Spiel

....I know of bright Kings running in the spring with loose roe in certain Ontario rivers. I've also encountered and seen plenty of fall spawning rainbows, go figure.

Community group to manage Roches Point dock yorkregion.com Mar 26, 2008 Georgina council members voted unanimously last night to allow a community association to manage a local dock and beachfront on Lake Simcoe. The move comes after years of complaints of drunken rowdiness, illegal fishing, noise and drug abuse at the Roches Point public dock. It prompted a couple who live next door to offer to buy the property for $650,000 and close it to the public, forcing council to declare the sale to be considered during a meeting that packed the council chambers. The offer sparked the Roches Point Community Association to come forward with an alternate plan to manage the dock area with the hope of ending the chronic problems. The association members feared losing local use of the lakefront area — a federal dock for more than a century before it was taken over by the town several years ago. Association president Murray Marriage said the proposed sale would also set a dangerous precedent leading to more potential private takeovers of public lakefront. Council supported the proposal after hearing plans for the complete transformation of the property, including the continuation of its use by Georgina residents only, council. A report from the town's leisure services department will outline details of the agreement.

....That there is some good advice.

....Congrats Pete (Charmaine), sounds like a sweet ride.

:D :D

....Kind a sums up my thoughts.... Editorial

Still plenty of ice fishing to be done; Walleye season ends Tuesday; bring on the pike and trout March 29, 2008 Bruce Heidman / thesudburystar.com If you're still looking for your hard-water walleye fix, better get out there this weekend. The walleye season now closes April 1 in newly created zone 10, where Greater Sudbury and surrounding area falls in. The walleye season used to be open until April 14 north of Highway 17, but that is no longer the case. Ice fishing huts must also be removed by Tuesday. However, other angling opportunities abound, and at least one new one is available for local anglers. The season for northern pike in zone 10 is now open year round. As a bonus, the biggest pike of the year are often caught during late winter. Big pike are filling up for extra energy for the spawn and are loaded full of eggs or milt, making them even heavier. The best place to start your search for these big toothy critters is at the first or second dropoff on the edge of weedy spawning bays. Find a spot on the north or northwest section of a lake out from an a incoming flow of water, no matter how small, and you just may have a pike magnet. Big bait, especially lively suckers and dead smelt, hooked up on a quick-strike rig under tip-ups are tops for pike this time of year. Pike, even big ones, are scavengers and eat up winter kill. Some anglers even swear by killing big suckers right before putting them on their hooks. Check regulations for the lake you intend to fish to find out if smelt are legal to use as bait. There is a slot limit for pike in zone 10. Those with sportfishing licences can still keep six fish, but only two greater than 24 inches of which one may be greater than 33.9 inches. Those with conservation licences may keep two pike, only one greater than 24 inches and none greater than 33.9 inches in length. The trout season is still in full swing, be it lakers, specks or splake. With the water temperature the same throughout the water column this time of year, lake trout can be anywhere. During family trip to Lake Joseph in the Muskokas last week, we found them in 140 feet of water, while a friend fishing Manitoulin Island's Lake Manitou was catching them 30 feet down the same weekend. Run and gun is the order of the day until you contact fish. A set line with a live minnow and a jigging rod with varying assortment of jigging spoons are often the way to go for these denizens of the deep. Speckled, or brook trout, cruise the shallows this time of year. Search out mud-bottom bays in as little as two or three feet of water. An incoming stream bringing in oxygenated water can improve your odds. The biggest specks I've caught were in three feet of water only three feet off shore. Keep off the ice if possible after setting tip-ups with small minnows or worms to avoid spooking shallow fish, or stay as still as possible while jigging tiny spoons. Panfish, including perch, are open year round and can offer fast and furious action this time of year. Female perch are loaded with eggs this time of year, and for a special treat remove the egg sacs, batter them up and toss them in the frying pan with the fillets. Get your fishing fix now if possible. We're only a couple of weeks away from that terrible time of year where there isn't enough ice to support anglers and not enough open water to grab a rod and reel or launch a boat. I shudder at the thought. Bruce Heidman is The Star's sports editor and a fishing fanatic.

