The Temagami Area Fish Involvement Program was started in 1985.  It is a volunteer organization working in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Sites for rehabilitation work are selected, debris is removed, and the rock beds are cleared of silt using high pressure water pumps.  When water temperature reaches 6-7°C in the spring, spawning walleye are caught in trap nets, eggs and milt are carefully stripped on site and rushed back to the hatchery on the Temagami waterfront, where the eggs are placed in jars which are charged with a steady stream of water.  After 19-21 days, eggs “eye-up” and begin to hatch.  For the next few days they live off their yolk sacs; in a few more days they begin swimming.  Hatch rates in these incubators are much higher than hatch rates in the wild, and give the population a boost to ensure a healthy population in years to come.  

Meanwhile, the rearing ponds are fed a mash of grains, which have been decomposed by bacterial inoculation.  The mash promotes zooplankton which the young fish will live on.  The young fish are then brought to the ponds and are carefully monitored until they reach 5-7 cm.  They must now be removed from the ponds and stocked in their respective watersheds.

TAFIP encourages CATCH & RELEASE.  Visit the hatchery on Lakeshore Drive, west of the Municipal Building .

The Lake Temagami “Ling Fling” Fish Fry supports T.A.F.I.P.

For those that wish to support Pickerel stocking in Temagami and area lakes, donations to the program are accepted and welcome.  Help us give nature a helping hand and put more of these young Pickerel into the wild.