The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, in partnership with Nipissing First Nation and Dokis First Nation, started a fisheries assessment in Lake Nipissing on Sunday, October 2, 2016.
This annual project, now in its 19th year, will collect important information that will contribute to the management of walleye in Lake Nipissing. Standardized nets are set for 24 hours in randomly chosen locations. Nets will be identified with orange and white buoys labelled 'MNRF'. Boaters should avoid travelling between these buoys.
Fish will be sampled for length, weight, sex, maturity, and age. The data collected from this and other research provide information to guide fisheries management on the lake.
Few fisheries have been studied as long or as intensively as the Lake Nipissing walleye fishery, says the release.
The walleye population in Lake Nipissing is in serious decline with the current population dominated by young fish.
The assessment comes on the heels of the Nipissing First Nation's request to the MNRF to ban ice fishing of walleye on the lake this winter due to the declining population.
See that story here: https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/stakeholders-fear-ice-fishing-will-disappear-on-lake-nipissing-412943
