Join us august 16 for new fish tracking insights

Join researchers from Trent University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada for an informal afternoon to hear the latest insights from the Stoney Lake Fish Tracking Project.

We'll be sharing:

•  What we’re learning about fish behaviour on Stoney Lake •  How data can help protect habitat and manage local fisheries •  Where the research might go next — and how your input can help shape it

Event Details: Viamede Resort – Kawartha Room 595 Mt. Julian Viamede Rd, Woodview, ON Saturday, August 16, 2025 🕑 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

This complimentary event has no RSVP requirement. Parking is available in all three Viamede lots with access to boat docking.

We hope you’ll join us for an engaging conversation about the future of our lakes. Graham Raby, Associate Professor, Biology Trent University

P.S. Have a question or want to suggest research directions? There will be time after the presentation for Q&A and community input!

A preliminary look at what sportfish are up to in Stoney Lake

By Amber Fedus, PhD Candidate at Trent University

After a long year of waiting to download our receivers, we recently ran some preliminary analyses which we shared with the community in our annual update meeting at Viamede Resort in August (2024). Some of you may have been present at our update meeting (thank you for those who made it!), in which case you may have seen these results. But we are sharing it here for those of you who missed it.

Many of the tags we’ve deployed into fish the last couple years have acceleration, pressure (depth), and temperature sensors in addition to telling us the fish’s location. From these sensor tags, we get a lot of finescale data that can tell us more about the fish’s behaviour. Acceleration sensors give the activity levels of fish, with higher acceleration values meaning the fish are swimming more, which can be indicative of foraging. Combining the activity data with the depth and temperature the fish are choosing can help reveal how the foraging strategies of fish differ, within and among species.

Figure 1 (above). Average activity levels of walleye (left) and smallmouth bass (right) over a 24-hour period from July – August 2024. This shows that walleye are more active from sunset – sunrise and smallmouth bass are more active during the day, suggesting these two species have opposite behaviour patterns in feeding.

Overall, our data suggest that fish are more active in the summer than in winter, which makes sense because cold temperatures really slow fish down. Walleye specifically are adapted for nocturnal foraging; their eyes help them see prey in low ligth. Our data shows this as their activity is much higher at night than in the day, with peaks at sunrise and sunset (Figure 1). Smallmouth bass, on the other hand, are active primarily during the day (Figure 1). We don’t see much activity from them at all as soon as the sun sets. This becomes important when considering how these two predators are able to co-exist,  these as they have very similar diets and inhabit very similar areas of the lake according to their network plots (Figure 2). In fact, one question we had prior to analyzing the data was how the walleye and smallmouth bass can inhabit the same areas without one out-competing the another. The answer to this question may be that these two species have opposite feeding schedules, allowing them to occupy the same habitat but feed at different times.

Figure 2 (above). Network diagrams for walleye (left) and smallmouth bass (right) for July – August 2023. These plots show the connections and interactions between individuals and locations. The yellow circles show receivers that act as “hubs”, which are frequented more by the fish (larger circles = more fish detected there). The red lines show connections between the receivers in terms of movement, with darker/thicker lines indicating a stronger connection between those receivers.

Figure 3 (above). Activity levels of muskellunge over a 24-hour period from July – August 2024. This shows that musky are more active around sunrise and sunset.

Musky, on the other hand, show higher activity levels corresponding to the first couple hours of dawn and dusk (Figure 3). These peaks in activity suggest that these are times musky are actively hunting. The data we have only represent the 7 musky we tagged in 2022-2023. We tagged a ton of new muskies this year, so we will have way more data on their behaviour when we download the receivers next spring.

While the results presented above represent averages for each species, some interesting analyses lie ahead for us in looking at variation among individuals of the same species. An example of this is evident in Figure 4 (below). Individual walleye seem to have a wide range of depths (relative to the surface) they choose to occupy. This is something we will be diving into in future analyses to better understand among-individual differences in behaviour, including how persistent they are over time.

Figure 4. Differences in depth among individual walleye tagged with V13A and V13AP tags for July – August 2023.

We have some work being done on habitat modeling led by Jake Brownscombe (DFO). Currently, our data only show us the receiver the fish was detected, which means the fish could be anywhere in the radius of the receiver’s detection range. Habitat modeling will allow us to apply chemical, physical, and structural measurements we’re taking throughout the system to gain incredibly detailed insights into preferred habitats in the lake. We are also actively working on collecting samples for stable isotope analysis, which will allow us to determine each fish’s feeding habits and map out the food web in each lake.

Stay tuned for future updates. Get in touch if you have ideas for topics/questions we could address with the data.

Our spring 2024 muskie tagging bonanza

By Amber Fedus, PhD candidate at Trent University

From April through early June, I worked with Kurt Smith from DFO, along with several volunteers from our lab, to tag some elusive muskie on Stoney Lake. Going into this field season, we had many tags that needed to be put into muskie. We had been concerned that we wouldn’t be able to tag as many fish as we wanted to, after having a tough time the last couple years trying to catch them. Despite our concerns, we ended up coming out of the spring tagging season with a total of 29 more muskies tagged! Special thanks to members of the Kawartha Lakes Chapter of Muskies Canada for coming out on muskie opener to assist with angling muskies to get our remaining tags out.

A sped-up video is below showing our tagging process. In total, we tagged 21 fish that were caught by lectrofishing (mostly in April) and eight that were caught by angling. In 2022 and 2023 combined, we had only tagged a total of eight muskies. Of the 29 muskies we tagged this spring, they ranged in size from 17 to 47 inches in length (average = 35 inches). We had a range of tag sizes available to suit the size of the fish.

Muskies Canada Inc. (MCI) awarded us a two-year research grant to support this project, and members of the Kawartha Lakes Chapter of MCI have also provided generous donations. Because of these donations, we were able to purchase sensor tags for the muskies, meaning that in addition to tracking their movements we’ll get information on acceleration (activity levels), depth, and body temperature. We’re going to be able to generate a lot of amazing insights into the diverse behavioural strategies muskies use, and help better understand their habitat needs.

Kurt recently led the downloading of our acoustic receivers, in addition to other sensors that record things like temperature, light levels, and oxygen. Those downloads mean we now have over 20 million detections of our tagged fish across the system. It’s a huge pile of data we’ll be able to use to answer questions about fish movement and habitat use over the next several years. We'll share some findings here soon.

In addition to tracking the behaviour and habitat use of fish, we’re doing as much as we can to collect other types of data to help explain how and why the fish are doing what they’re doing. To that end, I will be doing a lot more fieldwork this summer to sample smaller organisms, sediment, and algae from sites across the lake. These will be used to analyze chemical tracers (stable isotopes) to figure out what the fish we’ve tagged are eating, where they’re eating, and how energy is moving through the food web.

(Above) Photo of some of our field crew from this spring, including Jacob Bowman (left), Leah Howitt (middle), and myself (Amber, right). In the surgery trough is a muskellunge at the end of what is a brief (5 min) surgery, about to be released. The fish's gills are flushed with fresh lake water throughout the process.