Chandos Fish Count Survey 2025

Posted bychandossierPosted inUncategorizedTags:, ,

Hi folks,

We are going to carry out another Fish Count Survey this summer. 

Please click here to see more info.

The survey will be conducted from Thursday July 31 to Thursday Aug 7,2025.  One of our aims this time around is to start focusing more on the species caught.

More promotion will occur in the coming days, but please talk it up with your fisher friends.

The situation with Lake Trout is becoming a concern. 

Consider the following points:

  1. Chandos is currently a winter sanctuary lake for Lake Trout, meaning that ice fishing is not allowed.  Trout like cold oxygenated water and in the summer they are thus found at depth.  Chandos is deep (and therefore cold) and fairly well oxygenated at depth throughout the summer.  In winter months, however, Trout can find these conditions closer to the surface, just below the ice, and tend to go there looking for food.
  2. Currently the MNRF’s Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) is in draft, but it proposes to remove all winter sanctuaries in Zone 15 (our zone) likely in 2026.  Regrettably, ice fishing may result in over harvesting of Lake Trout, whose survival is already threatened by climate change.
  3. During our survey from 2024, of the 79 fish reported only 2 were Lake Trout.  Now, there may be many reasons for this but I suspect this is partly due to the fact that being successful with trout requires a lot more skill and perhaps better equipment.  They are not going to be caught off the dock, as in the summer they only frequent the deeper and colder waters.
  4. Climate change is resulting in fewer weeks of ice cover and warmer summer waters.  Also less oxygen at depth later in the summer. These trends favor Bass and Pike, and disfavor Lake Trout.   Lake Trout are being outcompeted, and a tipping point may well be reached wherein they cannot sustain their population.  Warm water fish feed upon the Trouts’ eggs and juveniles.  The 2024 survey indicates that 83% of the fish reported were Bass and Pike.

I am wondering if we should launch a separate Lake Trout monitoring program that runs all year around.  Getting participation is likely a huge obstacle, but we really need hard data to sense whether their numbers are in decline.  Anyway, your thoughts on this matter are solicited.