INNISFAIL – The skies looked bleak and it was chilly.
It did not matter.
Rain threatened all morning.
That too did not matter.
What mattered was that Innisfail Lions Club members being enthusiastically busy cooking up pancakes and sausages.
What also mattered were citizens lining the shoreline of Dodd’s lake.
They were out fishing on May 17, for a gathering that has become the town’s unofficial start of summer, rain or shine.
It was also the special annual Trout Release Day at Dodd’s Lake, five years running now, when the lake, which has a maximum depth of about 13 feet, is restocked with 1,000 trout, split between rainbows and tigers to join the longstanding pesky and invasive Prussian carp.
The trout arrive at a cost of just under $9,000, split evenly between the lions club and the Innisfail Fish & Game Association (IFGA).
“This is the most tigers we’ve put in. Last year it was 300 or something,” said Bob Leney, fishing chair for the IFGA, who noted the tigers were enlisted to reduce Prussian carp numbers. “I hope so. They are quick breeders but there's lots of people still catching Persian carp, so I'm not sure how successful we are.”
But over the past five years more and more people from town and as far away as Edmonton are coming to the lake to take advantage of the lake’s angling opportunities, and the IFGA is all in to encourage the sport.
The association brought out a score of fishing rods and tackle for folks to try their luck for the day.
“There's an opportunity. There are more and more people out. I drive by fairly often because I'm curious myself, and there's always somebody here,” said Leney. “It’s good to see.”
What is most important, however, is the state of the lake’s health, which Leney believes is good.
The trout stocking project at Dodd’s Lake began five years ago with 350 rainbow trout, and rising every year to 1,000 in both 2024 and 2025.
And so far, there has not been any sign of winter kill to report.
“We haven’t had any complaints or anybody notice any winter kill. We are using this lake as a put and take, where you only put in as many that will be caught that year or what you estimate,” said Leney. “That is why we started with a few hundred just to see where we were at and see what the success rate was.
“And it was good, and we’ve had no reports,” he added. “I personally have not seen any dead fish after the ice comes off.”
But Innisfail’s annual Trout Release Day is more than just a chance to do some spirited angling.
It’s a community celebration to say goodbye to the cold and misery of the past winter months and hail the arrival of the joyous warm weather of the summer months.
Tom Reinhart, a member of the lions club, said the enthusiasm for the annual event inspired the service club in 2024 to bring in the flapjacks, and it’s now a fixed annual event to celebrate the birth of a warmer season, even if the long May weekend can often be stubborn.
“We get lots of cooperation from the town and Innisfail fish and game, and so we're going to keep hammering away at it until we can't do it anymore,” said Reinhart.
