Lafarge Lake stocked with out of town trout

Frisken fish trucked into Coquitlam as part of project to determine whether warmer water will make a difference


Anglers casting a line into Lafarge Lake this fall will have a better than average shot of catching a fish – a big one.

About 350 rainbow trout, some larger than one kilogram, were released into the Lake Friday as part of an experiment evaluating the benefits of transferring fish from icy B.C. Interior lakes to milder Lower Mainland ones.

The fish were transported from Frisken Lake, near Kamloops, where trout often die during the winter months due to depleted oxygen levels.

“The fish grow in those productive lakes much faster than what we can grow in a hatchery,” said Stacy Webb, a sport fishing development biologist with the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, which is partnering with the provincial Ministry of Environment on the study. “And so we had the idea to try to move the fish before winter time to another lake, so that those fish can continue to grow and also be available to angling.”

Trout regularly released into Lafarge Lake, reared in a hatchery, are usually about 225 to 350 grams. Although some of the Frisken fish will fit that description, others are “a much more exciting size” to catch, said Webb.

Depending on the cost-benefit analysis of this year’s experiment, transferred fish could appear in other local lakes next year. (Lafarge was chosen as the pilot location because of its popularity with local fishers.)

This month and next, regular stocking will also happen at Lafarge, Como, Buntzen and Sasamat lakes, thanks to provincial funding. All fish — which are sterilized so they can’t cross-breed if they escape from a lake to a river — are reared at a hatchery in Abbotsford.

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