Aurora club helps establish pike fishery

Volunteers transferred pike from Lake Simcoe to nearby Fairy Lake.

Volunteers have spent 200 hours helping transfer pike from a club-run pike tournament on Lake Simcoe to nearby Fairy Lake with the approval and assistance of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Historically, pike could travel to Fairy Lake via the Holland River, a connected waterway. But dams and obstructions have deterred this natural movement.

Members of the Aurora Bassmasters have run this project for more than 10 years to sustain a small pike fishery on Fairy Lake, an urban fishery in Newmarket that hosts a club-run kids fishing event each summer. The removal of the pike also helps balance the fishery because the lake has many predatory fish, such as carp and suckers.

 

This article is part of the Fisheries Management segment of the larger report, 2011 Annual Achievements in B.A.S.S. Conservation.