Some Idea's, Hatchery?

http://youtu.be/xpgnqIshDTQ
Check this out Ontario maybe you can try to convince that hatcheries don't work but look at New York State it WORKS!!!!!!

Yup. I go through that area a lot. There are hatcheries all over and the locals say the fishery is excellent.

Yes, I believe we are going backwards in Ontario.....used to be the destination province and now is most likely last on the list.

NYS just initiated another great idea.

Actualy lowered non resident license fee from 70.00 to 50.00 per year and it is a yearly license meaning it's good for 1 year from date of purchase.

NYS actaully wants fisherpeople to go and enjoy the fishery and also has a 3 rod rule

go figure

Stocking
Each year DEC produces approximately 300,000 pond-reared, 190,000 intensively reared, and 190,000,000 walleye fry to stock into 50 or more waters across the state. Thanks to DEC's Walleye Stocking Program, quality walleye fishing can be found in most DEC Regions. Gotta love what New York is doing, there were some lakes in New York that the Walleye population was disappearing but thanks to the hatchery the population of walleye in those lakes are going up and up every year!
So if the MNR in Ontario keeps making excuses on why not to start a hatchery and telling the public that certain things can happen when in the hatchery and is not good for the fish. The biggest thing that I seen was the MNR telling that stocking can't work on Nipissing because it might shock the walleye or even something to do about the air bags in the walleye. Which is a load of crap!!! If there is a money issue well I heard that some of the outfitters on the lake will share the cost!!! So MNR the ball is in your court you either do the logical thing or just sit back and watch the walleye population as what you say go down!!
Another thing why take it out on the anglers and lowering the limit from 4 to 2 a day? Why just stop the netting for at least a year to see if it make a difference. Remember most anglers respect the slot and throws back fish that are in the slot but with netting any size walleye are netted and brought back and sold on the market. Just isn't fair to cut the anglers fun and this also effects the outfitters on the lake that pay taxes to Ontario!!
So enough is enough MNR start to do something about a hatchery or the money you get from the outfitters on the lake will disappear, also tourism will disappear and then Nipissing will just be a puddle instead of the walleye haven that it is now!!!!!

Agreed, NYS and many other US States encourage fishing and are very active in stocking and creating fishing opportunties. There are countless local ponds stocked with rainbows, complete with parking areas, docks and easy access. In Ontario, well what can I say.. I'm not seeing overly positive results.

It's just a political mindset to get out of hatcheries and stocking in general.

Mind you a lot of advocates support this move as they wish to see native wild fish instead of stocked fish.

That is indeed a great goal, but in the interim, if a fishery is in trouble and the Nip. one has been id'd for years......yes, then something radical has to be tried.

Always the same story.it will not work.....I am losing faith in MNR executive decision making not just for Nipissing but across the entire province.

Sure budgets have been cut, but there is always a way to raise dollars
Right now. today and for past few years all we see in any management plan from MNR is cut back limits. cut back in slot size. cut back seasons and so on.

That in now way proves to enhance any fishery........stocking works and sound management works.

I do not see either

Nipissing is not in New York, thank you. Anyone who knows anything about "sound management" in fisheries knows that stocking on top of an established, naturally reproducing one is a BIG NO NO. This is already taking place on a fairly large scale in Nipissing and has been for some time. To date nobody has any idea what it truly is doing. The parties involved just dump'em in and hope for the best. Something fairly basic like fin clipping could be done to at least get an idea of return.. but nothing of the sort has been done. The stocking could actually have an adverse effect, but how the hell are we to know.

I spent some time at the fisheries lab in Algonquin (home of the longest study of lake trout in North America). Say what you want about the MNR, the guys working there knew their $#@!. Their take on stocking was that if it's taking place, it's probably because we've already F'd it up in the first place.

Nipissing is healthy. It has a native population (not truly, but in this day and age...) that doesn't need any help reproducing. If you guys want a put and take fishery, why not do it down south? Stock the hell out of the Kawarthas. Don't take what's left of a gem and turn it into a giant version of the "trout ponds" you see at outdoor shows and shopping malls on march break, thank you.