New dockage for anglers and boaters March 26, 2008 Nadine Schofield / midnorthmonitor.com Espanola; On Tuesday, March 18 the shores of Lang Lake featured a joyous occasion; the official ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the new dock. Construction is about 80% complete on the dock being built by Acton Contracting and is fully funded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Small Craft Harbours Branch. The cost of building is $40,000. Maintenance is administered through the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and the Rainbow Country Local Service Board (RCLSB). The project took 10 years to successfully secure funding doe to the persistence of Marcel Rancourt, President of the Lang Lake Cottagers Association. Over 180 cottagers use the public dock located close to the Lang Lake Resort owned by Konstantin and Liudmila Aizenberg. Lang Lake is just one of eight interconnecting lakes accessible from the dock. Constructed out of hemlock, the new dock will finally eliminate the hazards that plagued the old dock. The new dock is four feet wider than the previous one. Brent St. Denis said, “One thing about it taking this long (10 years), it will last that much longer.” He commended the dedication and persistence of those involved commenting that the cottagers, many who come from the United States and southern Ontario, will know that RCLSB cares about them. Richard Foucault, Chairman of the RCLSB, sent out his sincere thanks to his board and everyone involved, and commented on how Acton Contracting is going out of their way to make sure that the dock is well reinforced for the long road. They are also coming in under budget and on time. Marcel Rancourt of the Lang Lake Cottagers Association said that the Ministry of Natural Resources didn’t take an active role in the project, which is why they relied heavily on Brent St. Denis’s office for support over the last 10 years. The new dock was necessary as water was coming over the sides of the dock, people were having accidents and grass was growing in the middle of the old structure. Rancourt expressed how grateful the Lang Lake Cottagers Association was to the RCLSB for their support

Remove ice huts now, MNR cautions March 26, 2008 Kate Weldon / barrysbaythisweek.com The deadline for ice hut removal is soon approaching. Although March 31 is the day all ice huts need to be off frozen waterways, Pembroke District Ministry of Natural Resources Special Project Officer Doug Skeggs says, "Now’s the time folks, don’t wait." He says spring temperatures are unpredictable and a quick rise in temperature and a little rainfall can turn a frozen lake into a swimming pool with the blink of an eye. "If you leave it (an ice hut) on too long it may no longer be safe to retrieve it." Every year, Skeggs says, ice huts fall through the ice because their owners don’t remove them in time. The structure, along with its contents, end up on the bottom of the lake where they can interfere with the ecosystem of aquatic life. Those who leave their hut out on the ice after March 31 can face a fine of $150 under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.

Monitoring of at-risk species set to start Mar 28, 2008 Craig Campbell/ Dundas Star Several organizations will team up to monitor the effect of a July pesticide spill into Spencer Creek on animals that use the creek and Cootes Paradise as a food source. Fire douse water from a Head Street pesticide plant fire allegedly killed all living organisms in the creek, which flows into Cootes Paradise and Hamilton Harbour. The contamination may have effectively wiped out the food source for several at-risk or endangered species, and potentially created new at-risk species of animals that once thrived in the area. But no new data has been collected over the past eight months as monitoring of the birds, amphibians and mammals that eat in and around Spencer Creek has not started yet. But Ministry of Environment spokesperson Jennifer Hall said a rehabilitation and recovery plan drawn up by a partnership including the MOE, Hamilton Conservation Authority and Royal Botanical Gardens will include monitoring of animals affected by the loss of their food source. Small aquatic organisms; "No one agency can do it," Ms. Hall said. "We have to rely on the expertise everyone has to offer. The ministry is monitoring the recovery of the small aquatic organisms which are the food supply for fish. "Additional sampling of the creek for both water and sediment quality will be carried out in the spring." Counts of other animals in addition to fish will also take place beginning in the spring. But Karla Spence-Diermair, species at-risk biologist at the RBG, said it could be quite a while before anyone determines whether the July 2007 spill actually impacted animals other than fish and microscopic aquatic organisms. "Basically, it would be ongoing research, and we'd discover it over the years," Ms. Spence-Diermair said. She said that would include finding evidence of a particular species being wiped out completely, or a brand new at risk species being created from an animal that was once stable. Among the species considered at risk in the Spencer Creek area are specific fish and turtles. Ms. Spence-Diermair suggested birds may naturally defend themselves because they fly off to find a new food source. "But they probably drank the water, which would have more of an impact than losing their food source," she said.

