#4 || Rob Swainson: Saving Brook Trout

03/26/24 • 75 min

If we’re lucky we get the chance, once or twice in our life, to cross paths with someone who changes the course of history. In Rob Swainson’s case, it is the celebrated brook trout fishery associated with Lake Nipigon, the Nipigon River and the north shore of Lake Superior. Gord and Liam interview the man this week, who wouldn’t accept the fact that a world class fishery was doomed. Under Swainson’s leadership the brook trout fishing has sprung back to life. How did he do it and what has he learned that will help us manage and catch more and bigger trout wherever they swim? Hold onto your hats — all this and more with Rob Swainson, aka Dr. Trout.

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#3 || Chris Therrien: The Incredible World of Lake Trout

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Gord and Liam sit down this week with renown lake trout scientist, (Dr.) Chris Therrien, who has spent years studying the habits and habitat of lake trout. Chris shocks the boys explaining how cold water loving lake trout will venture to feed into the last place you'd ever expect to catch them — hot shoreline water in the middle of summer. He also spells out why he would never fish for lake trout in a lake that didn't offer ciscoes as the principal prey species. And are you ready for this: lake trout suffer beriberi disease when smelt are introduced to the water. If you think you know something about the biggest trout that swims, tune into this episode and prepare to have your
mind blown wide open.

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#5 || Dr. Bruce Tufts: Why Big Fish Matter

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Liam and Gord sit down this week with Dr. Bruce Tufts, who heads up the prestigious Freshwater Fisheries Conservation Lab at Queen’s University. Tufts explains why big walleye, bass, trout, northern pike and muskies are the rock stars of the fishing world. A 12-pound female walleye, for example, lays exponentially more eggs than three four-pound female walleye. The eggs are bigger, more nutritious, more viable and hatch earlier leading to the best year classes. And that is just for starters. The behaviour of big fish will leave you amazed.