No Fishing No Trespassing Bridgenorth

Peterborough County bans trespassing on James A. Gifford Causeway

Due to safety concerns, county council has unanimously agreed to establish a permanent no-trespassing zone on the south portion of the James A. Gifford Causeway and a temporary no-trespassing zone on the north portion on the Bridgenorth side.

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/new...d-causeway.html

It is unfortunate that they decided to take away the fishing from the causeway. "Safety" now that is a good excuse as any!
A lot of people have fished from the banks in the past, it's to bad that some of them made it look bad for a lot more. Garbage left behind for others to clean up is probably the main issue here.
I have never heard of or read about anyone having any issues with safety along the roadway, not saying there wasn't any.
If all the people that fished from there would have looked after the area we wouldn't be having this conversation!!

You are absolutely correct IMO.
They used the word "safety" so that noone can dispute it but we all know its because A) there is garbage being left everywhere and the locals were making big noise about the "white pale fisherman" that frequent the causeway.
I'm not really sure how I stand here TBH. In one hand garbage left everywhere ruins the environment and is not good to look at and those leaving a mess need to be punished but on the other hand as a guy who never owned a boat until he was 30 and relied on shore fishing spots i can say that shore fishing spots are becoming fewer and farther between.

I know this isn't about safety that much I know but i don't know if its better to do this or to have bi law officers and ministry constantly patrolling the area. Maybe even have high school kids on the area to thier community service there by cleaning up the mess? 🤷🏾‍♂️

Totally at a stand still on this one.

A couple of interesting take aways from this...

That's a step in the right direction, as it will provide clearly marked areas where fishing is allowed.

This is troubling. Aggressive anglers who are venturing onto private property to fish and then driving away business during this time are the ones who give all shorebound fishermen a bad name. As a shore fisherman I make sure that I'm talking to those whose property I fish on not only on the day I'm fishing but also beforehand. I actually phone ahead to marinas to find out if they allow fishing on their property. Some do, some don't. It's up to us to monitor our actions, and becoming aggressive in pushing an issue is not the way to do it.

I'm also intrigued by those who were camping on the causeway.

I encountered persons camping in Bobcaygeon on the upstream side of the falls along the northern shore. The group was large, approximately 20 persons, who had brought their tents, bbq's, and other camping items. They were dedicated carp fishermen, not the white bucket brigade that so many people speak of. Could it be possible that they were fishing the causeway this summer? As well, the area I speak about has no camping signs posted and the area has been cleaned up from any mess which was left there.

People are sick and tired of garbage being left everywhere, and I can hardly say I blame them. They're also tired of people running in front of their cars while crossing from one side of the causeway to the other. It happens all the time on Scugog, and there were times when it was dark outside that I've had people think that they could be faster than my car when crossing the street...if it weren't for my brakes they would have met a tragic end.

Be safe out there folks...

It's the classic issue where the few ruin it for everyone else.

Here's 2 more closures this year. One is fishing at Municipal docks and the other is crown land use at Burleigh Falls.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7156890/crown-la...afe-conditions/

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/new...ipal-docks.html

When did common sense and courtesy become such a rarity?

Rant over

MC

Theres lots of places to shore fish nearby. They dont want people going down that steep embankment and standing on rocks under the bridge. People take their entire family down there kids and all. It actually is not safe at all where they have not allowed fishing now.