Walleye larger than 80 cm are a regular catch in Tobin Lake. (submitted photo/Sask. Sportfish Research Group)

By Susan McNeil

Fish tales

Fish in the river: Researcher tracks walleye in Nipawin

Nov 7, 2022 | 5:02 PM

Research on the size and whereabouts of fish in the Saskatchewan River is an ongoing project of Chris Somers, a biology professor from the University of Regina.

At this year’s Vanity Cup in Nipawin, Somers was on hand along with some students to record and tag some of the walleye caught during the tournament.

“From a scientific perspective, I learn how much that fish grew where it moved to. We learned that it survived its original catch and release experience,” Somers said.

The 320 anglers in the tournament – who fish for money, bragging rights and for fun – bring multiple fish to be weighed and that’s when Somers and his team have their chance to tag.

The researchers take a t-bar tag and place it near the fish’s second dorsal fin on its back. Each tag has a unique number and includes Somers’ email.

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“If an angler recaptures that fish at some point in the future, they can contact me and give me the code and I can share with them what we know about that fish,” he said.

In 2022, they tagged 290 fish during the tournament, a typical number which means over 1,000 fish have been tagged since they started in 2017.

They also do some tagging earlier in the summer during the Premier’s Walleye Cup and catch similar numbers so several thousand fish have been tagged in the last five years.

They have had about 200 reports of tagged fish from Tobin Lake so far with sizes starting at 28 cm (11 inches) to over 80 cm (32 inches).

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

Tagging walleye for research in Nipawin has been happening since 2017. (submitted photo/Sask. Sport Research Group)

“What’s really interesting about it is that they get recaptures from basically all over the system,” Somers said.

Most of the ones tagged are caught in the river system between the Francois Finley dam and the mount of Tobin Lake but when they are recaptured, they can be in the main part or even the exit area of the lake.

All of the fish are either walleye or sauger, he said.

“We do get some monsters in Tobin Lake. It’s one of the premier walleye fisheries in Canada actually. We do have walleye that occur there over 80 cm as a kind of regular state of the population. It is a place where you can catch really monstrous walleye,” he said.

Some anglers in the tournaments have speculated publicly that they are not catching the volume or size of fish.

A fishing tournament captures a point in time and what is caught can change depending on other factors, like water flow or temperatures.

“I pay very close attention to what anglers say because I think their experience is very important for trying to understand priorities for research and for management, but at the same time I think we have to be cautious before we jump to conclusions and say there’s no big fish left,” he said.

As for long term information, there is likely to be lots as Somers says he plans to continue until he is forced to retire.

Updates on his research and more information on reporting tagged fish can be found on his website.