Blackflies

Controlling Black Flies 1948 - mid 1960's

A major pest for the people living at Cameron Falls was the Black Fly. A Black Fly control program consisted of dripping D.D.T. directly into any creek within 8 km (5 miles) of the community. This was done twice a week during the Black Fly season. Small creeks had one station, larger ones had more: eg. Frazer Creek had three stations in order to get a specific concentration of D.D.T. in the water.

In the late 50's and early 60's aerial spraying (probably D.D.T.) was conducted near the Cameron Falls Colony.

H.E.P.C. (Hydro Electric Power Commission) was reported (1967) to be evaluating the use of organo-phosphorous compounds as an alternative larvicide - but no evidence has been found that they ever used it on the Nipigon.

Personal reminiscence of Mr N.: (2006 N.H.M.)

"I played Broomball and Baseball for the Cameron Falls Rebels, and I played for them for quite a few years, which was made up of a combination of Nipigon people and people who worked for Hydro. I played in Cameron Falls a lot and I remember the flies were really bad and in those days the thing was to spray the mosquitoes. They had these "foggers" which they used in the Colony so we used to get one of our guys to go and get the fogger from Hydro. In between, when the flies got really bad, they would go out into the field and there would be a fog hanging over us all. It was made up of D.D.T....and all our kids used to run in behind the fogging machine as little toddlers."

What Men Did For a Living

Mr. N. continued:

"So for the Hydro Forestry crew, our job was to basically run around and cut down any dangerous trees along the way from Terrace Bay to Dorion, all the rural and high-tension lines. I've walked all along those lines."

"In the summertime we sprayed 2-4-D on the lines - that was our job - and then 2-4-5-T which is all banned. Those are sprays that they are suing for now in the camps in Nova Scotia through the military where they sprayed."

"In the summer when we sprayed it was hot. We had a swamp buggy with a trailer which had booms on each side. K. would be on one end and I would be on the other end and we sprayed in the air and would be soaked from sweat because it was so hot outside. They had defoliants in them like the ones they used in the Vietnamese war and that was the same thing."

"At lunchtime the flies were bad. We always carried a can of D.D.T. and would spray it all around so the flies didn't bug us."

"Now there are a lot of suits going around and I got  a letter last fall from Hydro inquiring whether or not I had any side effects from the spray."

"I can actually say I'm fine!"

Black Fly Control from page 23  Nipigon Bay RAP Technical Report Series, The Nipigon River: A Retrospective Summary of Information about the Fish Community, North Shore of Lake Superior Remedial Action Plans  A Report to:OMNR, Nipigon District Division of Fish and Wildlife  prepared by Mary Ellen MacCallum March 1989

Unless It Is Cherished...

"Unless it is cherished, the glory of the Nipigon may fade and the story of its marvelous attractions may become a tradition of the past"

This cry of alarm came from an American Fisherman named McDonough in 1888.

Yet, if you check out PEW's "Forest of Blue" document  wherein they discovered all our wonderful water in the Canadian Boreal Forest, you will see they have relegated Lake Nipigon to a reservoir and our river barely discernible!!

Our Living Heritage, the Glory of the Nipigon, the book, shows how that call was and still is being answered.

The Nipigon Bay Remedial Action Plan Public Advisory Committee had this book put together by John M. Kelso and James W. Demers in 1993. It shows that throughout the past century ..."there was ample evidence that the glory of the Nipigon and its abundant life were cherished by those who lived near her, those who put the great river to the service of man and those who found her sporting charms irresistible."

" This is a success story. The story of a people, of industry, of science, of government who have answered the call to be guardians of one of the world's richest treasures. It tells of our first people, reflects the birth and growth of a nation, and offers the world a model of man and nature serving and affecting on another."

And PEW calls us a reservoir!

We have three power dams on the Nipigon River. They do use the water from Lake Nipigon. The Ogoki Diversion dam sends water to Lake Nipigon that would have gone to Hudson's Bay. 

The Nipigon River System

"The Nipigon River drains Lake Nipigon, with its large tertiary watershed; 32,129 square kilometres of land and water surface including the Ogoki Diversion." (1943).

" The River flows south for about 51 kilometres (32 miles) from Lake Nipigon to Lake Superior, through a gorge that follows a geological fault. Along its course the river drops 75 meters (250 feet) in elevation, cutting through Precambrian red sandstones, with their flat caps of volcanic diabase, in its precipitous descent."

