Salvaged pike from the Sturgeon River have helped bring new life to a distant lake.
Local fish enthusiasts report this week that a 2006 experiment involving pike from the Sturgeon River has helped turn Cow Lake back into a prime fishing hole.
St. Albert’s Robert Harnish says he and his grandson Benjamin Durie both snagged pike that were about a foot long in mid-February at the lake — a feat that would have been impossible just a few years ago. “I got talking to the guys coming off the lake and they said they were catching some nice northern pike, and thought, ‘Well, gosh, the fish from St. Albert are doing all right!’”
Harnish is referring to an unusual experiment involving the Sturgeon River in 2006, says Rocky Konynenbelt, a provincial fisheries technician in Rocky Mountain House. Cow Lake was a popular rainbow trout lake up until the 1980s when someone illegally dumped perch into it. The invasive perch helped exterminate the trout and threatened to overcrowd the lake.
Meanwhile, over in the Sturgeon, fisheries technician Daryl Watters was hauling northern pike out of the river to save them from winterkill, moving them to places like Devil’s Lake and the North Saskatchewan River.
The province wanted to bring northern pike to Cow Lake to eat the perch, Konynenbelt says. (Pike are native to the region, but there weren’t any in the lake for some reason.) The Sturgeon was the closest place with surplus pike that was within the same watershed, so he and Watters shipped 300 of them around 100 kilometres south to Cow Lake. “Since then, we know they’ve spawned successfully.”
The project appears to have been a success, Konynenbelt says. Recent surveys have found baby pike in the 20-centimetre range, suggesting that the 2006 pike have reproduced. Anglers have reported “very chunky” catches of up to a meter long, suggesting that they’re well fed on perch. Perch numbers are also down.
Konynenbelt says he plans to do a more formal study of the lake next year, but expects it will soon become a good place for pike. “It certainly will become a draw.” Perch fans can expect bigger fish too, he adds, as they become less crowded.
Harnish says he’s glad to see that the fish are still alive. It will be a long time before they reach trophy size, he says, “but for now the moment I had with my grandson yelling, ‘Grandpa — I got one!’ is the best trophy I could ask for.”
Anyone who wants to speak out about the proposed Heartland power line will have a chance to find out how at information sessions this week.
The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) is holding six information sessions this month to show people how to participate in the upcoming public hearing for the Heartland transmission project, two of which are in Sturgeon County. That project, which involves building a 500-kilovolt double-circuit power line is set to go to an AUC approval hearing this spring.
There’s a lot of public interest in this project, says AUC spokesperson Jim Law, and the commission wants to make sure people know how to make their concerns heard. These sessions are meant to explain how the often complex hearing process works and how people can get involved in it.
Bruce Johnson, president of Responsible Electricity Transmission for Albertans, encouraged anyone concerned about the lines to attend one of these sessions. “It’s your livelihood, your health and your safety.”
The commission has planned sessions at Morinville’s St. Jean Baptiste Hall on March 18 and at the Bon Accord Community hall on March 24. Both are at 7 p.m. Details on the other sessions are available at www.auc.ab.ca.
