May 18, 2025
Steve during our 2025 AGM spoke about bass spawning sanctuaries and inclusion of Troy lake in the study.
Dr. Dave Philipp from the Fisheries Conservation Foundation (FCF) from Chicago is the key researcher along with team members from Carleton University.
They have been observing bass spawning areas in Lake Opinicon and Charleston Lake for the past few years. They got approval to designate on a short term basis bass spawning sanctuaries to observe success rates versus other areas in the same lakes.
The current sanctuaries in Opinicon and Charleston Lakes cover roughly 8% of the surface water and 10% of the shoreline. In Charleston it is approximately 3% of the surface and 5% of the shoreline. The sanctuary season runs from April 15 until the first Friday of July (2 weeks after Bass Season opening). This is to prevent any fishing that might disturb nesting bass or remove the male bass from guarding his nest for even as short as 5 minutes on a catch and release. Dr. Philipp’s studies have shown that removing a male bass from his nest for as little as five minutes can result in the male abandoning his nest causing the loss of the entire nest when other fish enter and eat the fry.
In the 90’s, the success rate of bass nests was around 65%. Today in Opinicon Lake it has fallen to15% and across all the lakes in our coalition, about 20% on average. The documented success rate of nests in the Bass Spawning Sanctuaries in Opinicon and Charleston Lake is 85%! In conjunction with developing the expanded BSS program, one of the large lake associations (RLEF) will work with Dr. Philipp to develop a comprehensive documentation package to share with the Provincial Government to encourage such establishment of more BSSs in lakes of the region, as well as the potential to adjust the opening date of Bass Season to minimize the issues associated with removing male bass from a nest. Dr Phillip plans to snorkel a few areas in Troy Lake to compare our small shallow lake with bass spawning behavior in the larger lakes in the area.
For more information See: Bass Spawning Assessment