It's official! Manitoulin joins Zone 10 fishery Management area Advisory committee struck to present Island concerns at broader zone level March 28, 2008 Jim Moodie / manitoulin.ca MANITOULIN-A redrawing of the angling management map has left Manitoulin as a small fish in a big pond. In January, the Island and its inland lakes were lumped into Zone 10, an area that sprawls from Wawa in the northwest to the French River in the south, and as far east and north as Elk Lake. The change came as part of a province-wide amalgamation of fishing divisions, which were cut nearly in half-from 37 to 20-and rechristened as fisheries management zones. Or FMZs, if you care to add a new acronym to your vocabulary. For years, Manitoulin had been its own fishing district-number 28-and treated as distinct from other areas of the North. This made sense, said Bill Strain of the Little Current Fish and Game Club, since "the lakes on the North Shore are in Precambrian shield and entirely different from what we experience here with our limestone basin." Now, however, Manitoulin will be just one voice among many on a council representing Zone 10, a vast region across which most fishing regulations will be harmonized. The good news is that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), recognizing the Island's exceptional character, has established a Manitoulin advisory committee that will have the opportunity to identify our area's priorities and air these concerns via its representative on the zone council. "It's to serve as a sounding board and also as a means to forward ideas regarding fisheries management to the new council," said MNR biologist Wayne Selinger. He added that the only other part of Zone 10 that will have its own advisory committee is the French River. "These are specially designated areas within the zone because of their unique character." The Manitoulin group met for the first time last week, with members on hand to represent fish and game clubs, tourist operators, First Nations, lake associations, the Manitoulin Area Stewardship Council and Manitoulin Streams. Manitoulin has always had a voice in MNR decisions about the fishery, Mr. Selinger said, with the United Fish and Game Clubs of Manitoulin (UFGCM) having fulfilled this role in recent years. "But the new group has broader representation," he noted. "We have eight or nine members right now, and are also approaching the Manitoulin Municipal Association. We're trying to cover the full spectrum." At the inaugural meeting of the committee held at the Manitoulin Welcome Centre on March 17, Al Douglas, proprietor of Hideaway Lodge and chair of the Manitoulin Tourism Association, was chosen in absentia to represent the group at the zone level. "The committee will serve as a means to collate input for this individual to take to the Zone 10 council," said Mr. Selinger. "It's one voice but you're pulling in input from a broader group." While most regulations regarding fishing seasons and catch limits will be consistent across the zone, as set out in the province's new Ecological Framework for Recreational Fisheries Management, the biologist said "there may be a need for (Manitoulin) to differ somewhat, as is already the case." The daily catch limit for yellow perch on Manitoulin, for instance, is currently 25, as compared to twice that in other areas of Zone 10, noted Mr. Selinger. This owes to the fact that perch is more highly prized as a sport fish on the Island, where it grows to bigger sizes and is deemed an excellent meal. "It's not really a sport fish in the balance of Zone 10," he said. "It's seen as more of a forage or nuisance fish, because they don't size up and provide the same kind of fishery as the jumbo perch on the Island." Recognizing the value of this niche fishery, "we've rationalized an exception for Manitoulin perch," said the MNR rep. The UFGCM would like to see protection of the perch fishery taken a step farther, with a closed season during spring spawning. Asked if this wish is likely to be granted, Mr. Selinger was hesitant to make a definitive prediction. "This is something that would have to go through the zone council," he said. The most immediate change, and one that is already irking a few Islanders, is a reduction in the daily limit for lake trout. In the past, anglers on Manitoulin could catch up to three lake trout per day; that number is now poised to drop to two. While the ministry, in rolling out its new fisheries framework for 2008, insisted that most anglers "will not notice big changes in the regulations," it did concede that, "in some areas, the change in boundaries will mean more significant changes in fishing seasons and fishing limits." Moreover, because the MNR is most concerned about the protection of natural fish populations, a number of stricter rules have been put in place regarding the harvest of brook trout and lake trout. Manitoulin has a relatively small population of the former (most of them reintroduced through recent stocking efforts undertaken by the MNR), but plenty of the latter, particularly in Lake Manitou. Indeed, the population here of lake trout is so vibrant that, for years, the ministry has been drawing spawn from Manitou for the stocking of other lakes across the North, noted Kevin Hutchinson, a representative of the Little Current Fish and Game Club who will be sharing duties on the new advisory committee with Mr. Strain. Initially, this withdrawal of spawn was rewarded with the stocking of lake trout fingerlings, said Mr. Hutchinson. But lately, the MNR has "decided that they don't need to put any back in because the lake is doing so well." The ministry is also harvesting fewer eggs from Manitou these days, he added, "because they now figure that it's better to take spawn from the area where it's going to be stocked, because they survive better." As a result, Mr. Hutchinson said lake trout in Manitou are naturally reproducing at an impressive rate and the population is booming as never before. "The fishing this winter for lake trout has been, by far, the best fishing we've ever had." He said it's striking how many trout in the 14"-18" range, perfect for eating, have been found by anglers' hooks of late. "The lake's full of them," he said. Given this preponderance, Mr. Hutchinson feels it's unfair to subject Manitoulin to the same restrictions on trout as will be applied elsewhere across the zone. "We're unique in that we have a really good lake for trout," he said. "My concern is for the poor tourist operator, especially on Lake Manitou, where the livelihood is largely based on lake trout." Knocking the daily catch limit down from three to two might not seem like a huge deal to some observers, but Mr. Hutchinson said it could be the difference in a trout fisherman's choice of where to spend his summer holiday. "If the ministry is saying you can only have two, then what is going to happen? Are people going to go to Michigan or to other places?" he wonders. The ministry is additionally proposing a closed season for lake trout after July 15, since females are full of spawn in late summer. Mr. Hutchinson said he can understand the rationale for such a move in areas where lake trout are struggling to regain a foothold, but given Manitou's robust population of trout, and the fact that many tourists expect to fish for them all summer, he feels such a stipulation would be unfair. To him, this is a perfect illustration of how the one-size-fits-all approach reflected in the new zone model simply won't work. "I find it a pretty hard pill to swallow," he said. "We're here on Manitoulin, trying to promote fishing, and all of a sudden we're forced into Zone 10, whereas for years and years we were area 28 and could have our own say. We should be our own specific, separate zone." Mr. Strain agrees that this would be the ideal scenario, but given that there appears to be no going back, is trying to look on the bright side. "It's great that we at least have an opportunity to have a subcommittee to represent Manitoulin's interests," he said. "If it wasn't that way, you'd just have one person going to these Zone 10 meetings. This way, at least there's more of a collective voice." It's a point that Mr. Selinger is also emphasizing. "It's one advantage to the new framework, in that we're giving stakeholders a greater voice in fisheries management," he said. Another bonus, he said, is that "attached to each zone there is a new fisheries monitoring proposal, where we'll be doing random sampling of lakes across the zone on a five-year cycle to evaluate populations." This has occurred over the years for various animal populations, such as moose, he noted, but the MNR hasn't previously had "this structured monitoring for fish." The proposal would allow for "an unbiased random sampling of the province's fishery" that would greatly enhance the ministry's ability to manage the resource, he said. In the meantime, he is hopeful that Manitoulin's concerns can be adequately reflected within the new zone, while declining to promise too much in the way of exceptions that might be made to various rules. "The flexibility regarding regulatory options on the Island remains to be seen," he said. The first meeting of the zone council, at which Island rep Mr. Douglas plans to be present, will be held in Sudbury today (March 26).

