Assessment of Sport Fish Abundance in the Upper North Saskatchewan River 2001
Author(s)
Kevin Gardiner, Mike Rodtka
Summary
Electrofishing and sample angling were used to obtain sport fish relative abundance data in the Upper North Saskatchewan River upstream of Abraham Lake during the spring of 2001. A bull trout mark-recapture population estimate was obtained for a 10.4 km reach immediately downstream of the Banff Park boundary (Alberta reach), a catch-per-unit-effort (CUE) survey was performed upstream (Banff reach). Average electrofishing CUE of bull trout was 0.34 fish/100 s and 0.23 fish/100 s in the Banff and Alberta reaches respectively. Sample angling bull trout CUE was 1.18 and 0.69 fish/h in the Banff and Alberta reaches respectively. Estimated bull trout abundance was 16.64 fish/km, more than double abundance estimates for comparable Alberta populations however data are limited. The sample angling catch of bull trout was biased toward larger fish relative to the electrofishing catch.