I agree with northhunter 100% very well written




Picmaster

That's exactly the mindset I am referring to.

It's called boxed in thinking mode. or let's do nothing mode

I only agree with you on 2 items .

1.stocking if taking place requires clipping (which is currently out of favour) or another means of Identifcation ( dyed color coding id mark on fish) of year classes and

2. there needs to be creel done on this lake.

As for the fisheries being sound........you better talk with your experts again..

I did not state that stocking was the final solution, but it is an option

It's on the verge of potential collapse

I spent well past 30 years in northern Ontario, meaning well past North Bay ans worked on many FMP that actualy helped enhance a fishery.

Algonquin park is not north imho...

I aslo wanted to add that the stock of wlleye will/would obviously come form lake nip itself and that should not impact th alke in a negative way.

Too many spawners are being harvested and will continue to be if unchecked.

MNR has not had a new vision for 2 1/2 decades.....ever since it was gutted in the mid 80's.

it's a shell of its former self and tons of talent went out the door

Sadly, it is now nothing much more than a beaurocractic entity with very little local decision making powers....I wish that were not the case but it is.

The Shank makes some great points, and yes North hunter you also have a vision and for what it is worth I believe it's time for stocking and Managing Lake Nipissing, Walleye population much like southern areas are managed. People have to understand the pressure put on the fish stocks is so much greater now and that Nipissing is not a remote northern adventure anymore. Unfortunately the MNR wants nothing to do with Nipissing even though it generates huge $$$$ from tourism, they infact abandoned the lake when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Aboriginals. Sour grapes or what they call budget cuts, the sad reality with the MNR is even when there given huge budgets nothing is done. My understanding of Lake management at this time is the Natives, the tourist operators and the sportsmen are all on the same page, the ###### match is essentially over, the big block to get anything done is the reluctance of the MNR. The MNR in fact has blocked and litterally stopped any sort of managment ideas and won't even look at what the shareholders on the lake have to offer.I can understand if the MNR dosn't have the funds to establish a hatchery or stocking program but they don't even have the decency to consider options, the MNR is not a solution to the problem, in fact they are a hinderence, they are a big part of the problem.

I am most definitely not a "boxed in" thinker, nor am I of a "do nothing mindset". I should have used the quote thingy in the first place, 'cause my comment on "sound management" was in response to "Stocking works and sound management works". I never even remotely said the managment was "sound", and stocking is not management.... it's just stocking.

If you want water in a bucket but it keeps pouring out of a hole, what is the more logical thing to do? Try and fix the hole, or continuously pour more water into the bucket? If Nipissing is indeed in trouble, you try and fix the problem first. I am of a certain mindset in that I care about the resource, and not just catching fish. Nipissing is my backyard. I grew up fishing the lake and went and got educated in fisheries management, watching this whole thing play out in the process. I shared a boat and pulled nets with a gentleman who went on to be appointed the lakes "Large Lake Biologist", although I believe he's since moved on. I know a thing or two about the lake. I also know that on nearby Trout Lake (not the North Bay Trout Lake) where the walleye fishing stunk, stocking has been going on as a "management tool" by much the same process and for probably about the same time frame as it has on Nip. Guess what... the walleye fishing still stinks.

I was corresponding with a lodge owner who was participating with the Highway 64 walleye project some years ago. What he said to me at the time was that it was an effort to put something back and avert a crisis before before things got bad.
Stocking is an option that has been exercised for quite a few years now. If the lakes walleye pop. is still on the "verge of collapse" as you put it, then what has it done?

P.S. I never said Algonquin was north. They guys running the longest ongoing lake trout study still know their $#*! It's a pretty small workforce, anyways. Many of the people "in the know" with that profession know eachother, regardless of what region or lab they work out of.

Relax.........it wasn't an attack, observations only.

boxed in thinking was a referernce to MNR

You did state tho that the lake was "healthy" I believe

OFAH and others think quite differently

Remember guys and girls this is just opinions and observations by everybody that posts!! No need to take it personal unless your a walleye then you might take it in a different way! lol