Michael_Brown

Hi Everyone: Just getting ready for tonights meeting in Peterborough at the Navel Assoc. building across from Lock 19. We are hoping for a big attendance from the anglers with lots of positive questions and information regarding the proposed changes. Just to respond to a few comments on poaching concerns, to restict angling opportunities to 99% of the angling community due to fear of a few criminal poachers is the real problem. This zone is the only zone in Ontario were you cannot enjoy quality time ice fishing with your family and friends. Not to mention the loss of tourism based revenue to our resorts, hotels, tackle stores, gas stations, etc. by not allowing winter angling. Just look at the industry surrounding the Lake Simcoe winter fishery for an idea how much the local economy could benefit from this. In slow times this is a good news story. I'm surprised the townships and business communities are not beating down the MNR door pushing this through. Angling is a huge industry in this zone, it is proposed to increase access to the anglers to year round instead of 7 months. That extra 5 months of business could mean millions of dollars into the local economy. Also winter anglers would be harvesting adult panfish which directly prey/compete with walleye. The walleye only stand to benefit from this. Remember that most walleye in the lakes are 2 inches long not 24. The rest of the province enjoys winter angling opportunities, why should we be different? This is just my opinion, please take the time to complete a survey and provide yours.

Easy now people stick to the topic of cormorants. Just because somebody disagrees with a cormorant cull doesn't mean they are bleeding heart tree huggers or if they agree they are god-playing butchers. Are cormorants a problem or are they a result of a problem? Just an idea, but maybe we should cull the zebra mussels that are clearing the water, giving cormorants an advantage to exploit their food source. Sounds a little tougher as they make small targets but after seeing some of the almost tasty recipes posted on here, anything is possible. Personally I feel shooting them is a bandaid solution, not addressing the root problem. They survived here for 100 years without a population explosion, something kept them supressed. Maybe that is what we should try to solve.

"Loons and cormorants are completely different. I assume you havent seen a thriving cormorant community." The loons comment was a joke but I hear they taste a bit like bald eagle. I have seen lots of cormorant islands and yes they are not beautiful. We should stop the bailout of GM and use the money to have all the laid-off workers trained to destroy the cormorants and then we could use the dead cormorants to feed the poor. Also we could issue tags to hunters who want to blast a few (could replace going to the driving range in spring). With all the saved cash we could reduce the need for the new HST tax, the unemployed will be busy killing birds and the poor will be well feed. Problem solved, let's go fish.

We should kill all the loons while were at it. I mean the darn things are just a cormorant with pretty feathers. Hope nobody looks at us as invasive. What has been suggested is spending lots of money to "reduce" the number of cormorants. Maybe we could scrape the gun registry and use the money to blast birds. How much are we looking to spend for this? We will not get rid of them, if you kill them off they will return to fill the void left by the cull. It's like cutting your lawn and clear water is fertilizer. Unless someone has a good recipe for them we'd better get use to them until their population levels off. If only they ate purple loosestrife. I don't like them either but imagine the money it would cost us to temporarily reduce them.

The horse's name is Pork Chop? .... I wonder who he is named after. Congrats to your daughter, Ron. Don't worry about fishing, you never catch anything anyway. See you tomorrow night in Coboconk.

Just a reminder that the Coboconk meeting is tomorrow night. Show up and hear detailed information on the fishery, have youropinion heard or show your support for the proposed regulations. I will be at this meeting as well as Peterborough, Port Hope and Oshawa.

Fish Ladder question. Here are some problems to solve before they go ahead with any change to the structure. The dam is on private property, it's a heritage site, silt concerns from the pond above, environmental concerns about disturbing the stream bed, money, money, money, & red tape. It would be great to see this dam upgraded but these are just some of the problems to overcome. Hopefully somebody takes the lead on this project before the dam gives up. Thanks to all who came out to volunteer, watch, and enjoy a nice sunny day in Cobourg. The target number was two hundred fish over and we put 204. There was still lots of fish left in the pool. Seemed to be about 60% females over but I haven't heard the final count yet. After running the net line at the bottom all morning, I'm still drying out.

If your charged, they are dicks, if your not they are nice people with lots of information. I work in law enforcement and most people I have charged think I'm a dick also. Of course the reason they were breaking the law, was not their fault and the fact that I did the job I was hired for and prosecuted them is my fault. Tough crowd to make happy but the taxpayers who pay the wages always ask for increased enforcement. Follow the rules like the majority of people and you should never have a problem. Of course if you were in their position and observed someone fighting a fish inside a sanctuary what would you do?