FMZ 17 Survey is up!

[fishnsled]

Survey complete. I also sent it on to a couple of my buddies who are not on the board. (Can you imagine that! ) and have filled out the survey as well. Thanks for your efforts Ron and the rest of the MNR gang.

[GBW]

Come to the MNR Booth.

say hi to my cousin Julie for me if you can over the weekend.

Geoff

[Ron]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks so much for filling out the survey. There are more people who can fill it out still. We have until May 19th but who would want to leave it for the last minute. If you answer the survey now, this will ensure our voice as anglers are heard. Trust me, there are different opinions on how the regs should be proposed. I for one would like to see the Kawarthas open for icefishing - pan fish only. The thoughts of taking my grand kids someday (better not be in the near future). for a 15 minute drive as opposed to driving for 2 hours to get them on to some quality Perch fishing.

[Ron]

Ron, I really appreciat your help and your input in this. Thank you! I too would be interested in helping out in any way I can. Please let me know.

 

For now, survey has been filled out!

 

Hey Cliff,

 

There are various programs people can get involved in. I know of a few off hand. There is the Ganaraska fish lift is one and it may be a little too late to get on the volunteer list for the walleye spawning study. This walleye spawning study will be taking place at various dams (locks) and taking count of walleye in the spawning areas.

 

For anyone wishing to volunteer for various projects, please contact:

 

Peterborough Office: [email protected]

 

Aurora District: (905) 713-7400

 

Bancroft District (613) 332-3940

 

Let them know you would be interested in volunteering with some of the interesting programs.

 

This is my 26th year helping with various projects, it's my way of putting something back into the fishery.

Edited March 23, 2009 by Ron

[lew]

Signed sealed & delivered Ron

[wuchikubo]

Done!

 

WTG Ron!!

[Kerry]

Ron,

ice fishing for pan fish only would be awesome.Still creates a problem for enforcement if the MNR doesn't get more CO's in the field.Very in depth survey and it was good to be able to participate.Would be nice to be able to fish for Musky & Bass into Dec too on Balsam.

 

Kerry

[Ron]

Thanks Guys

[Big Cliff]

Super Ron, I have sent an email off with my contact information, hopfully someone will get back to me in the next little while and I can help out.

[Ramble]

I was surprised at how indepth that was. They did a good job with it. Winter pan fishing season would be GREAT!!!

 

I liked some ideas on slots and possession limits they had. Wish there was somthing more on protecting brookies tho. Next survey maybe lol.

 

-Dave

[Ron]

I hope they call you Cliff. I will be putting up a post for the upcoming Fish lift at Pratts Pond here in Cobourg. It's only a one day event but how often do you get a chance to handle a dozen or more Rainbows in one day. Last year we had approximately 40 volunteers and lifted 120+- rainbow over the dam. This should be happening in the next few weeks.

 

Dave, nice to know your opinion on the survey. Lets us know from our mistakes on what we missed or should I say overlooked. The only concerns to date that I know of are the missing field for question 1. There should have been a field to manually type in a lake name. The other concern I have heard was that there should have been a field about minimum size limit for muskie.

 

 

Cheers, Ron...

[Ron]

We have also received the information for the public consultation meetings which I forgot to post.

 

Mike Brown who is also on the advisory council has a well written up explanation of the public meetings. If you are in the area of any of these meetings, I strongly encourage you to attend. I will be attending 3 perhaps 4 of the meetings. Coboconk, Peterborough, Port Hope and possibly Oshawa. Your input on the regulations is very important.

 

Cheers, Ron...

 

FMZ 17 Public meetings

 

Hi Everyone:

 

The next step in the proposed regulation change process is public meetings. If you have not had a chance to complete a survey on the proposed regulation changes for Fishery Zone 17 (Kawartha's), please take a few minutes to have your opinion heard. www.FMZ17survey.ca

 

If you know someone without access to a computer, there will be paper copies of the survey available at the meetings.

 

Members from the FMZ 17 council will be present at each location along with representatives from the MNR.

Detailed information concerning each of the proposed regulation changes will be reviewed and a Q&A period will follow the presentations.

 

This is a great opportunity for anglers to support the MNR in collecting advice from anglers and other resource stakeholders and using this information in their decisions concerning our fishery.

Please make the extra effort to attend if you are able, as this is the best chance, we as anglers have had in decades to have our opinions heard concerning the fishery in this zone.

