New 3 year agreement with NFN on walleye recovery

You can park your butt on the ice for a weekend and catch 100+ walleye without moving, and many more will be doing the same around you. How is that a "fragile" fishery?

We go through this every time something about commercial harvest gets posted, or someone b####es because they came up and couldn't catch a keeper. Funny it's almost never a local, because they know how to fish the damn lake.
I'm beginning to think some posters have the memory of a goldfish. It's like all the other threads never took place.

I don't doubt out of the thousands that fish the lake every day someone gets a keeper and posts it on the forum. Based on my experience that is a very rare occurrence indeed. We put in close to 1000 hours of man effort with no legal fish to show for it. Based on my conversations with other patrons from different groups that is a typical experience.

Yes we did catch plenty of undersized fish and we kept coming back thinking they would grow into keepers eventually. That does not appear to be happening.

I'm pretty sure operators are local and put the huts in the best possible location they can because it's $$$ when their clients are successful.

g

And right you are Idub... this is the fine art we call sucking and blowing at the same time.

The good folks at NFN are more than happy to let the province through taxes and user fees fund the restocking programs on the lake.. yet... in an all to predictable fashion .. they demand.. yes DEMAND... their right as an indigenous people to profit from an investment they didn't make...

Its an uncomfortable truth you bring up...

Be prepared to be called a Nazi or a a beneficiary of white privilege..(last time I checked my privilege was largely due to good decisions and lots hard work)

And if you are called something that you don't expect.. stand tall because it simply exposes those duplicitous corksoakers for the "flexible" principles they sorta/kinda stand for.

Its the sport fishing dollars that go direectly to outfitters ...along with the tertiary spin off $pend to gas statiosn.. bait shops.. grocery stores... butchers ... lcbo agent stores...that provide captial to the local economy...

Just sayin

This is heading south fast again as per so many other times.

look it, you got to do a reality check here.

The Native community has the entrenched rights to fish and commercially as well, by law.....that is not going away, so just deal with it


Also, if your trips to Nipissing revolve around catching keeper fish, walleye, then you are in a pipedream. perch are the keepers for the table.


The only motivation of going there with a group of friends is to share the quality time on ice and have some laughs and catch and release.....That is my mind set, and I enjoy every trip I do up there beyond measure

The dollars spent have zero impact on whether you should go or not or more specifically whether you feel you are entitled to keep fish or not.


Now , do I agree having a commercial fishery there...….no. But it is there and there to stay

Another thing to consider before bailing on Nipissing is the wide variety of other fish that can be caught in this lake. If landing a 20lb+ pike, or a beauty of a white fish or the fight of a decent ling doesn't excite you then how about a nice haul of some decent perch for a fish fry or seeing a sturgeon coming up through your hole? Not to mention other fish I have seen come up over the years like cisco, bass and even a small muskie one year The thing that excites me about Nipissing is the fact that you never know what you might hook into up there. And the on ice bungalows which you cannot just rent anywhere plus the good times we have up there as a group have kept us coming back for over 25 years now and we all hope for many more. It is a long time between ice in and ice out and an extended weekend or a couple of weekends spread out is a great way to fill that void.

The fishery is only fragile for the recreational fishery, it's doing quit well for the commercial. Just because things have been done poorly or wrong for a long time, doesn't mean you should just accept it and not hope for change.

Haven't been down to the south shore in years but what I have noticed is the number of shacks now in Callander Bay and the North Shore.Years back there were only a handful of shacks.Judging by the increased numbers fishermen have moved away from walleye and closer to home with the target being perch.

Wow! That went down the rabbit hole fast.
I'm almost loath to post or even comment on these types of announcements anymore.
What seemingly should be a positive announcement once again morphs into a mostly negative discussion on one of the boards favourite whipping boys...'the evils of commercial fishing'.
Fact is...commercial fishing has been ongoing on Nipissing for generations and will likely continue for many more. I come from a commercial fishing community on L. Erie so I try to reflect on both sides of the discussion.
There's no winners if we hurle insults, point fingers and try to assess blame.

The initial intent of this post (and I'm assuming the OMNRF's announcement) was to simply show there's a level of continued cooperation occurring with the stated goal of rebuilding the walleye fishery on the lake. That level of cooperation wasn't always there in the past.
End of story.

I think it's the lopsided level of cooperation that people complain about. But I suppose when one side holds the gun, any cooperation should be welcomed.

as posted earlier, spent my second weekend of the year on the ice at the beginning of the month, wife son and I landed around 50 walleye, perch and pike, no keeper walleye. the hut beside us, maybe 50 feet away, way less fish, but threee keeper walleye. I look on on it more like a lottery, right place at the right time. Been travelling to Nipi from southern ontario 3-4 times a year for over 20 years now, if I had my choice, I wouldnt fish anywere else - in fact we would like to retire to the area. Like one of the previous posters said, its not going to change, accept it for what it is, enjoy the fishing. By the way we target pike in the summer, great fishing, and Ill have a fish fry with pike any day.

my son says I have to mention his 13.5lber he got though the ice two weeks ago - his personal best

Well said Grumpa, thank you.