Sport Fisheries 



HARKNESS LABORATORY 



The variety and long-term continuity of the fisheries research programme, 

 centered on Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Provincial Park, has resulted not only 

 in many practical management techniques, but also in the accumulation of an 

 excellent background knowledge of a large number of Park lakes and fishes. With 

 this knowledge available, it has been possible to initiate active research programmes 

 very quickly because it has been unnecessary to search for the experimental con- 

 ditions required. Thus, our programme dealing with lake trout, smallmouth bass 

 and brook trout have been based, initially at least, at the Harkness Laboratory. 

 (A history of the Harkness Laboratory, written by N. V. Martin in 1964 will be 

 issued in 1965.) 



CREEL CENSUS 



The unspectacular, routine, and frequently boring task of conducting a 

 thorough creel census on Lake Opeongo and some of the neighboring lakes 

 was continued in 1964, as it has been for more than 25 years. This continuous 

 record is envied by almost every other research organization on the continent. 

 Many organizations in fisheries, both research and management, undertake creel 

 census work for periods ranging from a week or two to several years, in order 

 to measure, in terms of fish to the angler, the results of a specific test. These 

 are good, but they would be better and more reliable if the specific tests were 

 imposed on a population of fish whose history is known. What is lacking in 

 these studies is a reasonable knowledge of what would have taken place in that 

 lake, in that year, in the absence of the test. This is the unspectacular but funda- 

 mental assist that we have slowly accumulated in Lake Opeongo. About 20 con- 

 secutive year classes of lake trout have now been measured as they made their 

 accumulating contributions to the angling fishery. We may not have recorded all 

 the range of natural variation that may occur, but feel confident that we have 

 measured a large portion of it. The Branch is now in a position to compare the 

 fishery in a test year or years, with the broad range of fishing conditions which 

 are normal. It is now better able to decide what part of the results are due to 

 an experiment, and what part is likely to be due to natural variation. A back- 

 ground of data provides the basis for reliable experiments in population manipula- 

 tion. If the research station at Lake Opeongo were to be closed, the 35 years of 

 accumulated data, essential to rapid progress in any research programme would 

 be lost, and it would be necessary to begin again. 



The Opeongo creel census has had many values as by-products. It has 

 provided the yardstick to which we compared what happened under the alternate 

 closure scheme of management, and now the two-year open — one-year closed 

 schedule for adjacent lake trout waters. It has provided our assessment of past 

 experimental stockings, which were failures, and will provide the assessment of the 

 "hard water vs. soft water" source lake trout stockings. It has provided samples 

 in the plankton vs. fish feeding lake trout study, and in almost every other lake 

 trout study that has been undertaken. It has provided similar data for bass and 

 some for splake and brook trout. Migration, fecundity, homing, feeding, parasi- 

 tology and other studies have been to a large measure, supported by the creel 

 census and by the fish, and pieces of fish it makes available. Creel census probably 

 represents, in an unspectacular way, the highest return for money spent. 



Creel census, though in itself a simple routine, must be carefully watched 



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