Small lakes less than 500ha: Open season 3rd Sat in May to Labour Day. No ice fishing. Shorter openwater season. See appendix C for the list of lakes.
Large lakes greater than 500ha: Open season Saturday before Family Day to 3rd Sun. in March and 3rd Sat. in May to Labour Day. Shorter hardwater and openwater seasons.
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I agree whitefish should be limit 2-4. Dip netting for whitefish and herring is already limited to only a handful lakes that allow it in FMZ 15. Walleye are doing very well in my area and tthe population is consistently growing, Lakers could go catch and release ice fishing season when they are easiest to target, or push back opener to mid February like lake Joseph, although that lake is declining as well. Limit on specks I could see 2. Perhaps lakes with massive and invasive bass populations could have open season all year no limits, same with invasive pike lakes. Hatcheries should double in size and the restocking effort should be increased. Once an ecosystem collapses though you can’t just throw fish in and expect it to fix the issues though, it’s very complicated. Perhaps we need restocking of bait/ forage fish in certain lakes. I’m also not expert and these suggestions are just what’s rolling around in my head. It would be unfortunate to close all small lakes to ice fishing.
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For sure, there is no need for dip-netting during spawning season. I think that was an old grandfathered thing and should be done away with. That said, I have dip netted for pike in southern Ontario once that it was an interesting experience but for sure, I would not consider it "sport" fishing. I agree that closing down fishing opportunities on small lakes is not ideal and would add more pressure on a smaller number of larger lakes and more densely populated fishing usually results in less enjoyable fishing (crowds usually are not enjoyable to me anyway). I would for sure like to see open seasons (and higher limits) for invasive species regardless of what fishermen like to fish for. Fishermen should be encouraged to take as many pike and bass (and other invasive species) out of lakes lakes that should not have them in the first place while limiting takes and fishing seasons on the natural species (what easier way to help restore the natural fish community without even more money pumped into gov't management).
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I am not sure how they would enforce a law no fishing lakes smaller than 500ha. Not even sure who would measure the lakes or who would be responsible for knowing which lakes measure smaller. Some lakes measure smaller in the late fall than in early spring. Seems like an odd rule considering stocker lakes for put and take may be smaller than this measurement.
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Today's satellite imaging makes it fairly easy to measure the area of a lake. Smaller lake are more susceptible to fishing pressure. 50 ha is approximately 125 acres. So that isn't a large area when dealing with biomass and fish habitat. These lake are generally not like southern Ontario with high biomass. So they can be fished out that much easier. One of the issues is that the are readily accessible to millions of people within a 3 hr drive. We have no way of regulating fishing pressure, only open seasons, catch limits and methods.
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It's easy to know what is a small lake. In appendix C they have a list of the lakes. They've done the work for you. Check out the list for your favorite lake.
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If you use fish online, it'll be even easier. You can just select the water body once you've found it on the map and it'll let you know all the regulations concerning it. Sanctuaries and all. It'll almost be comical to see the wave of symbols across the map of the fish with a red line through it.
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This takes away a lot of ice fishing opportunities. Lowering the limits would have been enough. With Simcoe already limiting access this, if goes through, is really bad for fishing in Ontario. Definitely commenting against it and encouraging my friends to do the same.
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I dont think telling people they can't fish is not the best way to go about it. Strange plan, I understand the conservation, but it plans to eliminate put, grow take walleye stocking. Won't this just put even more extreme pressure on the natural population that you can still fish. Stocking walleye lakes in Northern USA states seems to work dealing with pressure. Maybe look south for some insight. What the heck do i know. I'm just a fisherman.
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I did just read the following only applies to protecting natural Lake Trout.
Small lakes less than 500ha: Open season 3rd Sat in May to Labour Day. No ice fishing. Shorter openwater season. See appendix C for the list of lakes.
Large lakes greater than 500ha: Open season Saturday before Family Day to 3rd Sun. in March and 3rd Sat. in May to Labour Day. Shorter hardwater and openwater seasons.
This does make a huge difference as I thought this effected all open species for the winter. A more complete reading is worth it.
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This takes away a lot of ice fishing opportunities. Lowering the limits would have been enough. With Simcoe already limiting access this, if goes through, is really bad for fishing in Ontario. Definitely commenting against it and encouraging my friends to do the same.
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Most lakes that people ice fish will be only one line when ice fishing now. If there worried about people catching to manu then lower the limits. Many lake trout lakes have other species in them also and only one line maybe used. I'm not sure where they get there data to justify these proposals. I have never once seen anyone doing creel sense surveys when fishing in zone 15. They want to reduce the slot size for walleye. Before only 1 over 18 can be kept but with new proposal up to four 19.6" and lake muskoka four 21.6 " breeders can be kept. Doesn't make much sense. Just lower the limit to 2 and only 1 can be over 18 inches. No changes to pike. Still 6 of any size. I think many people forget, if these proposals come into effect they usually don't get changed back very easily.
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