More CO checks at night, Know the regs

LMFAO.
best profile pic ever

I will agree that opening a few each year and closing some would be a good idea fork, but as we all know the bottom line is the enforcement isnt there and thats what we need, but in the next breath someone is p##### that a c.o is opening their hut door, no way to please everyone. I dont know the reason, maybe someone does, but i just assumed the reason they opened the kawarthas was to knock down the panfish population, and when the numbers went down they would close the winter fishery again, i witnessed a steady decline in walleye and a substantial incline in panfish in the few years prior to the opening of winter fishing, noteably in the tri-lakes(chemong, buckhorn, pigeon, bald), if anyone has any insight on this i'''''''''d love to hear it.

The idea of opening and closing a fee lakes each year would be to concentrate the CO's to one area as we all know there aren't enough to check every where. But u are definitely right in that u won't please everyone.

As for the opening of the kawarthas. I don't know that it was to keep pan fish in check or that it was so that other lakes close to the gta such as simcoe wouldn't get over populated (not that's it's not already).
Me personally I would rather one or 2 lakes get over populated with fisherman as it would make it easier to stock fish, monitor fisherman, have the right crews concentrated in that area to help keep it clean and so on.

Again just my 2 cents though

I do believe the opening of the lakes in the kawarthas for winter fishing was to help keep the panfish populations in check and to bring in both the winter activity and economic development opportunities into the area.

As for the idea of only having a few lakes open during the winter season, which has been relatively short the last two years, may seem like a good idea, but think of the stress on the lake. While we anglers are currently spread out, sending all to a small handful of lakes will- increase pressure on the lake, increase the amount of stress on the ice (imagine its 4" of good ice and everyone heads out the same day to one of the available lakes), decrease available parking around the lakes, like some the issues on Simcoe, annoy the neighbours now with hordes of people showing up to the one of the few available lakes, and so on...

The best thing to do in my opinion is if you see someone committing an infraction, call the tips line, take pictures if possible and jot down as much information as possible.

Controlling the pan fish was the reason. But makes no sense to me that you are allowed 300 sunfish but only 30 greater then 7.1 inches. I laughan when I see that... that is like baiting someone to get caught. 7.1 inches is a yearling. So to control the pan fish they want people to keep more sun fish under 7.1 inches? Lol. Total attempt to bait people into keeping over slot sunfish imo.

Unfortunately, people are always going to take advantage of the system. I hate to draw this comparison...but it reminds me of drinking and driving. We all know that it is wrong. There is millions of dollars spent on advertising and awareness programs to encourage people to stop. However, people are still constantly doing it. It blows my mind. If people are so cavalier about a life/death issue, do they really care about taking a walleye over slot or out of season?

Along with closing ice seasons, I wonder if a rotating system of lakes for open water season would be helpful. For example, Rice Lake would be open for certain window periods throughout the year. While Rice Lake is open, Chemong is closed down. That way CO's could concentrate their effort to a few select water bodies. There may be more people on a lake, but at least CO's could better monitor what is happening and let their presence be known.
It might even deter those anglers who don't play by the rules.

There was public meeting outlining the proposal to open ice fishing in the Kawartha Lakes, I never made it to the meeting but read an online document that covered the reasoning. Swiftdeer summarized everything in his first paragraph. The 300 limit i believe was a comprise bwt MNR and some resort owners who have many US clients. The slot size on sunfish was to protect the very large bluegills that were depleated in numbers. They wanted the stunted small sunfish culled. Anyway I might be off here with some details as it was quite a few years ago since I read all that... I read it all because I was against opening the lakes to ice fishing, because I personally felt the fishing was good just as they were. But I do understand people that live locally and cottage owners and businesses are enjoying the winter fishery. The Kawartha was a ghost town in winter..

Drinking and driving is an addiction... the drinking part.... driving just comes with it. Where I fish for walleye you cannot catch one under slot. I have seen a huge difference since slot was put in. But it could be where I fish. Average trip I would hook into 15 walleye and if lucky end up with 2 in slot size. My buddy was laughing the other day when we talked about walleye fishing. we would be tossing back over slot while the next guy beside us lands a 26 inch walleye and walks away before you noticed where he go? And yes I have seen CO at night and yes they have booked many... but it seems like not enough.

Seriously, what is with the idea of rotating lakes whether it is in the hard water or soft water season? It's only going to add more stress to the lake regardless, and more people competing for "their spots'. Imagine the fights that will break out because you have another boat 5 feet from yours, or your lines get tangles while trolling or casting? parking will be an issue, even more so when you have the pickup trucks showing up with a 20 foot boat plus the trailer.... Sure while, this may be easier for COs to be visible, this will also add that many more people on the lake! Think about it, they are only human too and can only check so many people. Has anyone taken a look at infogo? COs are limited in the Peterborough area as it is. Rotation is not the key, more people stepping up who witness the infractions are- call it in, take details....this is how we protect our fisheries.

I say they should ban weekend fishing! That should stir the pot!

Personally I enjoy getting out on ice a few times over winter, sure catching some fish and couple nice feeds of crappie helps put winter in, but being able to talk / visit with others is another great part of it.

? Do others here think there is more illegal fishing going on in winter vs summer, or perhaps the bog being so close to large population makes it different than what I see on Chemong.

During the summer over past number of years I have seen a considerable increase of people fishing back bays / shallow I think that is because they no longer can find or have given up trying to get pickerel
I think it shows that when one type of fish gets scarce it puts a bigger load on others.

I agree totally that higher fines would discourage most people + make arrests more public, not many people would want their names in paper (not some small back page stuff) the only ones that I have seen usually come from sites like this and are ones that went to court, never here about ones that fines are just paid.....

I think that you raise a very valid point about speaking up when we notice infractions. However, we don't have a legal right to look through people's coolers and live wells. I know that is not what you are suggesting, but imagine what happens when we are not looking. Speaking up is important, but I don't think it is at the forefront of conservation.

A rotating system is based on the idea of giving a fishery time to rest. Do you think that if Rice Lake opened a few weeks later with more CO presence, people would flock to the lake and be fishing over top of one another? Does rotating lakes create more anglers or does it deter anglers for when their favorite fishery is open? Does it benefit serious anglers who will set aside time to fish at their favorite places?

Conservation takes everyone, and we need everyone to do their part to help protect it. The harder we make for people not obeying the laws, the harder it will be for them to break them.

they do this to help stabilize the numbers of alpha breeders and reduce the numbers of beta breeders its all to improve the health and gene pool of a local population as i understand it ymmv (edit) i meant to quote f4d's post about slot size for panfish no more than 30 over 7.1 " imo i feel the best short term solution isn't rotating closures but a no kill rule on all at risk species in a particular fishery until populations stabilize with improvement slot limits go a long way but as the simcoe herring closure has proven it doesn't take long for at risk species to come back if left alone for a few years

This post has been edited by pandakiller on Feb 24, 2017 - 09:32 pm

Easier said then done sometimes. Just like when you see someone speeding 200km/h coming along the side of you.... do you cut him off to slow him down? I personally encountered some really nasty violent people when you point out something they can get charged with. They already not thinking straight breaking a simple rule. That is why CO needs to be more present around lakes so others who enjoy fishing do not have to be put in a bad situation or have these discussions.