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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A young angler named Donny Boake is calling for increased monitoring of the lakes along the Ingraham Trail after seeing what he describes as countless people over-harvesting whitefish from Pontoon Lake.

Donny Boake pulls a lake whitefish from the waters of Pontoon Lake to show it off before releasing it. Boake is calling for action from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans after seeing countless people keeping more than their daily catch limit of five whitefish at the lake all summer. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

"I come here every day to fish for whitefish and every day I see people fishing here and keeping over their limit," he said Sunday, while casting his neon green fly line over the water in hopes of catching one of the silvery fish, which were being elusive that day.

Boake has had a few encounters with the culprits, he said, including one last week who made the sense of injustice a little more personal.

"I was fishing and they weren't catching anything," he recalled. "I was on to 10 (fish), they were watching me release them and one came up to me. I thought he was coming to see how big the fish was, but he grabs his net and nets my fish without saying a word and walks away with it."

The anger was clear in his voice as he shook his head and looked across the lake to the day use area of the park where the incident happened.

"I believe in catch and release for a reason ... to preserve the fishery," he said. "That just threw me off completely."

The daily catch limit for all whitefish species in most of the NWT is five fish, with a possession limit of 10. Lake whitefish is the most commonly caught species around Yellowknife, and the species present in Pontoon Lake.

"What people don't understand is that you can't keep your limit, take them home and freeze them, then come back later in the day and take your limit again," said Boake. "It doesn't just reset when you leave the lake."

The over-harvesting of fish isn't the only illegal activity Boake has seen. He has also seen people fishing with barbed hooks and snagging fish.

Boake said he has called to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and asked for more patrolling of the area and, perhaps, a catch-and-release-only rule on the lake to allow the whitefish population to recover.

A catch-and-release order is generally the last approach before closing a body of water to angling in order to conserve a suffering fish population, according to Deanna Leonard, the senior fisheries management biologist for Yellowknife. She said a lower daily catch-and-possession limit is the first step.

"We've actually been receiving e-mails telling us of the great fishing conditions at Pontoon Lake," she said. "The local cabin owners are telling us they've never seen it so good."

Since he made the call, Boake said he hasn't seen or heard of any fisheries officers being in the area.

"I've been here all day from eight to four and then back again after and I haven't see anyone here," he said.

"Even if I could have missed anyone, I still asked around to see if anyone's been stopped and no one I've asked has been."

Fisheries officers have conducted patrols of Pontoon Lake this year and plan to do more, stated Yellowknife field supervisor Terrence Stein via e-mail on Wednesday.

"We have checked a number of anglers there, (and) so far have not come across any violations at Pontoon Lake," he stated, adding officers try to do as many patrols as possible. Stein also confirmed that his office had received a complaint regarding overfishing at Pontoon Lake.

Boake told Yellowknifer he has calculated the number of fish being taken from the lake based on the first and

last days he's seen people fishing there through the spring and fall, which averages to about 15 whitefish every day.

"In total, there is approximately 2,440 fish out of this small lake each year," he said.

Boake said the whitefish population in Pontoon Lake suffered a blow a few years ago when it experienced a winter kill - a naturally occurring event where long winters lead to decreased oxygen levels in the lake.

He said the overfishing is only making matters worse for a species that is still trying to come back, and DFO isn't helping.

"If they're going to put the limit and not enforce it,

what's the point of keeping the limit?"

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