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Muir Lake
On May 14 - 2004 we had our grand opening ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Education Centre, Walk of Fame and initial site improvements. People are enjoying a high quality fishery where they can learn about the relationship between trout and their food and how the relationship affects angling for trout. They also get an opportunity to learn about people who have contributed to sport fishing in Alberta. There are still more improvements to come and we hope to have fly casting and fly fishing courses at Muir starting in 2005.
Project Goals
The Muir Project was intended to:
- Create a walk of fame honouring those who have enriched angling in Alberta.
Our province has a rich history of people and groups that have gone to great lengths to restore damaged fishing environments or to protect existing ones. Every angler in Alberta owes a debt of gratitude for this work. Our project helps repay this debt by recognizing their contributions and helping to ensure that the legacy continues.
- Build an education center that connects anglers, trout, and simple life forms.
Trout fishing relies on anglers understanding and imitating the various organisms that live in and around the water. Our project plans to build an interpretive area where people, young and old, can learn about the life cycles of these organisms and angling strategies used when imitating them.
- Develop a trout lake with exceptional angling opportunities
By re-establishing the trout fishery at Muir Lake our project will add to the angling opportunities in the Edmonton area. We also seek to create a fishery where the average size of trout caught will be somewhat larger than a typical "put and take" trout fishery.
This will be accomplished by aerating the lake to reduce the threat of winterkill. In addition, the lake has regulatory restrictions so that anglers they can only keep one fish over 50 cm per day and an 'artificial lures only' regulation to reduce hooking mortality and ensure fish can reach this size. In support of these changes, fishing will be closed from November 1 to April 30 each year.
Walk of Fame
A very important aspect of the Muir Lake Project is the Walk of Fame. Believe it or not, the many natural fishing experiences that we Albertans enjoy have only been possible due to the work done by a number of volunteers. These people have spent countless hours working on habitat improvements, educating people, lobbying governments, staging protests, raising funds and numerous other activities all to ensure that we can enjoy what we now have - hopefully for generations to come.
The Walk will both honour these people and serve as a reminder that it takes a great deal of human effort to protect, conserve or enhance the fisheries resources that we now enjoy.
The initial inductees to the Walk are Dr. Martin Paetz, George and Joan Mitchell and Lloyd Shea. These individuals have been unanimously selected by the FESA executive for their lasting contributions to Alberta Sportfishing.
Martin Paetz
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George and Joan Mitchell
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Lloyd Shea
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Walk of Fame / Education Centre
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Education Centre
One of the projects most important features is the Education Centre. A collection of kiosks that explain various life forms that are important to trout and trout fishing. It will be a great place to take a friend, child or grandchild who is new to trout fishing; as it will allow them to learn about these life forms and how to angle for trout by imitating them.
Here are a group of volunteers putting the finishing touches on the Education Center. There are 8 kiosks and each shows a type of food that is important to trout at various stages of its life cycle. Understanding the whys and when's of trout targeting various types of food is important knowledge in angling for trout. It also makes anglers more appreciative of trout habitat and (we hope) more protective of these habitats.
A closer look at one of the kiosks. The left side explains life cycle and important characteristics while the right side describes angling tactics in light of this knowledge.
Each of the kiosks also has photographs of the actual creature along with fly patterns that are used to imitate them. There are a number of fishermen that catch the odd trout without really understanding why a particular pattern or technique is successful. The Education Center at Muir Lake gives fishermen a better understanding of the relationships between food and their imitations in order to make fishermen better anglers and have a greater appreciation for the needs of stewardship for the resource.
Press / News releases
Edmonton Sun on Saturday February 8, 2003 (Out There p. 11)
This article appeared in the Edmonton Journal on February 11, 2003 (p. B3)
the Reporter & The Grove Examiner on February 21, 2003 (p. 6)
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