Rice Lake resident

The average bluegill out of Rice Lake weighs more like 8 or 9 ounces. A one pound sunfish would certainly be longer than 7" and they can only take 30 of those on a sport licence. 50 per day would be a much more fair limit for sunfish than a 300 possession limit. An angler who visits for two weeks could then take home 750 fish. You're right. Rice Lake doesn't have redear sunfish which is yet ANOTHER different breed of the cichlyd family of bass. I had no idea there were so many different kinds. They're even related to the cichlyds you might keep in an aquarium. Rice Lake does have the pumpkinseed which is the native fish and the bluegill which is the invasive species, still two different fish.

The shipping regulations have not changed. The species must be recognizable which means they must have skin on them. 300 filetted and frozen bluegill fit in a small cooler and weigh approx 20lb. The RLTA did have a trophy for largest bluegill for years. We haven't had one for 4 years as we were encouraging people to throw the big ones back. I'm sure we'll be bringing back the trophy. Looks like now we'll be getting rid of the walleye trophy as you can't keep any big ones. Most of them were kept in live wells and successfully released anyway but we're not encouraging anyone to bring a large walleye off the lake for a photo when regulations say you can't keep them. All sunfish, bluegill are bass as well. I'm not sure what the point is anymore either. Happy fishing!

Why don't you stick to the argument that is true and can be worked on... "We believe the new limits are a contributing factor to a decline in reservations and occupancy. Since socio-economics must be considered in limit studies, we would ask the MNR to keep this in mind when the next set of regulations come out. In the mean time, we will aggressively market the Rice Lake area as not only a fishing destination, but as a family recreation area as well and ask for Tourism Ontario's help in this transition." Have you read Terry Quinney's report to Peterborough county? It speaks nothing of biology but only about potential revenue for the county. As for Tourism ONtario...that's just funny. Are you ready for another tax? Your initial tactic failed..and yet it continues to be modified, even to the point it is contrary to the initial argument, and no one has stopped to say..THIS IS WORKING! You cannot win without the support of the stakeholders, which believe it or not is not just you. It is all the residents of Ontario, specifically all the fishing license holders. Get these guys on your side if you want a chance. Our guests are also licence holders and pay a lot more for that privilege than you do. They will speak with their wallets and revenue for licences will continue to go down as they have for the past 3 years. Whatever. We'll survive and I guess the fishery will eventually prove who is right.

The regs don't differentiate but the MNR's study DOES. They are a different fish and if you can't tell the difference I invite you to come on down and one of our US anglers will point out the differences to you. Pumpkinseed, redear and sunfish are different names for the same fish. The study states that bluegill numbers have stabilized. This is despite agressive fishing for 30+ years so with the decreasing numbers of US visitors decreasing over the last few years that should be more than enough for these numbers to INCREASE which may not be good. Our concern is what will happen to other fisheries if they are allowed to flourish practically unhindered. I never said NO one is coming but we have had several cancellations. That in itself would not bother us if these limits were biologically warranted as we DO care about the future of the Rice Lake fishery. Please try to be open minded and try to see that there may be a different perspective than the one you see. Our guests have been throwing large males back. With these new regs they will keep them as they're limited to numbers. You can't blame them. If they can only keep 300 fish after a 2 week vacation they might as well make it worthwhile. Most resort owners are fishing licence issuers and take this responsiblity seriously. We have often educated our guests on the dangers of "accidently" catching bass when not yet in season, even if they throw them back, yet we've seen plenty of "locals" obviously fishing for bass out of season. We've worked with the MNR to try to increase the size of bluegill. We ask our guests to voluntarily through large pickerel back as they are the breeders. We are not objecting to any of the regs other than the bluegill. We care about the lake.

I have not posted before as I have no desire to get into pointless arguements but this one is just funny. How can an "all knowing angler" not know the difference between bluegill and sunfish? They are very similar but since you have quite a few opinions on the subject you really should understand the facts. "Differences between bluegill and redear arise when comparing the habitat and feeding requirements of the two. First of all, Redear sunfish are very structure oriented, unlike their Bluegill counterparts who will frequent open waters. Like bluegill, redear sunfish consume small aquatic insects. However, snails and other mollusks comprise a large portion of the Redear’s diet. Although both species will inhabit sand and gravel beach areas during their spawning season, Redear sunfish usually reproduce only once per season, reducing the time they will be in the beach area" The rest of this article can be found at http://www.ibnature.com/Redear,Bluegill%20Sunfish.pdf. There are a couple of pictures to make it easier for you to understand. Americans prefer bluegill (the invasive species) as it has more meat and is less bony than the indigenous sunfish. Go ahead and check my ip address. I am Jodi from Alpine Resort. If you'd like to see the difference come on over any time in June and some of our REAL fishermen will show you the difference and might even give you some tips on cleaning fish so there is no waste.