Rod Caster

The commercial fishery on Nip isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. You can bring that to the bank. The legal netting only represents a small portion of the fish removed from the lake over a one year span and considering the money it puts back into research and care, it probably does just as much good for the lake. Like Crosshairs suggested, that is their lively hood and I don't think their plan is to fish out the lake, then move on to the next large lake. If you dont' catch walleye in nipissing, what do you do? Well you move on to the next lake and tell everyone Nipissing is fished out and do nothing about it. The natives can't really do the same... i think that is one of the major points here. The illegal netting, or non-business netting, well, is a completely different story. Just like we get slapped and shamed for keeping over our daily possession limit, the illegal netters should have to face consequences for their actions, and it should be made public so that everyone knows it.

If you like the Wave Worm brand, there is a small shop in Mattawa that sells them for $3/pack. Tubes, wacky worms, grubs, frogs etc... I pick up 7 packs for $20 even, and after I gave the guy some neat rocks for his collection, he threw in a free Believer!

Beautiful landscape and a good use of three days off!

I was thinking the same for big pike... Mooneye aren't considered a game fish so I imagine its allowed.

do woodpeckers peck at night?

Nice going. Frog leg soup?

That's odd, considering that seagulls have such a sophistocated palate.

agreed Chris.... the body and mouth are the exact same. I was quite suprised to see them up here. We fried some up in AB and they tasted like mud, ok in the smoker though.

JoeyTier caught this little pirahna like fish in the Ottawa river, near Mattawa. I didn't know we had them up this way. Looks exactly like the goldeye I used to catch in Alberta, minus the gold colored eye. Next time I fish for big pike, I'm using a large silver Williams spoon.

Ha, that'll light a fire under anyones butt

haha fair enough, although large consumption of fish from Nipissing is nothing new.

He's one of those scientists who genuinly cares for what he's researching, it's possible he has other motivations but I wouldn't speculate that from a guy like him. To be honest, he might be trying to save Trout Lake more than anything with this Nipissing spiny flea topic. That guy loves trout lake more than I love cold beer on hot days.

Except those who rely on commecial fishing for their livelyhood. I'd say there is a better chance that general polution and lack of care for the lake has affected the walleye more than anything. The flea, as an invasive species are included in this...the majority of people who use the lake for fun don't give a hoot, people who use it to put gas in their car, well they have to. 10-4 on the opinion...we are all entitled.

Same song over and over... what they are getting at in the article is that the spiny flea is affecting the forage base in the lake. Even though you know that the commercial fishery is definitly the biggest change in the ecosystem, let alone that the natural population of walleye in Nipissing has been replaced by stockers over the past 60 years, it doesn't mean that your opinion is a fact. Mr. Fillion is a great researcher and from what I know has no direct affiliation with our local native band, if he saw the commercial fishery as the number one concern for nipissing, I'm sure he would have stated that quite clearly. That guy has done so much for Trout Lake and has fought tooth and nail for the small ouinaniche and Lake Trout population in that lake, both against the lakeside residence, the MNR and others...he doesn't hold back much. "It is pretty obvious that removing a large number of predators from the food chain will have an impact throughout the whole ecosystem, maybe even affecting the water flea population, that subject just never comes up in these articles. " Everytime Nipissing walleye are mentioned on this site, or in public, the commercial fishery is discussed, usually in a negative manner. I don't think that one The Nugget (yesterday's news as I call it) article will make a difference for your argument. This was a good article in my opinion and it shows that there is more than one issue with our dear lake.

Why the hell would a spiny flea article discuss netting? That would be quite the tangent. I imagine the nugget is waiting for intelligent commentary.

I hate that feeling of going deep into the woods only to catch garbage fish.... it's happened too many times, but it's also a learning experience. I'm glad you caught something that you might not otherwise catch. That's a good sized brookie to say the least!

We need to bring in carp to eat the fleas, then cormorants to eat the carp, then panthers to eat the cormorants and then land fleas to rid of the panthers. Its gonna be an interesting summit. Filion sure is a leading researcher in this area... He was one of the teachers at my old high school

Good find! She'll be nice and floaty when she's done. I've gotta do the watertest on mine before the big trip.

Nice to see they are taking the first step... I doubt any government agency would have attempted this. I'm sure Nipissing can handle a small commercial fishery, but everyone needs to know the facts. Are you going Nipfisher? Wanna be our inside reporter?

He caught one fish... no big deal. Pretty much every lake on the map has at least one fish. Maybe there's no need to say the lake name if it's a small watershed, but it's not like he reported a honey hole full of fish. I think your guys' resentement is giving it away more than anything. To yush: I hope you didn't body slam that fish after that pose.

My Sports pal has several riveted patches on it from a previous owner and was leaking a bit so, I removed all the old crappy silicone around the patches and replaced it with some JB-Weld epoxy. Use a drill and a wire brush to clean around your "suspect" areas...you can see the pin holes much easier this way. I still need to go over it with a fine tootch comb as I'm still getting a few ounces of water after a couple hours. by the way, do you have seats for that thing? Can you post a photo if you do.

Looks like fun man! I really enjoyed trying carp fishing for the first time.

Love the hot dog hold on those walleye. What a great lake.

Mercman's dog would probably lick it up.