Rearing Pond
Ed Begin Conservation Project Award
Was presented to the Weyburn Wildlife Branch for the best fish or wildlife habitat project, contributing to the consevation, improvement and or public awareness of Saskatchewan's fish or wildlife habitat. Many projects undertaken by the branches of the SWF are cerainly worhty of nomin
How it started..
First off, hats off to all the WWF members in the past that put in all the time and hard work to help make Nickle Lake a great walleye lake. We don’t think many people know the history and passion that went into stocking Nickle with the walleye over the years.
As for this year we think we all can agree that the passion is still there. From our President Larry Olfert and Brian Maas for making sure to get the fish trap out and all set up. Kelly Kozij for getting the rearing pond sign back up. Jeff Chinski for finishing off the welding that needed to be done on the walkway. John Van WinKoop for cleaning up all the weeds. Colton Tochor, Joe Stefaniuk, Ryan Englot and Dale Paslawski for making sure everything was in tip top shape for our big release this past August. A Big Thanks to Colton Tochor, as he has jumped right in these last couple years and took the reins to the rearing pond and the “Take Me Fishing “program. He is getting things where they need to be and set into place. Glad to see the drive (maybe a little AKA Rutt Jr) in this next group of guys taking the lead. We released over 20k walleye this year into Nickle Lake. The walleye fingerlings ranged from 1.5” to 5.5”.
After close to a year of planning and applying we have final made a major step with the rearing pond. A work bee was held this in September of 2021 to get the rearing pond back up and running.
We have sleeved the existing 24” culvert that is used to drain the pond with a 16” heavy walled pipe. Concrete was used to seal the existing culvert to the new pipe. We are currently finalizing the valve and the walkway to the valve.
This project couldn’t have happened without the help and donations from Stewart Steel, A and B Concrete, Apex Distribution Inc (Estevan), South Sask Rathole, Joe Stefaniuk and Cliff & Terry Benning.
We are discussing with the Saskatchewan Fish Hatchery to ensure Nickle Lake is on the list to be put back into a yearly walleye release.
2022 was a great year with over 21k of fish
Rearing Pond Sponsors
Joesph Stefaniuk
Cliff & Terry Benning
Estevan - Brent Olfert
