Wild trout in rocky waters

A change in Provincial regulations could preserve some of the last truly wild fish stocks on the coast.

BY PIETA WOOLLEY

Does anyone love wild fish more than Pat “Patches” Demeester? For at least 300 days this year, he plans to be out in his wading pants, catching cutthroats. They’re a meal, sure. But they’re also a mystery to Patches. Their strength. Their smarts. And, they’re survivors.

an escaped farm rainbow trout caught in Lois River Photo by Jeremy Williams/River Voices Productions.

In the fly-fishing community, qathet is revered as one of the few places left in BC with a substantial wild fish population – that is, fish that have not been hatched or stocked by humans, but exist, without intervention, in nature. He’s been fighting to keep it that way since 1996.

Now he’s asking BC’s Ministry of the Environment to align qathet’s three watersheds with the same rule as Lois Lake: no killing wild fish over 16 inches.

“Lang Creek used to be famous for the wild trout it held,” he said. “This is the worst year it’s been in my career. Why? We were greatly affected by the hot summer four years ago, by the forest fires since then, there’s all kinds of reasons the steelhead and cutthroat are disappearing. We dammed both major rivers… I hope my legacy when I’m gone will be protecting wild fish.”

up close and personal with a wild cutthroat trout - a species Patches is intent on protecting. Photos by Patches Demeester.

Patches’ first campaign 10 years ago was to force West Coast Fish Culture to mark their fish, so anglers in Lois Lake could tell whether a rainbow trout was wild or an escaped farmed fish – to avoid killing mature wild fish. That was successful, and while he’s still concerned about the damage the escaped fish have done, he recognizes that they’ve also reduced the fishing pressure on wild stock.

“That’s the fishery I promote to people who are starting off,” he said, noting there’s often as many as 12 boats with lines in the water, or anglers casting from shore, at Lois. Licensed anglers can retain up to four marked (they’re missing their adipose fin) rainbow trout a day. But they must use barbless hooks and release any larger wild trout or char.

“It takes the pressure off the wild fish.”

His second campaign, which was also successful, asked for no-kill protection of trout in streams north of Jervis Inlet.

“Before that you could kill a trout of any size here in moving waters. You could kill a giant female trout, but not a stocked coho.”

Patches Demeester releases a wild coastal cutthroat in Lang Creek. Photo by Ian Ricketson.

This time, he said, he hopes a change doesn’t take five years. He might not have that long. The fish might not last that long, either, given the pressures of many more lines in the water here than in decades past, both locals and tourists, alongside environmental change.

The advocate has terminal pancreatic cancer. It’s in remission. But he knows his time is limited. His projects need to be on-point.

“We can’t do [environmental management] the way we have in the past where no one talks about it,” he said.

Patches ties his own flies; here’s a giant stone fly from Silver Creek and a fly he tied to represent it.

“Just because we’ve had a healthy ecosystem here before doesn’t mean we’re not on a poor trajectory. We should be doing everything we can to preserve our wild fish. To see what has evolved over thousands of years to be what it is: that should be the number one priority of government.”

| pieta@prliving.ca

FRESHWATER STRESS: Patches Demeester releases a wild coastal cutthroat in Lang Creek. Photo by Ian Ricketson. Bottom left, an escaped farm rainbow trout caught in Lois River Photo by Jeremy Williams/River Voices Productions. Bottom middle, Patches ties his own flies; here’s a giant stone fly from Silver Creek and a fly he tied to represent it. Bottom right, up close and personal with a wild cutthroat trout - a species Patches is intent on protecting. Photos by Patches Demeester.