About The Program
During the initial stages of this program, biologists with LSMU (currently the Upper Great Lakes Management Unit) and the Science and Information section of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF) organized workshops to provide training for those anglers interested in collecting biological samples while recreational fishing. Training was necessary to ensure that the appropriate techniques were employed to provide valid and consistent information, and to reduce mortality as a result of increased handling.
In the spring of 1991, sampling for the Co-operative Angler Program began. By the end of the spring spawning period in 1993 over 3000 samples had been collected from 63 tributaries. The initial three years of the program involved a concerted effort to acquire substantial baseline information on the status of steelhead in as many tributaries as possible along the north shore of Lake Superior. The knowledge gained from information collected through this program guided the Ontario government to make fishing regulation changes in 1996 and in 1999, in efforts to enhance the condition of steelhead fisheries in Lake Superior's north shore tributaries.
Unsurprisingly, harvest restrictions that were put in place as a result of information gained through the Co-operative Angler program led to recovering stocks and increased angler satisfaction. In 1996, a two-fish catch and possession limit was put in place with a size restriction permitting 1 fish less than and 1 fish greater than 51 cm. In 1999, a one-fish catch and possession limit without a size restriction was put in place for most of the tributaries (excluding the Neebing and McIntyre Rivers) west of and including the Pic River, and a two-fish catch and possession limit without a size restriction was put in place for tributaries east of the Pic River. The vast majority of anglers that fish the western tributaries of Lake Superior's north shore now agree that a catch and possession limit of 1 from the previous catch and possession limit of 5 (prior to 1996) was a small price to pay for the notable increases in steelhead abundance.
In recent years, adequate numbers of steelhead scale samples have been collected from a few of the more popular angling rivers. The data collected through this program enables biologists to examine various fishery or population dynamics such as, the age and size structure, the repeat-spawning rate (i.e. the number of rainbow trout that have spawned more than once in their lifetime), the ratio of first-time spawners (i.e. "maiden" spawners) to repeat spawners, as well as life history strategies of each sampled fish. Steelhead Assessment Reports created using data collected from the Co-operative Angler Program dating back to 2008 are available for viewing on this website.
