The Muir Lake Project By Mike

An Aerial View of Muir Lake

Currently, communities far from natural trout waters visit local trout lakes for convenient fishing excursions. This and to ease pressure off of our native fisheries is the reason behind stocking lakes that were once void of any game fish. The idea of stocking thousands of small trout each spring into these local lakes, referred to as pothole lakes in northern of Alberta, is great for the "catch and keep" fisherperson with it's five trout per day possession limit. These regulations help in conservation strategies by deterring a lot of anglers from fishing our native fisheries that have restricted possession limits. These lakes can however discourage anglers wishing to fish for larger trout. With the amount of fishing pressure these lakes receive, it's hard to find trout that will actually grow to a trophy size before they are harvested by anglers. It's also hard to keep the smaller trout off your lure when their numbers are so abundant.

Now the Edmonton Trout Club, the Northern Lights Fly Tyers & Fishers, the Edmonton chapter of Trout Unlimited, and the Edmonton Old Timers Fishing Club have put together the Muir Lake Project. The project goals are to re-establish a trout fishery with exceptional angling opportunities, create a walk of fame honoring those who have enriched angling in Alberta and build an education center that connects anglers, trout, and simple life forms. They hope the project helps people understand the relationship between fish and their environment and how we need activists to ensure we can improve the quality of our fishing habitat in the future.

Muir Lake Rainbow - 1965, 6 lbs 4 oz - 22 in

The concept of a trophy trout lake has been the topic of discussion amongst Alberta anglers for quite sometime, especially in areas that are distant to natural trout habitat. Beaver Lake south of Rocky Mountain House was the first to experiment with catch restrictions and lake aeration producing some very large Rainbow trout. Beaver Lake was used as a model for the Muir Lake Project and Stephen Spencer (Stony Plain area fisheries biologist) suggested a more restrictive limit than Beaver due to Muir's proximity to Edmonton. Some of these restrictions will include:

- Anglers may keep only one fish over 50 cm per day

- Artificial lures only

- No fishing from November 1 to April 30

- A plan to have no gas motors (electric only)

Preparing to lay power lines at Muir Lake

The stocking of 14,300 11centimeter fish took place in May of 2003. These fish were Rainbow Trout and there may be plans to stock Brown Trout in the coming years. The committee hopes that, thanks to the founder's effect, the fish that survive the winter will reach 30-40cm by May of 2004 and then possibly a few may break the 50 cm mark by the following September. The rationale behind the regulations on Muir Lake is to create an enhanced fishery with a delayed harvest. The vision is to have high catch rates and the opportunity to keep a trophy. The 50-cm size limit may need to be revisited depending on growth rates, angling pressure, etc. There is anticipation of considerable angling pressure being so close to Edmonton.

The first major hurdle the committee faced was finding a suitable lake. Biologist Stephen Spencer required a lake that was a closed system, did not have any existing native sports fish and would not interfere with an existing trout fishery. The committee needed a lake that was relatively close to Edmonton, had public access, and would provide suitable habitat to grow trout. Searches led them to Muir Lake, which had a trout fishery in the 1960's and 70's but was very susceptible to winterkill. The lake was test netted during the summer of 2002 and there were no game fish found in the lake. Thanks to the well-known technology of aeration, Muir Lake became an ideal candidate for the project and gave them the opportunity to restore its trout fishery. Muir Lake has a surface area of 32 hectares (78 acres) and depths that range to 6m (20 ft). Most of the lake is less than 3.5m, (12 ft) deep, which is excellent for growing trout but makes the lake prone to winterkills. The narrowest part of the lake is quite shallow and proper aeration will require two aerator units. One will be located just south of the island and the second will be located on the northwest end of the lake.

Laying Electrical Cable

Installing the First Aerator

Success!

The other important elements of this project are the Walk Of Fame and Education Center. The Walk Of Fame honors those who have enriched angling in Alberta. Our province has a rich history of people and groups that have gone to great lengths to restore damaged fishing environments or to protect existing ones. Every angler in Alberta owes a debt of gratitude for this work. The project plans to repay this debt by recognizing these contributions and helping to ensure that the legacy continues. The Education Center will help anglers with understanding how trout fisheries rely on imitating the various organisms that live in and around the water. The project plans include building an interpretive area where people, young and old, can learn about the life cycles of these organisms and angling strategies used when imitating them.

The Muir Lake Project is a privately funded project using raised or donated money. If you would like to get involved with this project please feel free to contact Tim Doskoch via email: edmtrout@ecn.ab.ca