Alberta's ‘Pothole’ Trout Fisheries

Abstract
Scattered across the prairies and foothills of Alberta lie a series of warm, shallow, rich lakes and reservoirs that vary in size from 15 to 100 acres. These “potholes” are distinguished from the larger lakes of the province by their lack of inlets and outlets. Some contain northern pike and yellow perch; others have small cyprinids only, or cyprinids and sticklebacks; one contains yellow perch and sticklebacks. The potholes without northern pike, when stocked in the spring with fry or fingerlings of rainbow trout, provide fishing for 13‐ to 16‐ounce fish by fall and for two to three pound fish by the second summer. From the first two stockings it is estimated that anglers recover roughly one‐fifth of the total number and some sixty times the total weight of fish stocked. In the spring and fall the anglers catch about one fish per hour; during July to mid‐September angling is poor and from 12 to 20 hours are required to catch one fish. This poor fishing is attributed to warm surface waters and low oxygen concentrations in deeper waters. Trout fry or fingerlings stocked in third and subsequent years grow poorly and survive in small numbers. This is believed to be due to competition with the population established by the first two stockings. The management problems are discussed and it is concluded that poisoning the whole population every three or four years and beginning again is the best procedure.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: