With this year's angling season for the Red Deer River starting May 16, the Dickson Fish & Game Association is adding one more year to its survey of recreational use on the Red Deer, an initiative that continues its mandate of protecting the region's fish and wildlife habitat.
Kelsey Kure, secretary and past president of the association, said the importance of his group's mandate to the region was proven last month in Spruce View when 375 supporters attended the 64th annual Fish and Fry fundraiser.
More than $10,000 was raised through a silent and live auction.
He said a large portion of these monies will go towards continuing the association's many projects, including the Red Deer River Angler Survey, a partnership with the Red Deer Fish & Game Association and the Drumheller and District Fish and Game Association.
Kure said the survey was originally established as a one-year project that was supposed to be wrapped up in 2013 but was extended into 2014 due to last year's devastating floods.
“That is why we want to repeat it (survey). We couldn't get as many anglers to contribute because for three months you couldn't fish the river,” said Kure, adding angler participation in the survey is crucial to its success.
He said the survey is gathering background information on angler use – including numbers of fish caught and length of time angling - on the Red Deer River from Dickson Dam to Tolman, which is straight east of Trochu.
He said data collected from the survey will contribute to the current Red Deer River Fisheries Management Plan that is being developed by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.
“They are rewriting the management plan for that section of the river,” said Kure, adding the rewrite will ultimately see regulation changes for anglers. “We have members on the committee that is writing that.”
The current management plan for this section of the Red Deer River has not been updated for 20 years, and the current rewrite is mandated to ensure the long-term health of the river and to sustain the area's populations of brown trout, goldeye, lake whitefish, mooneye, mountain whitefish, northern pike, sauger and walleye.
Kure said directly below the Dickson Dam there are healthy populations of brown trout throughout most of the way to the Red Deer city limits, with favourable stocks of goldeye, walleye and pike down in the Tolman area.
Although the survey is only half completed, Kure is encouraged by preliminary findings that show the Red Deer River's health is good.
“Based on our current results, in the catch per unit effort, if you fish for an hour you would have probably caught 1.1 fish,” said Kure. “The 1.1 per hour (result) is a pretty good catch unit for some systems.”
For more information on the association's ongoing work in promoting regional fish and wildlife habitat see the group's video, Dickson Dam Site #7 Habitat Project on YouTube.
