Quarry Lake

Quarry Lake, Canmore

Alberta Environment has been stocking Arctic Grayling in selected bodies of water in the Kananaskis area since 1985. They found that the fish were very popular with anglers. Typically anglers would have to travel hundreds of miles north in order to find a naturally occurring population of this species, and studies showed the fish were relatively easy to catch. Bear Pond and Big Iron lake were stocked with Grayling in 1985; they provided a catch rate of about two fish per hour. This rate was ten times higher than what the put-and-take Rainbow Trout fisheries were providing at the time.

Using a combination of angling and small-mesh-gill-nets, the Grayling from Quarry Lake are caught and then held for processing. Quarry Lake was chosen for this egg collection for several reasons. Since the lake contains a stocked population of Grayling, the collection of eggs and milt would not affect a wild population. Quarry Lake's proximity to Calgary also meant it was easier and less expensive to get staff, volunteers, and equipment to the site.

Volunteers angling for Grayling

Click on the picture to download a video clip of Arctic Grayling spawning in Quarry Lake. (2 MB mpeg file)

A Grayling Yearling from Quarry Lake

In addition to collecting the eggs and sperm, biologists take weight and length information from the captured fish. This indicates how fast the fish are growing and can help determine if the bodies of water are being over or under stocked. In this case; small (4''- 8'') Grayling were caught, indicating that successful reproduction has occurred in Quarry Lake. Grayling were last stocked in Quarry Lake in 1997; those fish are now about 14'' - 16'' long, and would have been spawning for the first time last year (at 3 years of age). Biologists expect that the Grayling in the pond will max out at 18'' - 19'', and live for about 10 years.

Click on the picture to view a slide show of how the sperm and eggs are collected. (The slide show is in a 'Shockwave' format, you can visit the Macromedia website to download this free plug-in, if it is not already installed on your machine).

A nice Quarry Lake Arctic Grayling.

The Grayling are restocked in Kananaskis about every four years in order to maintain the populations. Currently there are catch-and-release regulations and bait-bans in place to prevent over harvesting. In the future, the province may allow some harvesting of Grayling in these areas, likely fish over a specific size.