FiftyNorth.ca

As you can well surmise yourself (after reading Greg’s previous article), uhm yeah, him and I have not gotten out to do a whole lot of fishing yet this year. He is too busy making future generations of fly-fishers, or “making hatches of Scratches” as I like to kid him.

Nice segue eh? So, speaking of kids!

I got a little antsy tonight and needed to get out fishing. I asked my youngest daughter Laura if she would like to join me and to my surprise she did. I don’t force them to come, I invite them. Fishing should be a fun experience for kids, it’s what ensures we have future generations that will take care of our natural resources long after you and I are gone.

Anyways, I didn’t expect we’d get much time on the water tonight, especially with a nasty thunderstorm rolling in from the West. However, tail-lights away from the City is where I needed to be today. So we headed out to my favorite local pond at Cardiff, I strung up the rods and we wandered over to the water. Uhm, where is the water she asked? Good question indeed!

You see, this “pond” is located on the property of the Cardiff Golf Course, and is stocked annually by Alberta SRD. However, the golf course also uses said pond to water the golf course. Do you see a problem with that? I sure do!

Taking needed habitat away from the fish, uhm.. yeah water.. I wondered have they reduced the stocking rates in proportion? A quick check of  the past stocking reports here for this water body seem to indicate that they are putting in the same number of fish (15,000). Incredibly, the sizes are actually increasing. So, what’s up with that?

As the carrying capacity of water body is diminished during these Alberta “drought” spells, should the stocking figures not reflect this too!? Lower numbers of fish, or smaller sizes? Anyone from SRD care to comment on that? I know I plan to take it up with Trout Unlimited the next chance I get.

2008

CARDIFF PARK POND (24-55-25-W4) May 12,500, Type: 2N, 16 CM.
CARDIFF PARK POND (24-55-25-W4)  May 2,500, Type: 2N, 17 CM.

2009

CARDIFF PARK POND (24-55-25-W4)  May 15,100, Type: 2N, 17 CM.

2010

CARDIFF PARK POND (24-55-25-W4)  May 15,000, Type: 2N, 18 CM.

Anyways, the day ended with me landing one fish, and missing several other strikes before we had to “run away” from the thunderstorm. I’ll definitely be back to take her out there and teach her some more. Oh yeah, the RBE still does the trick out here.

Note: The white pump house is on the other side that “Driiiiiiinnks these poor fishes milkshakes up! Drinks it all up!”

More photos here from our trip today