45,000 new lake trout for Red Lake

Josie Slavich, 5, lets a couple lake trout go off Black Bear Lodge's dock while mom Jillian gets a photo and biologist Lori Stitt makes sure she doesn't do a header off the dock. Guests at Black Bear pitched in to help bring pails of fingerlings from the hatchery truck to the MNR release boats.

Biologist Toby Braithewaite transfers lake trout from hatchery truck to pails

Bow Narrows worker Brad Donovan helps transfer trout to the MNR boat. That's Myles Perchuk and Lori Stitt operating the boat.

The Ministry of Natural Resources released the first half of 45,000 lake trout into the west end of Red Lake Monday night by accessing the lake through Black Bear Lodge. It is the first time since the MNR began restocking Red Lake with trout that the fish have been released at the west end of the lake. The remainder of this year's trout fingerlings will be taken through Black Bear next week.
Black Bear Lodge is about four miles east of Bow Narrows Camp and is located just off the Potato Island basin, between Wolf Narrows and West Narrows. This is one of the historically-best areas for lake trout. Black Bear Lodge is accessible via a logging road.
The MNR has been gathering eggs from lake trout in Pipestone Bay each fall for about 10 years. The eggs are raised at the MNR's Dorion Fish Hatchery, east of Thunder Bay, and the fingerlings released back to Red Lake 18 months later. Until now the fish have been released at the east end of Red Lake, sometimes by boat but also through the ice in late spring.
Click to go back to our website
 Click to see the latest on the blog