Hunting for Brook Stickleback around Edmonton

[UAlbertaFish]

Hello everyone,

First, thank you for taking the time to read my post!

I am a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, conducting a research project on the alkaline lakes in Alberta. I am looking to understand biological differences between populations of brook stickleback living in alkaline lakes compared to those from "reference", non-alkaline lakes.

So far I have been successful in finding a good alkaline lake population of stickleback in Buffalo Lake (pH 9.3), but am having a hard time finding a reliable "reference" population in a non-alkaline (pH 7.0-8.5) lake. So far we have set traps and come up short in Sauer Lake, Jackfish Lake, Lac Ste Anne, Buck Lake, and Battle Lake. We have also checked out Twin Lake, Spring Lake, Hasse Lake, and Lake Eden and either found no signs of good stickleback habitat that was easily accessible or the lake was just not accessible to the public at all (only private road access).

Does anyone have any suggestion for lakes we could try where there is a good population of brook stickleback, preferably within a few hours of Edmonton? That being said, I'll take anything at this point - I'm getting desperate!

As an FYI/background information, our goal is to understand whether stickleback from alkaline lakes are more tolerant of high pH and high salt concentrations compared to reference populations. We hope that this will shed light on how these fish (and perhaps other species in the lake) might respond to changes in alkalinity or salt concentration that are projected to occur due to climate change. We are also interested in whether alkaline lake populations can be used to stock other alkaline lakes where fish populations are not doing super well.

Thank you again for reading this - any suggestions for good stickleback lakes are very much appreciated!!

Thank you!

UAlbertaFish

[YKer]

Did you try Isle Lake when you checked Lac Ste Anne?

"Several other ecologically important fish species have been reported in Isle Lake including: burbot, white
suckers, brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans)"
https://alms.ca/wp-content/uploads/2...d_Isle_SoW.pdf

[coxy95]

I've seen them caught in Sedgewick lake before, I would hazard a guess that it would be considered an alkaline lake, but that's just a guess.

[Red Bullets]

I would bet there are 9 spine brook stickleback in Wizard Lake as I know I have seen these stickleback in Conjuring Creek that flows out of the east end of Wizard. They may run up into the lake, if the crayfish in the creek don't eat all of them. Good luck in your quest.

[sendmethem]

I think I might know a decent one for stickleback within a couple hours.
Not sure about the PH though... PM me if you want some details on the lake.

[Sundancefisher]

I worked for a masters student back around 1986. We sampled lakes all over that fed into the Athabasca. Brook sticklebacks we’re recorded. We kept some as well as fathead minnows and I ran predator prey studies with them and pike.

If you check the UofA records for 1985-1989 you should find it. Damn if I could remember his name.

I think this was the one.

https://era.library.ualberta.ca/item...b-73ef539226cf

We found a population of red belly dace in spawning colours that could of been an amazing aquarium display.

Also I know there are loads of brook stickleback in a pond in Fish Creek Park…right by the bow River in Calgary.

[UAlbertaFish]

Thanks for all the replies everyone - really helpful info!

Take care!

[fish99]

I was seeing them in west creek pond at Chestermere, lots of them in the spring when they are close to shore.