] and seems to be indicative of a targe amount of natural reproduction. Many anglers at the derby remarked on the smaller size and relatively poor condition of Chinook salmon. This observation is thought to be related to a severe decline in the abundance of alewife which was documented by a recent trawl survey conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey[Jeff Schaeffer]. DNR fisheries biologist Jeff Schaeffer was shocked at the findings of a recent survey of prey fish in Lake Huron. There was almost a complete absence of alewifes. He attributes the crash to back-to-back losses of young of the year fish during the past two hard winters and heavy predation by game fish. Also, this years cold spring resulted in poor reproduction. The alewife decline has been evident in the salmon catch. Despite the glom my pictures on alewifes,Schaeffer said that overall the prey availability in the lake is probably not as dire as we thought in the spring. Thats because other prey species like rainbow smelt and bloater chubs are increasing however , he does not think that the smelt will replace the alewifes in the short term. There are a lot of them out there,but there small so they won,t replace the alewife bio-mass. What that means to salmon anglers is that the fish are likely to remain on the small side, at least in the immediate future. Other changes in the lake are positive. More young of the year native lake trout were caught in the sampling trawl nets this past fall than in the previous 30 years combined. This was the first time in many ,many years that they saw lake trout .reproduction in the main basin of the lake. Also round -gobie numbers are down. While the salmon has taken a hit in the size of fish, being caught, there has been an increase in perch and walleye populations in recent years in Lake Huron. This represents a transition rather than a total collapse. Schaeffer thinks we will have good fishing in Lake Huron, just not all chinook. Mike Prevost F .A.C. Chairman NATIVE AFFAIRS At the recent OFAH conference, the Minister of Natural Resources answered a direct question about the threat of native gill-nets in Owen Sound and Colpoys Bay. He stated flatly that "the bays would be protected" whatever that means. We hope that the Minister's statement is more than a political answer, and that our interests will indeed be protected. Nothing has been signed yet and we may or may not be alright. We, and the OFAH head office staff, have devoted a tremendous amount of time and effort to this outstanding issue. This subject will take "up much of the business at our next OFAH Zone H meeting, to be held at the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen's Association headquarters on Sunday, May 13th, starting at 9:00 a.m. Every member of the SSA, as paid up members of the OFAH, is invited to attend don't just bitch about the problem come along and be part of the solution. 'I'll be looking for you. Blake Smith, Chairman, Native Affairs . FORESTS & WILDLIFE One of the big wildlife news items at the recent OFAH conference was the announcement from MNR Minister Ramsey that there would be Sunday hunting permitted in southern Ontario. This will be a real gift for working people and students who are unable to hunt from Monday through Friday. Now, to really make this work, we will need a further extension on deer seasons to include Sundays in order to take advantage of this. The Minister did state that he was committed to enhancing hunting opportunities and further, that hunters were an integral part of his ministry's management strategy in attempts to control problem wildlife. A speaker from the Canadian Wildlife Service gave an excellent talk to the OFAH convention attendees regarding Canada goose management. He had some very interesting comments. Not often, but periodically, we see tiny Canada geese that are just a little bit larger than mallard ducks. These little geese are Hutchinson's and cackling geese from the west. He said that the ornithologists had split these small geese off from the many other races of Canada geese, and that they would be granted separate species status. More on this later to dispel any confusion. We have had a problem here with the Canada goose limit being restricted to three birds per day only during the second part of our fall season. The CWS speaker reiterated that the small limit was in place in order to protect the threatened James Bay race that migrates through our area at the time in question. Therein lies the problem how do you minimize the take of James Bay birds while trying to increase the take of the locally-bred giant Canadas that are considered by many to be a nuisance and a very expensive nuisance to municipalities and farmers. In a later conversation, the speaker said that more detailed information needs to be gathered to see if; an increase to five birds per day would or would not hurt the James Bay flock. He will look into this and our club and the OFAH wetlands and waterfowl committee will keep pushing for answers. Blake Smith, Chairman, Forests and Wildlife Committee.
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© 2001, Sydenham Sportsmen's Association |
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