March 27, 2008 ONTARIO GETTING ADVICE ON PROTECTING LAKE SIMCOE McGuinty Government Acting To Improve Lake Simcoe Ecosystem NEWS The province is asking Ontarians and scientists for their advice on how to protect Lake Simcoe. This advice will help in developing new laws and measures to protect and improve the lake’s water quality. Ontario is seeking advice by: 1 - releasing a discussion paper 2 - creating a Lake Simcoe Science Advisory Committee The discussion paper includes a range of measures to protect the health of the Lake Simcoe watershed ecosystem, including mechanisms such as financial assistance for farmers and others to further stewardship activities. New interim limits on phosphorus from municipal and industrial sewage plants are in place as of April 1, 2008. These will help protect the lake from one of the threats to its water quality while the government works on the long term protection strategy. Stronger protection for Lake Simcoe is part of the McGuinty government’s green plan for Ontario. QUOTES “I want our strategy for protecting Lake Simcoe to set the gold standard for creating sustainable communities that safeguard the environment they depend on and enjoy,” said Environment Minister John Gerretsen. “This is a great opportunity to work together on improved protection for Lake Simcoe that will ultimately benefit hundreds of thousands of people and serve as a model for protecting Ontario’s lakes and watersheds,” said Aileen Carroll, MPP Barrie. QUICK FACTS - Over 350,000 people live in the Lake Simcoe watershed. - More than $200 million a year is generated for the local economy by recreational activities alone. - Lake Simcoe provides drinking water for eight communities. - An estimated $600 million is generated by agricultural production annually. LEARN MORE Learn more about protecting Lake Simcoe. Contacts: John Karapita, Minister’s Office, 416-314-6736 John Steele, Communications Branch, 416-314-6666

