As you look through piles of fishing camp brochures, all with the same claims of "Trophy Pike" and "Big Walleyes", it is difficult to decide which claims were more accurate ten years ago, which are completely false, and which are just slightly exaggerated. Fortunately, there are ways to sort fact from fiction and evaluate the Trophy Potential of a given body of water before you put down your deposit. To reach trophy proportions on the Canadian shield, fish need to do two things; live long and eat well.

Though that statement seems obvious and simplistic, most anglers visiting Canada don't realize how difficult that task can be in most lakes and rivers. The two most important factors that separate marginal water from trophy water are the Size of that body of water and Fishing Pressure. With only a small amount of information about an unfamiliar lake, you can quickly make an informed opinion about the relative trophy potential of that body of water.

"Big Fish Don't Live in Small Ponds"

Granted, you will occasionally find the odd bunker living in a smaller body of water, but a consistent Canadian Trophy Fishery will always be found on a larger body of water. Specifically, the diversity of habitat and abundance and diversity of forage associated with large bodies of water are the key factors that result in large numbers of big gamefish. To reproduce, grow, and thrive, both walleyes and northern pike require a diversity of habitat with preferences for different types as the seasons change. In early spring, warm marshes and rivers serve as spawning areas for pike and walleyes. During early summer, large fertile, weedy bays become nursery areas for juvenile gamefish and feeding grounds for adult gamefish. And during the summer and winter months, main lake deep water basins provide a thermal refuge and support the all important pelagic forage base.

The bigger a lake or reservoir, the more likely it is that it will provide all of the habitat that a population of pike and walleye require to reach their full potential size. If any one of the three types of habitat is missing from a body of water, the chances of a visiting angler catching the fish of a lifetime is close to zero.
Northerns and Walleyes are both opportunistic feeders and will dine on many different types of forage depending on local availability. A stable Canadian Shield trophy fishery is based on an aquatic ecosystem that can provide many different options a well as an abundance of the most preferred and nutritious forage species.

For many years, fisherman visiting Canada were puzzled as to why some lakes were packed with small walleyes and virtually no big fish when another nearby body of water, sometimes even connected, consistently produced a good mix of small and big fish. The reason for the difference in size structures can be explained by the presence of a freshwater member of the Herring family. Biologists have determined that the key forage specie required to consistently produce big walleyes on the Canadian shield is the Ciscoe. This high fat content, pelagic forage fish is the "Big Mac and hot fudge sundae" of the walleye diet. Without them, walleyes have a difficulty time exceeding the 3 lb. mark, regardless of how long they live. Ciscoes cannot survive when exposed to water temperature exceeding 70 degrees F. for prolonged periods of time. This means that they require cool deep water thermal refuges that are found only in larger, deeper bodies of water. Again, there are exceptions to every rule, but when you are looking for consistent catches of big walleyes, big water is better than small.

Pike are less dependent on a single species to attain maximum size, but do have a specific problem in Summer. Like ciscoes, the largest members of the pike population can't take the heat. As the big females get larger, their surface area to volume ratio decreases dramatically and it becomes difficult for them to rid their bodies of excess heat. When the shallows warm into the 70's, the big females seek refuge in the cooler depths of the main lake. Without an available deep water thermal refuge, you will not find big pike. During the Summer months big pike must rely on forage that is in or near deep water. On Lake St. Joe, we find that the abundant whitefish. ciscoe, and eelpout are the mainstay of the big fish diet during warm water months. Without the abundance and diversity of these forage fish, it is unlikely that big pike would survive let alone thrive.

Lake St. Joe is 92 miles long, has a surface area of over 150,000 acres, contains hundreds of bays and islands, is fed by a dozen rivers and countless streams, and has several large and distinct main-lake, deep-water basins. Spottail shiners, yellow perch, eelpout, white suckers, shorthead redhorse, mayfly larvae, and juvenile gamefish make up a large part of Lake St. Joe's forage base, but the stars are the inhabitants of the main lake basins, the ciscoes and whitefish. The immense size and diversity of habitat found on Lake St. Joseph, not only supports a large and diverse forage base, but it also satisfies all of the requirements of a trophy fishery.