 

 

Tuesday April 14. 7:00-9:00 pm. Marmora Town Hall (Marmora)

 

 

 

Thursday April 16. 7:00-9:00 pm. Coboconk Community Centre (Coboconk)

 

 

 

Monday April 20. 7:00-9:00 pm. Peterborough Naval Association (Peterborough)

 

 

 

Tuesday April 21. 7:00-9:00 pm. Ops Community Centre (Lindsay Area)

 

 

 

Wednesday April 22. 7:00-9:00 pm. Durham Memorial Temple (Port Hope)

 

 

 

Thursday April 23. 7:00-9:00 pm. O’Neill C.V.I. (Oshawa)

[Ron]

Just a reminder for anyone in the Peterborough area that there is a public meeting Monday night at 7PM. The more anglers that attend the better. This is your chance to have input on the proposed fishing regulations.

 

Hope to see you there.

 

Cheers, Ron...

[fluffmaster]

Grimace you are so correct.

Ron I do agree that some people will poach regardless of what is done BUT if the season stays the same, with the panfish season currently opening on the 4th Saturday in April at least the walleye will get a chance to spawn (as they ususally spawn in early April and not after the 4th Sat.) The current closed winter season protects the walleye as it is now.

In my opinion it is harder to conceal yourself poaching fish,( therefore easier to enforce??), if you are the only one fishing during the closed season.

 

Wouldn't it seem that it is easier to poach fish if you have the legal right to be there in the first place. More ice fishermen simply means more poached walleye, bass, musky taken through the ice.

 

The MNR stated that the current prohibited winter fishing was enacted to protect walleye - Now they say walleye populations are in trouble in the Kawarthas but lets open up the ice fishing for panfsih. That does not make sense to me.

 

Walleye spawn alot along the shores of our lakes. There will be no protection here at all if this changes (as there is in the sanctuarys) This proposed new reg will allow someone to stand on a shoreline where walleye spawn, fishing for panfish, when they are really after walleye. If it is legal to be there then no one is going to call the MNR about someone fishing in an open season??

 

Also there will be abandoned /sunken ice huts to deal with, garbage on our lakes and not enough C.O.s to patrol them..

 

Lets keep it as is and thats what my survey says.

[Stoty]

Done and done.

 

I would love a winter season, thats for sure.

 

Im just worried that certain groups of people will poach even more if they extend the seasons though.

 

I dont get why people cant follow the rules.

 

I'm glad they are starting to look at limiting sunfish. I'm sick of seeing "white buckets" FULL. There's no need for that.

[JeffBornFishin]

Just a reminder for anyone in the Peterborough area that there is a public meeting Monday night at 7PM. The more anglers that attend the better. This is your chance to have input on the proposed fishing regulations.

 

Hope to see you there.

 

Cheers, Ron...

 

I will be attending tonight.

 

I am trying to get more people interested...got one pro tournament guy attending that I work with.

 

See you there.

[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.

[Ron]

Grimace you are so correct.

Ron I do agree that some people will poach regardless of what is done BUT if the season stays the same, with the panfish season currently opening on the 4th Saturday in April at least the walleye will get a chance to spawn (as they ususally spawn in early April and not after the 4th Sat.) The current closed winter season protects the walleye as it is now.

In my opinion it is harder to conceal yourself poaching fish,( therefore easier to enforce??), if you are the only one fishing during the closed season.

 

Wouldn't it seem that it is easier to poach fish if you have the legal right to be there in the first place. More ice fishermen simply means more poached walleye, bass, musky taken through the ice.

 

The MNR stated that the current prohibited winter fishing was enacted to protect walleye - Now they say walleye populations are in trouble in the Kawarthas but lets open up the ice fishing for panfsih. That does not make sense to me.

 

Walleye spawn alot along the shores of our lakes. There will be no protection here at all if this changes (as there is in the sanctuarys) This proposed new reg will allow someone to stand on a shoreline where walleye spawn, fishing for panfish, when they are really after walleye. If it is legal to be there then no one is going to call the MNR about someone fishing in an open season??

 

Also there will be abandoned /sunken ice huts to deal with, garbage on our lakes and not enough C.O.s to patrol them..

 

Lets keep it as is and thats what my survey says.

 

 

Hi fluffmaster,

 

Welcome to the board by the way, I'm sure you will find the information on this forum very usefull. This is one of the few full coloured boards where you can discuss anything be it from fishing to how to repair the input shaft on your lawnmower. (I think that is why this site is so successful)

 

 

Nice to see that we agree on some issues, debate is always good. As I have said before, (hope I don't sound like a broken record), regardless poaching is poaching. As for the walleye being finished spawning by the 4th Saturday in April, I would find that hard to believe. Last year for an example we caught a couple of walleye in one of our hot spots for Crappie. Both one male and 2 females were ripe and needless to say, we moved off that spot to leave the walleye to carry on with their business. This was on the North Shore of Rice Lake, exact area I won't disclose.

