If you're just coming in to this story about stocking a pond on Galiano Island with trout then I suggest you have a look at PART 1 to get caught up on the back story, then check out PART 2 that I posted yesterday about my trip.
This post is all about the big day that the fish arrived at the pond here at Bodega Ridge, but it's not the one where I show you the fish we're putting into it. No, not yet; this one concerns an incredibly unexpected turn of events.
The morning started off as expected with Bodega Ridge's owner, Jesse Keefer, firing up the tractor. There were a few last-minute tasks we had to do to prepare the pond for the fish and mowing an area for people to fish from was one of them.
As Jesse mowed I decided to put on my chest waders and kick around the pond a little bit, just for fun, to see what kind of bugs our fish would be feasting on. As I said in my LECTURE, there were fish in this pond once upon a time before the previous owner drained it and killed them all, so there's enough life in here to keep them alive. I was curious as to what kind of life this was, and I made an absolutely stunning discovery as I peered down into the water after stirring it up with my boots. Do you see it there?
At first I saw it swim by and I thought to myself "That insect looked a lot like a minnow!" and as I kept staring into the water another one zipped by. I've seen enough minnows in my lifetime to tell the difference between an insect and a fish, and I don't know if you ever have moments where you question your own sanity and what you just saw but this was one of those moments for me. It was beyond odd, especially considering I was certain there was nothing in this pond but frogs and bugs and the odd garter snake. I started an inner dialogue with myself asking "Did I honestly just see a minnow swim by or do I just have fish on the brain today?" and the answer was "There's no chance I just saw that. That's just crazy.". Just to be sure I went and found something to act as a minnow net (I found a toque), returned to the spot and kicked up some more water. Within seconds I managed to capture this thing and pull it out of the water...
Yes, a minnow. No tricks of the imagination, there were already fish in this pond!!!
But I'd never seen a minnow so small. I knew for certain it wasn't a trout but figured it could be some sort of sucker fish... but the answer was well beyond my expertise. It's moments like these when I can make a direct correlation between my relationships I've built and them paying off, because I quickly emailed a closeup photo of this minnow to my friend Mike Meneer at the Pacific Salmon Foundation (whom V.I.A. supports) asking if they could help me identify this fish. Minutes later he had got to the bottom of it and replied:
"According to one of our fish experts, looks like it is a three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, though its spines aren’t showing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickleback"
According to the link he sent they only get up to 2 inches in length, so they're no threat to our trout and will actually make the perfect food for them! I got back into the water and caught all of these ones below in just a few minutes, so I know that our fish will be well fed. How they got in there still remains a bit of a mystery!
Stay tuned for the next instalment of this series where we'll be putting the trout into the pond with help from a Canadian senator!
