Rebecca Eberts, a fisheries biologist for the Preeceville area gave a presentation at the Preeceville Wildlife Club Annual General Meeting at the Preeceville Community Hall on January 5
“The presentation showed charts on why we need to work together now to protect our trout fishing at Lady Lake Regional Park,” stated Heather Gawrelitza, Preeceville Wildlife club secretary.
"Lady Lake is home to rainbow, tiger, and brown trout and we want to keep this lake a great place for trout fishing,” said Eberts. "There has been an introduction of perch and white suckers to the lake and there is no possible way for them to get in on their own. The thoughts are that people are releasing other species of fish into the lake which is causing a problem for the trout populations and it is also illegal," she said.
The lake is tested every two years and the charts show a major increase in suckers and much lower trout populations for the years of 2011 to 2015.
“Thanks to local fisherman we are able to compare the sizes of fish being caught and the trout are much smaller in size compared to other lakes,” stated Eberts. “We need to get this problem under control and we are looking into not running the aeration at Lady Lake this year in order to do a winter kill and we may need to do it next year as well, depending if the winter stays milder. We hope this works and we can make this lake a great place to fish for trout again,” she concluded.
