Last year we went in to Miramichi Lake with a group of tournament anglers to try and assist the Department of Natural Resources assess the Smallmouth population after an illegal introduction into the lake. It was a bit early when we went in and none of the anglers caught a fish with the exception of a 14? fish caught by one of the biologists. The following weekend I went back in by myself to have another look after a week of warm weather brought the water temperatures up. I teamed up with Shane who is a third year biology student who is working on this project for the summer. We hooked six bass and landed four of them. None were really big but they were all old enough to spawn. As it turns out, we had caught forty percent of the spawning age fish that were captured last year.
Fast forward to 2012 and I received a call from Fisheries and Oceans Canada asking me if I would make the trip into the lake one more time to see what I could catch. Once again I hauled the bass boat down the old dirt logging road to the lake. The water was a bit higher than last year due to all the rain we had been getting and sight fishing for spawning fish was not going to happen. I paired up with Shane again and we went at it again. This time around we did not catch any Bass.
The Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Miramichi Salmon Association continue to fund the clean up of the lake with gill nets, Fyke? nets and a double barrier net across the outlet stream. It would appear that they have achieved at least a measure of success in removing spawning age fish from the lake but it will take a few more years to make sure that they have eradicated them. Shame on the guy who put them in there in the first place and kudos to the two levels of government who stepped up to try and stop the spread into the Miramichi River.
Rick Greene
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