Catch and Release Fishing - Proposed Changes, Taking Photos of Fish

Release of fish
Catch and release fishing is popular with recreational anglers in Ontario and is important to both fisheries management and the angling experience. Anglers and stakeholders have told us that being able to hold a fish long enough to take a picture and measure the length and weight of their catch is important.

Currently, under the Ontario Fishery Regulations, 2007, anglers are required to immediately release any fish where retention or possession is prohibited. If the fish is alive, it must also be released in a manner that causes the least harm.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/fishing-notices...dates#section-0

Perfect!

I do not agree with this what so ever. I can wait until bass season, or what ever fish season is open to take a picture. This will only promote some anglers to target fish out of season that are about to spawn. Or in actual spawn, or post spawn. I know that it is a harmless picture of a fish. If every angler was responsible like most are, then it would not be too much of a problem. But there are many that are not responsible, and fish for their own gratitude. Protect the fish first and foremost. We already have a fish population problem in many species. No good can come of this, oh except for a picture of a fish. OOOOH AAAAH. This of course is just my opinion. I have never lost any sleep because I could not take a picture of a fish. I hardly ever took pictures of fish before I joined this fishing forum. Now I take a few to add to the post of what ever fish I am targeting during the season for that fish. If they change the regulation so be it. But if I catch a fish out of season, it goes right back in water right away. I try to never disturb the spawn of any species. Sorry for the freak-out rant, but I think this is just stupid.

Hi Crappeeeman,

Yes I am trying to figure out what the proposed change actually is, but this section explains it. It seems to me, that fish out of season cannot be held for a photo opt, and must be released immediately. Fish in season can be held, for measuring and a picture. I think? if the changes go through..

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Proposed changes
We are proposing changes that would:

allow anglers to delay the release of a fish caught during the open season for that species, only long enough to photograph, measure and weigh, if the fish is of a restricted size or over daily catch and possession limits
require the immediate release of fish that are out of season, are species at risk or are otherwise prohibited under the existing recreational fishing rules
The purpose of these proposed changes is to improve the overall angling experience in Ontario by:

providing clarity to anglers on how they can document their catch and experience
providing opportunities to improve fisheries management
making community science programs more accessible
allowing catch-photo-release style competitive fishing events

Thank you Metalbuckle. Maybe I jumped the gun a bit there. I hope that is all it is. You know that some people can't get the regulations right because some of the regulations are a bit confusing already. LOL.

I think it's a sad day when someone has to be told by a regulation how long to hold a fish out of water. If you are planning to catch and release and you want to take a picture of your catch, how hard is to have the common sense to have everything ready to go so that you minimize the time the fish is out of the water?
I will catch and release 90% of the time and I've never had to look for a guideline to tell me that the fish should go back in the water with the least amount of stress possible on it.
Maybe just think in terms of turning around. If the fish was holding you underwater how long would you be comfortable with him doing it?

The Major factor for this change is for Tournament fishing, with regards more towards Walleye tournaments. Most of the Northern Walleye tournaments now have a catch/ photo/ release clause for any fish over the 18" size. With new Walleye regulations being proposed for many management units it would make it illegal for catch/photo/release tournaments to operate under the new regulations. When new regulations were proposed angler groups wanted this change in the regulations so they can still run tournaments. Walleye Tournaments are huge in the North, Northern Communities benefit large from these and they are important for the communities, so with this change tournament angling can continue with a few a tweeks to the rules.

Correct. This doesn't allow people to take pictures of out of season fish. This allows people to take pictures of IN season fish when they're license or the fishing rules dictate a zero possession limit.

Thank you to you as well BillM. I feel much better about that now.

X 2 ⬆️

This is an informative explanation and makes sense to me

It's good that things are being relaxed.

Fishing is getting so locked down in Ontario that you are only legally allowed to send your money to the government for a license. Everything else is illegal lol.

But I get it. Some stupid people ruin it for the responsible anglers.

We are very lucky here in ontario when you compare our regs to the majority of other provinces. Especially when you consider our population size. Thank god there are a lot of lakes!

I have fished almost every province and it is not only restrictive but very hard to understand what the regs even mean. I know ours are not written well but after trying to fish in elsewhere I came back thinking oh boy how in the hell did they make that worse lol.

Hopefully we can keep up what were doing to not have more restrictions placed on our rec activities.

Also wanted to say make sure you support those bellies of those fish for pics. Proper handling increases survival. Hope your all having a nice summer.

This post has been edited by adam101 on Aug 03, 2023 - 11:28 am