Rainbow Trout Migration Patterns in the Saugeen River Watershed

The goal of this study is to investigate rainbow trout migration patterns and passage success within the Saugeen River watershed, with a focus on the impacts of the removal of the Truax Dam in Walkerton, Ontario. Baseline phases of this study were conducted in Spring 2018, Fall/Winter 2018/2019 and Spring 2019. In each phase 50 adult rainbow trout were captured at the Denny's Dam fishway in Southampton and implanted with coded radio transmitters. These fish continue to be tracked throughout the watershed (Saugeen River and associated tributaries) using a combination of mobile telemetry, fixed tracking stations, and aerial telemetry surveys. The data collected to date has provided valuable insight regarding inter-seasonal and inter-annual variation in rainbow trout migration patterns and motivation, use of spawning areas and other habitats, and the impact of potential barriers (Denny's Dam, Truax Dam, Carrick Dam, Maple Hill Dam) within the Saugeen River for continued upstream migration.

The Truax Dam was removed in August 2019 as part of a fisheries offset and compensation project. Future post-removal phases of this study will provide data that will be compared to baseline information to assess the impact of the removal of this barrier on the Saugeen River rainbow trout population. The first post-dam-removal study was initiated in Fall 2019 with seasonal tagging and/or tracking of tagged fish scheduled to continue into 2024.

Find additional details regarding the fisheries offset and compensation project here, the biomass electrofishing survey component of this project here, the redd count survey component here, and the videographic survey component here.

The most recent annual summary of all project component findings to-date (2022) can be found here.
A detailed summary of all radiotelemetry findings to-date (2022) can be found here.

We have also animated the radiotelemetry datasets to provide a visual representation of upstream and downstream migration and to illustrate the seasonal blockage effects that the four dams have on rainbow trout passage in the Saugeen River and how these have changed before and after the removal of the Truax Dam. Baseline datasets collected in Spring 2018, Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 as well as post-dam removal datasets collected in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 have been animated and can be found below. Additional post-removal datasets will also be animated once these monitoring seasons have concluded.