"At one time falls and rapids punctuated 16 kilometres (10 miles) of its route. The river is now characterized by lakes that alternate with turbulent stretches. The largest of the lakes, Lake Helen, differs in that it is not formed (or re-formed) by a dam. The river flows through only the southern corner of the lake, which extends northward as a cul-de-sac."

'The Nipigon River is the largest tributary, in terms of discharge, of Lake Superior. Along with the lake's other major tributaries, the shallow near-shore areas, which in this case are in Nipigon Bay, and the mouth of the river play important roles in the lake's ecosystem. These areas are biologically productive, support a different complex of species than the deeper, colder waters of the open lake, provide important sources of nutrients, and are essential nursery and spawning habitat for a range of fish species. "

"The river has been noted for its abundant fishing as far back as we can trace. This abundance is more properly attributed to seasonal concentrations of spawning or migrating fish than to the intrinsic productivity of the river. The number of species that made up the early (pre-1890) fish communities of the Nipigon River would have been fewer than today, and they would have been determined by two major factors: post-glacial colonization and habitat suitability."

"Descriptions from the late 1800's focus on brook trout and their favourite food, the cockatouch (commonly called sculpins today); they also refer to lake trout, whitefish, and northern pike in all the major sections of the river" - Hewitt, E.R.  1948  A trout and salmon fisherman for seventy-five years. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York , 33pp

"By 1902 walleye (or pickerel) and suckers, in addition to northern pike were being removed as nuisance fish." - Fourth Annual Report of the Fisheries Branch of the Province of Ontario for 1902

"Other species are known to have occurred in the system below Alexander Falls. These include burbot and lake sturgeon, which were common in Steamboat Bay (Lake Helen) until the 1920's and tullibee and "blue pickerel" (probably sauger)." - Wilson, L. 1991  Nipigon Walleye Historical Review.

• 1930 Walleye = the most abundant fish on the river
• 1950 Local residents report excellent walleye fishing
• 1956 Thousands of walleye noted in the lower Nipigon during May; 1000 tagged
• 1957 Estimated walleye population in the Nipigon River spring spawning run to be 22,000 individuals; fall estimate in Nipigon Bay was 41,000.
• 1958 During 1955 - 1958, 2200 walleye were tagged with 397 recaptured indicating the possible migration routes and spawning locations.
• 1959 Walleye were common but not abundant enough to provide numbers for tagging.
• 1961 Walleye were scarce on the Nipigon River spawning grounds.
• 1965 Crash of Black Bay Walleye population.
• 1975 Compared with peak years the commercial walleye catch in Lake Superior is down 88 -100% (Schneider and Leach, 1977)
• 1978 An attempt to re-introduce walleye began with the deposition of walleye eggs into the Jackfish River.
• 1984 Commercial fishing of walleye was closed in Nipigon Bay.
• 1986 Adult walleye stocking program began in Nipigon Bay.
• 1989 The Nipigon Bay, the Nipigon River, and the Jackfish River were closed to walleye angling year round to assist rehabilitation efforts.

Adapted from A Chronological Review of the Stresses Affecting the Fisheries in Nipigon Bay, Lake Superior: Wilson 1991

That was the timeline of Hate turning to Love.

Today , 2012, the Nipigon Bay RAP,PAC is busy rehabilitating spawning grounds threatened by fluctuating water levels  and putting the meander back in some streams straightened by the CPR and or CNR.

B. Brill, 2012 essay

PIC continued

Road Map

Ontario, Nipigon to Marathon portion along Lake Superior and north to Nakina.

 

 

Showing Heron Bay and the Pic River.

Blue circle is destination of Mckirdy crew.

 

 

Jack Mckirdy as a young man.

 

Jack McKirdy's buddy Joe Salt

 

Jack 's father William McKirdy in front of their store in Nipigon.

 

McKirdy on the Pic, 1910

Freighting Supplies up the Pic River 1910

William McKirdy (of Nipigon)  contract with Canadian Northern Railway

John G. (Jack) McKirdy made notes before taping stories for his three grand children in England between 1969 and 1971.  Also involved were exchanges with his two grand daughters in Edmonton.  The notes were transcribed and edited by his son, John G. M. McKirdy.

