Today a fine group of volunteers relocated 177 BIG Lake Trout to a local lake. The total weight of these fish was 1160 kilos and the average weight was 6.55 kilos - altho some of the fish I released had to be 15 or 16 pounds or more - they were huge!!! The fish were 15 years old and had been broodstock at the hatchery in Sault St Marie.
thank goodness there was a large group of us as it was hard work. The two guys from the hatchery were on top of the truck scooping out the fish into the nets that they would lower to the waiting volunteers who walked them over to the guys waiting on the docks to release them in deeper water. I had on my waders so I let them go just off the beach. Such a feeling seeing these huge fish free of the net and just catching their breath and then swimming off into the lake. A few of them lingered around for a time and we had to motivate them to leave. One was like a salmon swimming upstream the way he came dashing close to shore.
By the end of the release we were all slimed - Lake Trout are slimy fish and you couldn't help but get it all over you carrying the fish in the nets. But well worth it.
Ron is going to arrange a group tour of the hatchery in the Sault. It will be interesting to see where all the fish we release come from.
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