"Fishing Pressure"

Even the most stable and prolific Trophy Fishery is no match for man. An ecosystem that evolved for thousands of years can be devastated in the blink of an eye by thoughtless or careless fisherman. After the biggest fish have been systematically removed from the ecosystem, it takes several generations of careful management to even hopefully return a system to something close to what existed before the first lure was cast into the water. Compounding the problem is the fact that as you travel further and further North, the growing season becomes shorter, it takes longer for a fish to grow to trophy size, and the ecosystems become increasingly fragile. A fishing resort operating in the far North boasting of a Trophy Fishery will certainly not have one for long unless they aggressively conserve all of the big fish that they catch.

This information is not new. Unfortunately, the nature of the business caused hundreds of excelent fisheries to be seriously depleted, especially those that were closer to civilization. Historically, if a conscientious camp operator decided to enforce camp rules restricting the size and number of big fish that could be taken to preserve the fishery, he would effectively cut the throat of the business. His customers would turn to his competitor across the lake who allowed uneducated fisherman to catch and kill as they pleased, and the competition would then reap the financial windfall of increased volume. The irony is that the practice of unrestricted catch and kill policies of the biggest fish in the system resulted in the demise of the fishery and the eventual failure of the camp. A vicious "slash and burn" cycle then perpetuated itself to make the business profitable. The "successful" operator set up camp on a body of water, fished it hard, depleted the fishery, and then moved on to the next one, pushing further and further North.

Thankfully, a new generation of anglers, provincial fisheries resource managers, and camp operators evolved who understood that the future health of Trophy Fisheries and angling tourism were intrinsically tied to conservation and careful catch-and release of the biggest fish. Today, the informed fisherman is looking for a chance to catch a trophy, won't even consider a trip to a Canadian camp unless they strongly promote catch and release. The introduction of fiberglass replica reproductions has further fueled the trend to release big fish alive. For the same price as a traditional skin mount, today's hunter can not only have the mount for his wall, but he also had the added value of knowing that the fish was released alive to possibly be caught again or to at least pass on its successful genes to the next generation.

The future of exiting Trophy Pike Fisheries now appears much brighter than it did only 10 years ago. For the most part, anglers in search of trophy pike still have a price to pay for the actions of fisherman in the past and that price is in dollars. The large lakes with trophy potential that weren't affected historically by fishing pressure are for the most part quite remote. The transportation cost is transferred to the customer as well as the cost of limiting the volume customers. The result is a fishing trip that costs into the thousands of dollars for a single angler.

There are some exceptions and one of those is The Old Post & Village on Lake St. Joe. Five years ago, Lake St. Joe became the first and only aquatic ecosystem in Ontario to be managed by a unique agreement designed to maintain a superb naturally existing fishery. "The Lake St. Joe Accord" is a cooperative fisheries management agreement involving the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Fishing camps on Lake St. Joe. The goal is to preserve the existing, trophy fishery by limiting the number of anglers and enforcing size restrictions. At the Old Post & Village, we are proud of the fact that we have led the effort to minimize fishing pressure on Lake St. Joe and unlike other resorts, we are not trying to rebuild a depleted fishery, but instead are preserving the excellent fishery we already enjoy. Because of "The Lake St. Joe Accord" and our dedication to conservation we plan to continue to provide "fly-in quality" Trophy Fishing at a Drive-in price.

As you sort through that mountain of brochures, take note of the faded dockside photographs of dead trophy fish, pay less attention to the "claims of 20 lb. pike and 8 lb. walleyes" and more to the camp's conservation policy, and keep in mind that big fish don't live in little ponds. "The Lake St. Joe difference" can be described in print, but to fully appreciate it, you have to fish it. Once you do, I'm confident you'll become one more of our guests that return year after year.

Mike Willems, aquatic Biologist