When I was quite young, your great grandad [William McKirdy] took a contract to supply and deliver four tons of provisions for the engineers locating the Canadian Northern Ry. North line east of Nakina.  This was to be an exciting job for me.  I figured I was an experienced canoe-man.  My faithful Joe Salt, “Sheeptogan”, was in charge of the party with Paul Cameron, my canoe partner and myself.

This was an exciting job for me.

While I thought I was an experienced canoe-man by this time, it was on this trip that I graduated.

[Dad (Jack) would have been 19. JGMM]

Dad [William] figured out the supplies for the delivery crew on the trip, with instructions we were not to touch any of the contracted supplies.  The supplies, eleven Indians, and myself with six canoes, three birch bark canoes and three all wooden chestnut canoes, canvas came later, landed at Heron Bay on the C.P.Ry. the 30^th of September, 1910.  The supplies were to be cached at Pagwachawan Lake, at least 400 miles [643km] from Heron Bay. [Very windy river, less than 300 km as the crow flies.]

Starting up the Pic River, we knew there were 26 portages. The supplies had to be packed on our backs with head-straps [tump lines] . The average load was 250 pounds.[ 113 kilograms] The head-strap was about 12 feet long, [3.65 meters], widened to three inches [7.62 cm] at the middle. It was placed over the top of your head with the load on your back. At one level portage, about an eighth of a mile long , the crew started a competition. One Indian would take 400 pounds, the next  500 , then Sheeptogan, Joe Salt,  the main Indian Boss on the trip, loaded six, 100 pound bags of flour, two tied to the strap the other four piled on top. I followed him with the same load of 600 pounds.  When I dropped the load at the end of the portage I thought I was going to float up into the air. We held the record. That is the most I have ever carried on my back.  You have to practice and build yourself up to carry a load like that.

[ 400 pounds = 181 kilograms; 500 pounds = 226 kgs; 100 pounds = 45kgs; 600 pounds = 272kgs]

On the road a week and we were out of sugar, syrup, jam etc..  It was a tough deal packing sugar and not being able to use it.

On Cranberry Portage Jerry Morriseau and I were packing a heavy freight canoe when I kicked a can, it was rusty but wasn’t empty.  We let the canoe down, it was a five pound can of corn syrup.  Jerry and I sat there, cleaned up on it and not a word to the rest of the crew.

Near the end of the trip, in the canoe ahead of Paul and I, Joe Salt called a muskrat that was on the bank. He swam over to the canoe. Joe conked him with a pole.  In that stretch of fast water we all used poles instead of paddles.  By the time we camped that night, Joe had picked up nine muskrats, for cooking as a stew in a couple of our big pails.  The muskrat, “bouwal”, that night was beyond description. Joe and some of the others could turn out food fit for kings.

The final portage was six miles long over the height of land and it took three days to pack the supplies into Pagwatchewan Lake.  Twelve days out we landed at the lake, spent two days to build a log building to store the supplies to keep them dry and so animals could not get at the supplies.

[On the current, 2017, road map the lake is spelled Pagwachuan.]

 The last night on Pagwatchewan Lake , ‘Wazogo’, Michael Daba, shot a couple loons.  This called for a celebration. After supper, the loons were cut up, adding lake trout, salt pork, white beans, rice, dried potatoes and onion, then boiled in our biggest pail for two or three hours as a stew, “anabobecon”. I caught the lake trout, they were so plentiful I caught one on every cast. We sat around and one at a time they told stories,  all in Indian.  Finally the pail came off the fire, then each of us with a cup, drank the broth, ate the fish, then the loon.  Loon is about the toughest bird that flies, but they consider the loon to be a real treat.  It is tough and you can chew it like chewing gum. The best of the party was the stories they told,  their experiences with animals and trapping and travelling.  The loon was tough, alright, but I never will forget that party.  My recipe for loon would be to place the loon in a pot with a rock and when the rock can be pierced with a fork you know the loon is cooked and ready to eat.

At all of these portages there were rapids, on the way back we ran some of them with the canoes.  It was late in the fall when we made this trip and on the way back there were small lakes where we had to go through that were covered with ice.  We broke the ice with a heavy  poplar pole.  With the delay, we ran out of food for three days.  We lived on a fish diet and an odd partridge, but I had cached five pounds of flour in the bottom of my packsack.  We had this, with a rabbit I snared the last night before we landed at Heron Bay.  One of the canoes with Joe Salt went on to Heron Bay, travelled almost all night and when the rest of us reached the bridge the next day, a real meal was all set out for us as we came in.  We loaded everything on the train, landing in Nipigon early in the morning.  Mother had breakfast all ready and I ate everything that she had cooked.