....Will I be participating? In short "NO".

....Hey thanks for posting those pictures Dave. T'was a good evening for sure. In fact Gerritt won a rod and reel moments after he left. I'm currently holding it for ransom.

Hunting bloody red shrimp in the St. Lawrence March 26, 2008 Trevor Pritchard / Cornwall Standard It's got bulbous black eyes, a voracious appetite, and a name straight out of a Grade Z horror flick. The bloody red shrimp, one of Canada's newest invasive species, has already been found in Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. And this summer, Dr. J‚r“me Marty plans to hunt for the nickel-sized invertebrate with a taste for zooplankton in the St. Lawrence River. "It's been predicted to be here. It's likely to be found," says Marty, 34, a freshwater aquatic ecologist who joined the St. Lawrence River Institute last November. The tiny shrimp, named for its distinctive red colour, can destroy entire aquatic ecosystems by gobbling up the food fish need to survive. Adults eat zooplankton - small organisms that are energy sources for many fish - while the juveniles consume algae. It's a toxic combination that's resulted in fish stocks disappearing in European rivers and lakes, says Marty, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the University of Quebec at Montreal. "They won't have food to sustain their growth," he says. The invasion of Hemimysis anomala, the shrimp's scientific name, began between 1948 and 1965. During that time, says Marty, the former Soviet Union released "hundreds of millions" of shrimp from several different species into the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azov. The goal, he says, was to encourage the growth of fish populations. But as time passed, the bloody red shrimp - which fish rarely eat - migrated westward along the Volga and Rhine rivers. By 2004, they had been seen off the coast of the United Kingdom. Two years later, the first specimens appeared in Canadian waters - carried across the Atlantic, says Marty, in the ballast tanks of ships. For now, says Marty, scientists can only make educated guesses as to whether the bloody red shrimp is living in the St. Lawrence River. In fact, with only 10 peer-reviewed papers published on the shrimp, there's not much known at all about the species, including what impact it's having on the Great Lakes. It's those two questions Marty hopes to find answers to this summer. He's applied for an Environment Canada grant to search for the creatures along the river between Cornwall and Kingston, with the help of his colleagues at the institute and researchers from both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Advertisement Given they can survive in waters as cold as two degrees Celsius, Marty says he wouldn't be surprised if the bloody red shrimp is already here. Yet ironically, the shrimp has almost disappeared from the eastern European seas where it was first introduced, he says. Scientists don't know why, says Marty, but believe there might be a virus or an unknown parasite attacking the shrimp - which means it's possible that if the species does establish itself in the St. Lawrence River, it could one day be eradicated. And because they gather in large red "swarms" along the shoreline, anglers and boaters can easily detect the shrimp if they do appear, he says. For now, says Marty, the best way to keep the invasive species out of the waterway is to carefully regulate the dumping of ballast water. "There is nothing (else) you can really do," he says. "When it's there, it's there."

