Lakes Enhancement And Aeration

Lake selection is a huge part of an angler's success. We continually find ourselves asking other angler's where they are catching trout, perch and every other sport fish. What we are actually asking is… "Does this lake deserve some attention?" I seek out new fishing places all the time and what I'm personally looking for is HUGE TROUT. Now what qualifies as "huge" will depend on where you live. In the Edmonton area, a large or “huge” trout would be ANY TROUT over 20 inches. 

Before we start talking about specific lakes let's look at what is being done to enhance lakes in Alberta. In the last 10 years there has been a trend towards sustaining lakes that were previously susceptible to winter and/or summer kill problems. These shallow lakes are incredible at producing HUGE INSECT populations and thus producing large trout in a very short time frame. By allowing fish the opportunity to feed and grow in seasons that would normally see fish populations killed off, you can now go and catch some real lunkers.  An even newer trend in Alberta is regulation changes specific to certain bodies of water and some lakes are experimenting with catch restrictions in hopes to have exceptional angling opportunities. Beaver Lake south of Rocky Mountain House was the first to experiment with catch restrictions and lake aeration in our province producing some very large Rainbow trout. Beaver Lake was used as a model for the Muir Lake Project (near Edmonton), which in turn sparked the new regulations for Bullshead Reservoir (near Medicine Hat).

These restrictions and regulation changes for Muir Lake and Bullshead Res. include:

• Anglers may keep only one fish over 50 cm per day
• Artificial lures only (no bait)
• No fishing from November 1 to April 30
• A plan to have no gas motors (electric only)

Lake Aeration

Lake bottom aeration can been defined as the introduction of compressed air to a water body, using non-clogging, and maintenance free diffusers. What that means in English is a HUGE BUBBLER. When compressed air is released at the bottom of a pond or lake, it will naturally begin to migrate towards the surface of the water. As it travels up the water column the pressure surrounding the bubbles slowly decreases causing the bubbles to increase in size. Due to the fact that larger bubbles displace more water than smaller bubbles, a slight current begins to develop. This current draws oxygen-depleted water from the bottom, oxygenates it and transports it to the surface. This action breaks down stratified waters while increasing dissolved oxygen levels and protecting fish, aquatic organisms and beneficial bacteria from suffocation.

Fountain aerators take water from just below the surface and force it into the air through a fountain spray pattern, enabling the droplets to capture atmospheric oxygen.  This process is called de-stratification.  The oxygen is then released back into the water as the droplets strike the surface.  The aerated cooler water is layered on top of the existing warmer layer, breaking down and eliminating the idle stratification of oxygen-starved water. 

As I have been doing more research on lake aeration I have found that there are 2 separate types of aeration. Which type of aerator gets used depends on the requirements of the lake. Typically aerators are taken off in the spring because changing the thermal layer in a lake may cause undesirable effects (the lake can become to warm) if the summer stratification is disturbed. This would be defined as a cold layer of water trapped under the warmer surface water. Stirring the pot so to speak would warm the entire lake if its shallow enough and our cold-blooded friends would not like this. Fountain aerators however could be run all year without this happening because it is a surface aerator and will not aerate down to the bottom in deep ponds or lakes.

This section is dedicated to supplying you with the resources to choose a lake. If you are looking for directions please visit Doc's Web page for listings to local Edmonton and area pothole lakes. For all of Alberta's fisheries you can purchase Barry Mitchell's Alberta Fishing Guide. The guide has directions to most of the rivers, tributaries, lakes and reservoirs in Alberta.