Revised by John G.M. McKirdy  to Oct. 2016.

Total Pageviews at the end of the year 2016 = 109,275

A very big Thank You to all the readers from around the world.

 

A record 28, 462 Pageviews  for the year 2016 that is up a thousand over last year.

 

Lost my "create a new post" button for a while... just found it again.

 

Very exciting year at the Nipigon Museum (2016) with some visitors arranging to come for a visit from California and England and Southern Ontario. A family from China. A couple from Brazil. A few Tour Buses. ( Tour Buses are welcome ...if we know in advance we can bring in extra guides)

 

The Nipigon Museum will open on request through-out the year.

 

 

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WALLEYE Conclusion

WALLEYE Conclusion

From: The Status of Walleye in Nipigon Bay Area of Concern: 2012

Prepared for Environment Canada

By: Terry Marshall, Marshall Consulting

March 31, 2013

I am skipping over the next 14 pages of the Report which covers the following topics:

Recent Research, assessment and monitoring studies:

Genetics of stocks

Telemetry studies: seasonal movements and habitat use ( they want to continue this study to see if there really are two distinct spawning populations)

Walleye spawning observations and drift netting Nipigon River

Walleye and Northern Pike abundance: Lake Helen

Fish Community assessment Lake Helen

Electrofishing surveys: Nipigon Bay and River

Fish Community Index Netting: Nipigon Bay

Walleye Population assessment: Nipigon Bay

STATUS OF WALLEYE STOCKS AND THEIR HABITAT IN THE NIPIGON SYSTEM

Reference sites

Recovery of collapsed populations

In all cases, rainbow smelt were also present in these water bodies which is an important consideration  if making comparisons.  The Nipigon Bay East area has the greatest biomass of rainbow smelt documented in Canadian Waters of Lake Superior (Yule et al 2008).  The species was also found to be generally of larger body size in this part of the lake.  The presence of a large and abundant prey such as rainbow smelt has a positive influence on walleye growth energetics.  In Western U.S. reservoirs, growth rate increases once rainbow smelt became a large part of walleye diet [Johnson and Goetti 1999; Groeb et all 2008]. On the other hand, rainbow smelt may also compete with and prey on age-0 walleye which in some instances can significantly reduce their density [Mercedes-Silva et al 2007].

 

 

STATUS INDICATORS

Walleye Population status

1.       Abundance remains low – approx. 5000 Lake Helen

2.       Density is increasing

3.       Growth rates are very high

4.       Mortality is very low

 

Walleye Habitat status

 

Information needs ;

Genetic analysis of stocks

Population monitoring and assessment

 

If genetic analysis determines that two discrete populations exist, the size of each must be determined independently.

 

CONCLUSIONS

There have been many changes in the 50+ years since Ryder’s [1956] early studies and the collapse of the walleye fishery in Nipigon Bay.  There have been drastic shifts in the composition of the aquatic community, along with significant improvements to nearshore habitat within the Bay, and recent changes to the thermal properties of the area brought about by climate warming.  Together , these present a new environment for walleye to which they continue to adapt. This process appears to have promoted the development of two separate stocks of walleye in the Nipigon system.

 

We have a new  population [or two] of walleye here today, different from the historic population in terms of its genetics, its spawning behaviour, and its annual movement patterns and use of habitat.  This population is thought to be at a relatively low level of abundance compared with historic estimates, but quite healthy in all other respects.  Growth rates are rapid and mortality is low.  Together these traits suggest that large, rapidly maturing fish are present and have the potential to produce quantities of offspring in the future.  Clean, high quality substrate is available in unobstructed spawning areas in both Nipigon and Jackfish rivers and it not constraining recovery.

 

On the basis of this evidence, it is recommended that the BUI status of the walleye population and their habitat in the Nipigon Bay AOC be updated to “ Not impaired”.

 

The 40,000 fish target for Walleye recovery may never be achieved in light of all the changes observed in this ecosystem [Colby 2007].  All that can be done to accomplish this has been done.  Maintaining fishing mortality at a low level will help the walleye population expand to achieve its new equilibrium.