When the first bait hits the water at the 2008 Orillia Perch Festival on April 19, children and adults will be focused on the fun associated with catching fish.

But a group of dedicated conservationists and fish experts will also be watching the movements of the perch as part of a scientific study.

This year, the members of the Twin Lakes Conservation Club have linked up with staff from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to undertake a study of 1,000 perch, as part of a live-release program.

“The Twin Lakes Conservation Club has been involved with the live release portion of the Orillia Perch Festival for about 15 years,” noted club president Warren Howes.

Wil Wegman, a biologist with the MNR, is working closely with Howes on the 2008 perch study.
Some years ago, when it was discovered some perch had been carelessly discarded by festival participants, the conservation club hooked up with the Orillia Chamber of Commerce to bring in the live release program.

Using large tanks and boats, the members of the conservation club limit stress on the perch by quickly transferring them from holding tanks to the boats and back to the lake.

Last year, it is estimated 16,000 perch were successfully returned to local lakes after being reeled in during the festival.

In 2005 the MNR conducted a ‘creel count’ to attempt to get a general idea of the perch health and population.

“That basically involved them talking to a bunch of the fishermen during the perch festival,” said Howes.

Combined with other studies the MNR did at that time, Howes said it was discovered that winter ice fishing put more stress on the perch population than the spring festival.

“But there were a lot of questions we couldn’t answer clearly, so it was felt we had to spend a lot of time and energy to see if we could come up with the answers,” said Howes.

At that point, the MNR suggested the conservation club work with them on the 1,000-perch tagging program.

“The plan is to collect 1,000 perch caught during the festival and then put a special tag on them before releasing them back into the local lakes. We want to release them as far from the main area as possible because we’d rather not have them swim right back into The Narrows,” said Howes.

Each perch will be fitted with a tag and a specific number, with the size and condition of the fish documented before release.

The MNR tags will be orange, different in colour from the official Orillia Perch Festival yellow tags.

The orange tags will be identified as a MNR tag and will have a phone number on them for anglers to call after they have reeled in the perch.

“We will be asking people to call the 1-866 number we have set up and tell us what number perch they caught, when and where the fish was caught.

“That way, we can use the information to get a better sense of where the perch are and how far they travel,” said Howes. The local club hopes to offer prizes as an incentive to get people to call in with their tag information. With the 2008 information in hand, Howes said the hope is the MNR can use it to plot future perch movement and habits.

The 24-hour toll free number for reporting the capture of MNR-Twin Lakes Conservation Club tagged perch is 1-866-939-7724.