I have a HEADACHE !

....I knew there was a reason to get up today, Happy Birthday Norm.

....I've used a number of cannon ball styles over the years and I'm partial to anything not round. I picked up a pair of these in black (10lb) last fall and but have yet to try them. I've no doubt they'll do the job. I wouldn't hesitate to go 10lb or even 12lb as I find 8lb to be just a little light.

....Wow, seems like we go through this every year! Oh well belated Happy Birthday Wayne. I trust it was swell.

Okay

It probably will be by late in the evening, best I bring a change of clothing.

Daily creel limit for perch expected to be down to 25 Sunday, March 23, 2008 Steve Pollick / toledoblade.com OHIO - Expect to see commercial fishing nets in the western basin of Lake Erie this summer, but they will not be landing yellow perch. And expect to see the daily sport angler creel limit on perch there to drop from 30 to 25, as forecast, come July 1. Those changes, under discussion among state fisheries managers since at least January, appear likely now that the Lake Erie Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission formally has lowered the lakewide allowable catch for 2008. The committee significantly lowered the lakewide walleye take as well, though that action is not likely to affect sport limits this year. The lowered allowances for both species are responses to poor walleye and yellow perch year-classes in 2002, 2004, and 2006, and a below-average class in 2007, all of which translates into declining stocks and increasing anxiety over the need for good hatches this year. "Commercial fishermen still can net white perch, white bass, channel catfish, and carp," noted Jeff Tyson, supervisor of Lake Erie fish management and research for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. "But they will not be able to land [yellow] perch." The commercial fishing season for yellow perch opens May 1 on the lake, and Tyson said that the division intends to follow what is known as Policy 2 under increased authority and control over netters granted by Senate Bill 77, which was passed last fall. The state annually receives catch-quotas on yellow perch and walleye, which represents its share of the available stocks, as set by cooperative agreement under the GLFC. Policy 2 in turn dictates that first priority in the catch-quota goes to the sport fishery, and if there is a forecast surplus, then it is assigned to the commercial fishery. No commercial taking of walleye has been allowed in Ohio waters of the lake for some 25 years, since deadly gillnets were banned here. The state's annual catch-quota is further subdivided by basin, with the western basin - the center for most sportfishing activity - allotted just 700,000 pounds for yellow perch. A year ago sport anglers and netters combined to take 980,000 pounds of perch from the basin, some 20 percent over the quota of 833,000 pounds. Sport anglers alone took more than 800,000 pounds of the total. Lakewide the perch allocation by the GLFC was reduced from 11.39 million pounds in 2007 to 10.16 million pounds this year. An area-based sharing formula gives Ohio about 4.39 million pounds and Ontario 4.861 million pounds, with the rest split among the other three states. The lakewide allowance compares to an actual landing of about 9.69 million pounds a year ago. Failure to do something about adhering to quotas could lead to a fishing war with Ontario, the other major player in the lake fisheries and which is ruled by a large fleet of commercial netters and a relative dearth of sport anglers. The province, plus Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York, all sit on the GLFC and its lake committee. Given such realities, the Ohio Division of Wildlife's fisheries managers have been scrambling when it came to setting sport-catch rules for 2008. Tyson noted that the existing lakewide 30-perch daily limit is forecast to land 750,000 to 800,000 pounds of perch in the western basin, well in excess of the quota. Which is why the Ohio Wildlife Council is likely to approve the 25-limit on April 2, with an effective date of July 1 - well in time for the big late-summer and fall perching season, and why the few trapnetters allowed to take perch in the basin will have to shift their fishing to waters east of Huron. The central basin perch stock and quota typically can withstand the shift in pressure. On the walleye front, Tyson is forecasting that Ohio anglers will take about 1.4 million fish, well below the 2007 catch of 2.1 million. The reduction reflects the fact that the fishery has been living off the 2003 mega-class, and it grows smaller by the year because of natural mortality and fishing. This year's 2003 fish should be dandies -20 to 24-inchers. But Tyson said, fish "tend to move east" as the post-spawning season progresses. "If it stays cool this summer in the west end, those fish will stay here and we'll likely be pushing right against the quota." That is almost 1.85 million walleye for Ohio out of a lakewide allowance of almost 3.6 million. The lakewide allowance in 2007 was 5.36 million and the actual harvest was almost 4.49 million. Tyson said he could not yet predict what may happen with sport limits on walleye for 2009. But it is clear the fishery is declining and in need of another solid year-class this year. But even then, 2008 fish will not enter the catchable stock at 15 inches until 2010. Hovering in the background on both the yellow perch and walleye stocks is the million-dollar question over the degree of impact of fishing on the stocks. That is, whether fishing, even under quotas, simply crops off surplus stock that would die naturally anyway, or whether it eats into the meat of a stock's productive potential. "There is a big debate in the fisheries community over whether fishing is compensatory [cropping surplus] or additive [eating up principal]," said Tyson. "We're operating on the assumption that it's both, because it hasn't been resolved."

