Fishin' technician
Kam Lake is like a beaten dog. It has lots of love to give but it's hard to see that beyond the scars.
This body of water has endured more abuse than perhaps any other within Yellowknife's city limits. For decades, toxic tailings percolated like a poisonous brew from Con Mine. It was, like many lakes around town at one time or another, used as a sewage lagoon. Just last winter, a broken sewer pipe dumped between one and two million litres of waste onto the frozen lake ice.
Who knows what other junk has been laid to rest there.
But beneath its sullen surface one will find evidence of a survivor. The lake is literally teeming with fish. All life really, in fact.
At 238 parts per billion, Kam has the highest arsenic levels among all the fish-bearing lakes around Yellowknife as far as I know. But for whatever reason, fish here seem to thrive.
History suggests that wasn’t always the case. In my last column in this Arsenic Lakes series (Yellowknifer, July 13), I mentioned a 1973 report written on behalf of the long-since defunct Fisheries Research Board of Canada that studied seven lakes within or near Yellowknife. Kam was one of them.
Its authors, a duo of biologists named M.C. Healey and W.L. Woodall, were looking at a lake that appeared deeply in trouble.
While Grace Lake, which flows into Kam Lake from the west, was largely unaffected by arsenic discharge from Con Mine and had healthy fish populations, fish in Kam were relatively scarce. The report was published a year after the city began pumping sewage into the lake and arsenic was still flowing in from Con Mine's tailings pond at Pud Lake, sitting just above Kam Lake to the east.
The authors were reluctant to subscribe a cause and effect, only stating that Kam Lake appeared to be “dominated” by the inflow of toxic wastes and “influenced by the inflow of sewage from the city as well.” But the data the researchers collected speaks for itself.
Of the lakes they sampled for fish, far fewer were netted in Kam – 7.1 fish per 100 yards of net versus 33.7 for Grace Lake.
When I was kid, there was a clear divide between these two lakes. Grace was the “good lake” and Kam was the bad. I scarcely dared to even look at it when my dad and I headed down to Grace to take a couple casts after school – and it’s just across the road.
Years later, because, well, it was convenient, I began crossing over to the dark side and discovered the fishing in Kam was not bad at all. Tailings no longer flow into Kam, nor the sewage. Could that be the difference? I don't know. It would be nice if we still put money into this kind of research.
And unlike the last two lakes I visited, Jackfish and Long, Kam actually has some variety.
When Healey and Woodall sampled Kam Lake 45 years ago they found no walleye. We caught dozens during two evening outings last year. They didn’t find yellow perch either, a discovery that was only confirmed last year and unusual one for this far north.
They did catch Arctic grayling, which surprised them, although I recall fishing for them in the culvert between Grace and Kam when I was young. They don’t seem to be around anymore but who knows? If arsenic levels in Kam drop by another 100 parts per billion or so, maybe they will return.
They will still be too toxic to eat but hey, progress.
Anyway, Kam Lake is great place to go catch and release fishing if you have too many parental responsibilities and not enough time.
My friend Dingeman van Bochove, who is expecting his third child any day now, took me for a spin in his cedar strip canoe Tuesday night. A three-minute drive from my house took us to the boat launch and its obligatory arsenic warning sign.
“It’s a beautiful lake,” he remarked as we paddled across its placid waters.
We didn’t catch any walleye this time, unfortunately. Perhaps it was too hot and too calm. We did catch a gazillion pike, which, for a couple guys just looking to get out of the house for a few hours, it was alright.
Kam Lake may be beaten but it hasn't broke yet.