KA'A'GEE TU/KAKISA - A group of concerned anglers has stepped forward to gather data on a spawning run they fear is in jeopardy.

Lory Ann Bertrand displays one of the grayling she caught last year during the Charles Yohin School's annual fly fishing trip to the Kakisa River. This year the students along with other dedicated anglers will be collecting data about the grayling they catch. - NNSL file photo

Mac Stark has been fishing the Kakisa River's annual grayling run since 1983 and in that time has only missed three years. Stark, who lives in Hay River, is one of the regular fly fishers who fish the annual run.

These fishers have volunteered to do a creel count, or angler survey, to record how many grayling and other species are caught during the run, where in the river they are caught and, in the case of grayling, their size. The group started gathering data last year and will continue again this year.

The purpose is to gather information before the Deh Cho Bridge opens, said Stark.

"The next five years, I think we're going to see a change with that bridge being opened," he said.

"It's going to have a drastic impact on the number of fish and the size of fish."

Stark and other Kakisa River fly fishers are concerned that when the bridge opens, anglers from Yellowknife will have road access to the annual grayling runs. The run generally begins around April 15, peaks the last week of the month and lasts into early May, he said. Normally fishers from Yellowknife miss the whole run because the Mackenzie River ice crossing is closed and the ferry hasn't opened yet.

"There's lots of diehard fishermen out there," said Stark.

The only thing keeping them away from the run has been the cost of flying to Hay River, said Stark. A five-hour drive when the Deh Cho Bridge is in for a weekend of fishing won't be a barrier, he added.

The number of fish taken out of the Kakisa River isn't the concern so much as how they are handled, he said. The current regulations for Arctic grayling are one daily and one in possession. This means an angler can take one fish home a day but as long as they have that fish in their possession they can't take home another.

The grayling caught and re-released have to be handled properly, said Stark. They need to be put back in the water as quickly as possible.

The grayling are only in the river for their spawning run and are easy to catch because they feed aggressively during that time.

"It's exhausting for them," he said.

Because of the run's short duration in the Kakisa River it could be damaged very easily, said Stark. What's at risk is a unique site.

"There's certainly nowhere else like it in the world," said Stark, who has fished grayling around the globe.

"We really want to see this preserved."

The information Stark and the other fly fishers gather will be added to the creel count that is entering its third year in Kakisa. Kakisa has an aquatic monitoring program funded by the federal Aboriginal Aquatic Resource and Oceans Management Program (AAROM) Dehcho First Nations is participating in.

AAROM helps communities establish monitoring programs based on what their concerns are. Because of the pressure from sport fishing Kakisa has been focusing on gathering data, said Mike Low, the AAROM technical advisor for Dehcho First Nations.

During the summer, Kakisa hires a local resident to be the community monitor. The monitor's duties include interviewing anglers and recording catches, checking water chemistry and temperature and making observations about wildlife.

The community wants to have baseline data and management tools in place so it can notice and respond to any changes that the Deh Cho Bridge or other factors cause, said Low.

The creel count from the fly fishers will be an important piece of that data because the community monitor normally doesn't begin work until May, resulting in a lack of data on the spring grayling run, he said.

"Having them out there is just really good for the river," said Low about Stark and his fellow sport anglers.

The opening of the Deh Cho Bridge will increase the traffic on Highway 1 but Low said the current regulations and the monitoring program should minimize the effects of increased angling during the grayling run. If changes are noticed the monitoring plan could be adapted to focus on the area of concern or the data could be taken to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada so regulations can be changed at that level, Low said.

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