I don’t know how many times I’ve found myself bumping my way along some back road, missing one pothole just so that I could hit another, as I made my way into some new fishing hole. You know the type of roads where you invariably hit a bump and have everything stashed in your visor fall into your lap.
It would seem that a lot of the really good fishing spots in the Southern Interior are accessible only by such roads. But then again, that’s all a part of fishing.
On the other hand, there are more than 800 lakes in this province that are stocked each year with trout fry and fingerlings, part of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC’s efforts to improve accessible recreational fishing opportunities. The FFSBC is responsible for stocking some eight million fish in lakes and streams throughout the province. (Approximately 53 per cent of Freshwater Angling Licence revenues goes towards fish stocking programs.) The FFSBC operates five hatcheries and up to 10 field stations in B.C., as well as a number of egg collection stations at various lakes and streams where, for two to four weeks every spring and fall, traps are set to capture wild trout (as they head out to spawn) in order to attain brood stock from which eggs are collected.
All of these facts have, upon occasion, brought to mind the question of just how the FFSBC gets all those little fry into some of the more inaccessible lakes – you know, the really good ones that are full of hungry, gullible 16- to 24-inch rainbow trout. I only had to visit the FFSBC website to learn how when designated lakes are not easily accessible by road, the fish are released by air. Each year, approximately 200 lakes in our province are stocked with fish by helicopter. A 100-foot long cable is hung below the helicopter with a “fry mover” container dangling at the end. The pilot controls the release of the fish with an electronic switch, and the fry are dropped about 20 feet above the water’s surface.
While on the FFSBC website, I also learned that a number of fish population recovery initiatives are being planned and/or implemented by the FFSBC for specific fish species to prevent extinction in the short-term, and to rebuild these fish populations over the longer term. In some cases, changes to the regulations and/or fish habitat restoration and protection act is all that would be required to ensure the recovery of some fish populations, especially where numbers are extremely low or no natural reproduction is occurring. Where fish populations face more immediate danger of extinction, more intensive measures may be required including conservation fish culture methods and a more tailored restocking program. (Conservation fish culture differs from more traditional fish culture in that the goal is to preserve genetic integrity and aid in rebuilding native populations, rather than augmenting existing fish populations or simply providing angling opportunities.)
The problem is that one can also go into the BC Ministry of Environment’s website (www.env.gov.bc.ca) and see where a number of pending legislative proposals appear on one hand to place an emphasis on fish and fish habitat protection, all the while effectively catering to the whims and wishes of the oil and gas industry, will effectively place an ever greater amount of pressure on our province’s water resources, not to mention the fish that swim in those waters.
Any way you look at it, I am inclined to think the proverbial road ahead for our provinces fish stocks would appear to be a relatively bumpy one and full of potholes.