....Well I'm interested, in fact I was interested last year as well. Can't remember why or what kept me away, likely work. If the date turns out to be my day off I'd likely make it.

I like it!

Perch dinners still a good catch; Prices stable for now but could rise in coming years March 20, 2008 Kate Schwass /brantfordexpositor.ca The price of a perch dinner in Port Dover won't likely go up this summer, even though fishermen have been told the number of fish they can take from Lake Erie is being cut. "It might put a little bit of price pressure on our menu," Peter Knechtel of The Beach House Restaurant in Port Dover said Wednesday, before adding his suppliers have told him they're expecting to be in good shape this fishing season. "We don't anticipate any problems." Andrew Schneider at the Erie Beach Hotel agreed the price of a perch dinner - now $14.99 for an eight-ounce plate or $28.99 for a 16-ounce platter - would likely be affected if the fish weren't readily available. "Every time the numbers go down, the price goes up," he said. Lake Erie fishery managers from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario met in Niagara Falls. On Wednesday, they recommended the 2008 total allowable catch for walleye and yellow perch. In 2007, 5.36-million walleye were permitted to be taken from the lake, but the committee reported the actual walleye harvest was 4.5-million fish. This year, 3.6-million fish will be allowed to be harvested. For yellow perch, last year 11.4-million pounds could be harvested. This year, that drops to 10.2-million pounds, with Ontario's share being 4.9-million pounds. The actual harvest for 2007 was 9.7-million pounds. John Cooper of the Lake Erie management unit of the Ministry of Natural Resources said the committee recommended the reductions because both walleye and yellow perch have seen poor spawning every year except one since 2002. Cooper said these most recent recommendations have been confusing for some sport and commercial fishers because fishing lately has been good. "They see in their nets that it's some of the best fishing they've seen in years," he said. But he said the great fishing right now is because there was excellent spawning in the spring of 2003. Now, those perch and walleye are five years old and are the "prime" size. But that was just one good year out of six. "Other than what happened in 2003, we haven't had good spawning for the past five years." Cooper said there are a number of factors that contribute to a poor spawning season, including environmental conditions. The ideal conditions would be a cold winter followed by a gradual warm-up and lots of spring runoff. He said they won't know how successful this spring will be for perch and walleye until they do a survey in August.