Stocking Salmon in Georgian Bay?

Does the mnr stock salmon in georgian bay? What area if they are? I think they stock lake ontario every year.

Mnr doesn't care about salmon. All they want to stock is stupid Lakers.

They are also big stockers on Walleye for the great lakes.

Interesting that you say that... I have been emailing (bugging) MNR staff about walleye stocking in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay ever since they made the decision to reduce/stop the salmon stocking programs and focus only on "native species" that are "top predators". As most of us know, "native species/top predators" is MNR lingo for Lake Trout... Their primary focus has been on stocking Lakers. My rationale, and reason for 'bugging' them is that walleye are also native to Lake Huron/G.Bay and also represent a top predator, are an incredibly popular sport fish, sought after by most/many anglers, and are much better on the plate than a greasy lake trout.

Do you have stats/numbers of walleye stocking by the mnr or any govt. sanctioned agency in Huron/G.Bay in recent years?? I should clarify that I'm not referring to stocking done on the Michigan side, or up in the North Channel (where I think they actually do a little bit of stocking). Unless I'm missing something, I didn't think the mnr has stocked walleye in G.Bay for over 10 years? And, their stocking numbers were pretty insignificant when compared to the trout and salmon numbers they were and have stocked per year.

This is not meant to dispute your statement that the Govt is a "big stocker of walleye on the great lakes". It is more me hoping that you are right and I am wrong... Please prove me wrong because I would much rather be trolling/jigging for walleye than lake trout

Keep stocking lakers so they can make their way into nets at our expense.

Yep...

My personal take on Lake Trout, the Govt. stocking Program, and laker fishery:

The Govt. uses tax dollars (i.e., some of which comes from you and me) to stock lake trout. At first glance, this seems great right? Keep a healthy population and strong fishery right?.... The stocked lake trout are netted heavily on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. They are netted by those with a commercial fishing license, which is pretty much restricted to Native commercial fishermen. No problem with that I suppose - they need to make a living too and I have no interest in becoming a commercial fisherman... The netted lake trout, that were stocked by the Govt. using tax dollars, are then sold at markets and commercially for our consumption. Seems good right? Our MNR, in addition to stocking the lakers, also produce/publish the Fish Consumption Guide (Eating Ontario Fish) on an annual basis. Guess which fish species is kinda/basically/essentially NOT recommended for our consumption - LAKE TROUT. You can eat a couple, just not on a regular basis, and not too many at once, or not too many per week, and certainly the Govt. don't recommend eating any that are of any decent size. Based on our Govt's advisories, you can eat lots that are 6" to 8" long (maybe if you catch a bunch in your minnow trap), and oh by the way don't eat any that are about 24" or bigger (so, the target size that most fishermen would be looking for). And definitely don't eat any if you are a woman or a child/teenager....again, this is from the Govt. consumption advisory - I'm not making it up.

So, what am I trying to say?? Basically, the Govt. has adopted a Lake Trout stocking program using tax dollars so that Lake Trout can be dumped into the lake, mostly be netted by the commercial fishermen, and then sold back to us to eat (great business for those who have the license to net the Govt. provided fish and sell them to the general public), and of course some are caught by sport fishermen.... but then they do not recommend eating them.

take tax $$$ - stock - net - sell to you and me at the market - advise you and me not to eat - take tax $$$ - REPEAT.... Make sense?

It might add fuel to the fire to know that the commercial fishermen on Georgian Bay have repeatedly informed the MNR that they are not supportive of the Lake Trout stocking due to the very low prices paid for laker fillets. There is a much higher profit margin for the commercial guys in netting whitefish and perch.

Interesting that you say that... I have been emailing (bugging) MNR staff about walleye stocking in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay ever since they made the decision to reduce/stop the salmon stocking programs and focus only on "native species" that are "top predators". As most of us know, "native species/top predators" is MNR lingo for Lake Trout... Their primary focus has been on stocking Lakers. My rationale, and reason for 'bugging' them is that walleye are also native to Lake Huron/G.Bay and also represent a top predator, are an incredibly popular sport fish, sought after by most/many anglers, and are much better on the plate than a greasy lake trout.

Do you have stats/numbers of walleye stocking by the mnr or any govt. sanctioned agency in Huron/G.Bay in recent years?? I should clarify that I'm not referring to stocking done on the Michigan side, or up in the North Channel (where I think they actually do a little bit of stocking). Unless I'm missing something, I didn't think the mnr has stocked walleye in G.Bay for over 10 years? And, their stocking numbers were pretty insignificant when compared to the trout and salmon numbers they were and have stocked per year.

This is not meant to dispute your statement that the Govt is a "big stocker of walleye on the great lakes". It is more me hoping that you are right and I am wrong... Please prove me wrong because I would much rather be trolling/jigging for walleye than lake trout

So, with no response, I'm just guessing that you don't have stocking numbers for walleye by the MNR??

Lake Huron

I really don't see the importance of stocking numbers especially when it involves LIBERAL Guberment calculations . Just saying

Candace_h : thanks for those numbers. From the Great Lakes fish stocking database, I'm pretty sure that those numbers represent fish stocked in the North Channel. And, those indicate that there have been about 100,000 basically in the last 10 years. When compared to the salmon and trout stocking numbers (i.e., in the multi millions of fish), that hardly represents a big stocker of walleye (IMHO).

I think there are also some more recent stocking numbers of walleye in the north channel. However, going from memory only, it has typically been about 1,000 to 3,000 per year. Better than 0. But, when compared to the salmon/trout numbers it is not even close....

Thanks. Just hoping and wishing the MNRF would consider diversifying the stocked species to include another "native top-predator fish" and include walleye since fishermen actually would prefer that...

There has been lots of lakers stocked around owen sound and kincardine. Most commercial fisherman don't even target many lake trout. They want mostly whitefish. Those lake trout eat a lot of bait fish that salmon eat. How much natural reproduction is going on with lakers besides around parry sound?

If anyone is interested - after posting the above string of msgs, I suddenly received an "Ontario Fish and Wildlife News" email from the MNRF. I don't recall ever receiving such an email in the past...maybe coincidence, maybe not.

Regardless, the primary news article in the email/newsletter entitled "Welcoming Walleye Indoors" provides a summary about the efforts to increase and improve Ministry walleye hatching programs. Reportedly, the Ministry has recognized that there are other jurisdictions who have been doing it for many years, and they decided to consult with the experts (mainly in the USA) for advice. Directly from the article - "The "recipe" for successfully culturing newly-hatched walleye fry in indoor tanks has been known for nearly 20 years. But only two or three U.S. agencies do it successfully. In 2012, MNRF asked experts at those agencies for their advice."


Great! From the short article, they indicate that the outcome of some changes (indoor facilities vs outdoor ponds, better controls, perfecting conditions for fry, etc...) has resulted in improvements....I realize everything takes time and $$, but my question would be, if they consulted with "experts" in 2012, and "the recipe for successfully doing this is well known", and they are reporting improvements in rearing walleye fry, is there a reason why we haven't really seen walleye stocking increase?

Anybody interested, I can try to figure out how to post a link to the article.

Interesting that I received the email shortly after the posts on this board! Big Brother???

Hey awbringl,

If you could post it that would be great.

I'm sure many of us would give it a read.

Copy the link from the webpage and then select the http:// tab right above where you write a message. Paste the link and hit ok.

I hope that helps.



Ice_addict

ice addict:

Fish and Wildlife Update

Hopefully this works. Again, I just found it interesting that an email with this article showed up in my mailbox. Anybody else receive it? Curious...