While kokanee can be found in areas where there aren’t any sockeye, in some lakes, kokanee will actually spawn in the same streams as sockeye. Habitat: Although sockeye spend time at sea and return to freshwater to spawn, kokanee spend their entire lives in freshwater. These sources include Norbury Creek, Deka Lake, Sulphurous Lake, and Osilinka River. The Society also maintains other reproductive sources to meet the need for eggs when adult returns are low. Harvesting occurs only after enough kokanee are on the spawning grounds to provide sufficient natural reproduction. Here in B.C., eggs are traditionally harvested at the spawning channel in Meadow Creek, which is located at the north end of Kootenay Lake. To create recreational and commercial fisheries, kokanee have been introduced widely across North America. Origin: Kokanee ( Oncorhynchus nerka) are the freshwater form of sockeye salmon. Wet or dry flies, spoons, spinners, and bait are all successful methods of targetting brook trout. Brook trout provide good angling during both the summer and winter months where lake water temperatures have made rainbow trout less active. However, a growing number of enthusiastic anglers target this aggressive striker. Their colour becomes more intense at spawning time, with males turning fiery orange-red on the belly.įishing: Brook trout are not as popular a sport fish in B.C. Anal, pelvic, and pectoral fins have white leading edges followed by black pigment and reddish colouration. Pale spots, and small discrete red spots surrounded by blue halos, are present along the sides of the body. Characteristic marble-like patterns are present on the head and back, with thick, black, wavy lines on the dorsal fin. Typically, they have olive-green to dark brown backs, with lighter colouring on the sides that becomes white on the bottom. In general, the eastern brook trout’s diet will adjust to whatever food is available.ĭescription: Eastern brook trout have a deep body, square tail, and a large head relative to the total body length. Older, larger brook trout may specialize in forage fish from open water or focus on nymphs, leeches, and adult aquatic insects from the lake-bottom. Juvenile fish typically feed on zooplankton and aquatic insects. They are not particularly fussy eaters, and will consume a broad range of organisms. In B.C., you’ll mostly find brook trout in lakes, but there are also some small populations in low-velocity streams and rivers. Habitat: While eastern brook trout prefer cool water, they can tolerate a wider range of water temperatures and higher acidities than other salmonids. Using broodstock that originated in Ontario, the Society stocks various water bodies with fish that are collected in a lake near Kamloops. Origin: Eastern brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis) are not native to freshwaters west of the Rockies. Recreational fishing has been strictly catch-and-release since 1994 on the Fraser and in the Thompson-Nicola region. Under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, four of these endangered populations are closed to all recreational fishing. These include the Lower Fraser, Middle Fraser, Upper Fraser, Kootenay, Upper Columbia, and Nechako populations. While white sturgeon have relatively poor eyesight, they have a highly developed sensory system to detect prey in large turbid rivers.įishing: There are six populations of white sturgeon in Canada. They have a long, cylindrical body, toothless mouth, large pectoral fins, a heterocercal tail (with upper and lower halves of different sizes), and armour-like, bony plates along the back and sides. Their appearance has remained largely unchanged over the last 175 million years. Like sharks and rays, sturgeon have cartilaginous, not bony, skeletons. Adult sturgeon eat fish, and are known for following a salmon run up the river.ĭescription: White sturgeon can grow up to six metres in length, and live over 100 years. Small sturgeon will often eat chironomids and aquatic invertebrates. Due to their poor eyesight, sturgeon use their barbels (whisker-like feelers) to locate prey. Habitat: Adult white sturgeon live in deep, fast waters and spend the majority of their time on the bottom of large rivers or lakes. After spawning, the parent fish are released unharmed back where they had been caught. Each spring, mature fish are caught and live-spawned, with the eggs fertilized from each female. The Society operates conservation hatchery programs to preserve populations, and bolster the numbers of juveniles. Origin: The white sturgeon ( Acipenser transmontanus) is the largest and longest-lived freshwater fish in B.C.
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