Sudbury angler catches elusive lake trout in Nepahwin Lake

Andrew Shea has quite the big fish story to tell his buddies after his latest discovery in Nepahwin Lake.

Shea was ice fishing on the inner-city lake in Greater Sudbury when he felt a tug on his line.

"You know when you're ice fishing, sometimes one of the hardest things, especially when you're alone, is getting the fish head in the hole," he told CTV News.

"So one I got the head in the hole and I saw what it was. I mean, I was pretty excited."

At the end of Shea's line was an 80-centimetre lake trout weighing roughly three and a half kilograms.

Shea, who usually fishes the lake for pike, said it's the biggest trout he's ever caught. It's also that there are trout in the lake, something the neighbours were pretty excited to hear.

"I knew there was a question about them being in the lake," he laughed.

Shea lives on the shoreline himself. A new member to the Nepahwin Lake Stewardship Group, he had heard about rehabilitation efforts to improve water quality

He gave the good news to Living with Lakes Centre's John Gunn, that there was trout in those waters. Gunn hadn't seen one in a decade so he donated it to the centre for further research.

"What it represents is that it's worth working on this lake," said Gunn. "I view it as a living, cold water thermometer that proves all the work the city and the landowners are prepared to do and need to do more is worth the effort and that the mascot is alive."

Gunn said scientists thought it was hopeless and that the trout in the water had died off in the 1980s from fertilizer and runoff from the street still damaging the lake.

He adds if we lose the lake trout, the children using the public beach can no longer use the beach and it's evidence that climate change needs to be taken seriously.

"(A fish that size), it tells me it's grown through the last couple decades, it's a slow, northern-growing fish and it's a product of the glaciers," he said.

"It's the one species that can't tolerate warm water or water above 20 degrees, so in that lake we're able to keep decent enough conditions for a 20- or 30-year old trout to live and let's keep pushing ahead and making the conditions even better."

Gunn sees it as a tipping point for the lake and a positive sign that things can turn around.

Nepahwin's water quality has been the source of some contention with residents in recent years. Evidence of it has been seen with the amount of blue-green algae floating in the water.

Gunn said what they've been able to determine so far is that the fish is a trout, it's about 20 to 30 years old and was placed there by a hatchery, most likely the one from Sault Ste. Marie.

He said with the current water quality, fish that size shouldn't be consumed.

In the meantime, Shea is left with a big fish story to tell and a feeling that it's not too late to save the lake he enjoys.

"A lot of the residents of the watershed and the lake are concerned about the water quality, the high-density living, so it's good to see a fish like this come out of the lake and still surviving," he said.