 

Surprisingly, some of zone 17 does have ice fishing, Lake Scugog for an example has a fantastic fishery for walleye and now Crappie through the ice. You very seldom hear of broken fishing regulations. In fact this year the CO that covers this area spent a great deal of time checking for infractions. I'm sure I can find the amount of charges laid and chances are they will be very minimal.

 

As for Ice fishing on the Kawartha's for Pan fish, just think of the opportunities to get new people interested in the Sport. I could only wish I was able to get my daughter ice fishing close to home at a young age. As it was, I would get her interested by driving for a couple hours only for her to loose interest after fishing for a half hour and then load everything up and do the 2 hour drive back home. She lost interest in ice fishing quickly at an early age. It took a few good years for her to get an interest back in the sport of ice fishing, something I hope I will be able to get my grand kids interested some day. After all they will be our future fisher kids keeping our heritage alive.

 

Surprisingly, the local CO in our area is looking forward to the opportunity on ice fishing in this area. He doesn't feel controlling the regulations would be difficult. By opening up the season on Pan fish in the Kawarthas, this will help the walleye population more so than be detrimental to them in 2 ways.

 

1 - The harvest of Pan fish will decrease the bio mass, meaning this will give the walleye more space. Regardless of which lake, it can only sustain a total weight of fish. If you remove 100 pounds of Pan fish this will in turn give the other species a chance to fill the void.

 

2 - By harvesting Pan fish, be it Crappies or Bluegill, Pumkinseed, this will in turn decrease the chances of predation on walleye fry.

 

 

The unfortunate part of ice fishing is the thought of all the garbage being left behind. Yes it does seem to be an issue. I guess it's a good thing that garbage doesn't float in the Summer. I would be afraid to see the bottom of the Lake from all the garbage that is tossed over board in the Summer months.

 

Just how often do you hear of ice huts being abandoned? Out of the amount of ice huts on lakes over all of Ontario, how many huts are left behind? 1?, 10? I have only heard of the one which was posted on this forum this week. In the same token, I also heard of a few docks which were a float in the lake which had broke free from either a resort or someone's private property, too bad there isn't numbers on docks so they can be tracked back to the rightful owners.

 

If you are in the Peterborough area, please attend the meeting tonight, your input and concerns would be welcomed in a public debate. Not only are we looking for people who fish, we are looking for all stake holders to attend.

If you can't make it to tonights meeting, there are others coming up. I believe the list of meetings is posted above.

 

 

Cheers, Ron...

[Ron]

We have also received the information for the public consultation meetings which I forgot to post.

 

Mike Brown who is also on the advisory council has a well written up explanation of the public meetings. If you are in the area of any of these meetings, I strongly encourage you to attend. I will be attending 3 perhaps 4 of the meetings. Coboconk, Peterborough, Port Hope and possibly Oshawa. Your input on the regulations is very important.

 

Cheers, Ron...

Hi Everyone:

 

The next step in the proposed regulation change process is public meetings. If you have not had a chance to complete a survey on the proposed regulation changes for Fishery Zone 17 (Kawartha's), please take a few minutes to have your opinion heard. www.FMZ17survey.ca

 

If you know someone without access to a computer, there will be paper copies of the survey available at the meetings.

 

Members from the FMZ 17 council will be present at each location along with representatives from the MNR.

Detailed information concerning each of the proposed regulation changes will be reviewed and a Q&A period will follow the presentations.

 

This is a great opportunity for anglers to support the MNR in collecting advice from anglers and other resource stakeholders and using this information in their decisions concerning our fishery.

Please make the extra effort to attend if you are able, as this is the best chance, we as anglers have had in decades to have our opinions heard concerning the fishery in this zone.

 

 

Tuesday April 14. 7:00-9:00 pm. Marmora Town Hall (Marmora)

 

 

 

Thursday April 16. 7:00-9:00 pm. Coboconk Community Centre (Coboconk)

 

 

 

Monday April 20. 7:00-9:00 pm. Peterborough Naval Association (Peterborough)

 

 

 

Tuesday April 21. 7:00-9:00 pm. Ops Community Centre (Lindsay Area)

 

 

 

Wednesday April 22. 7:00-9:00 pm. Durham Memorial Temple (Port Hope)

 

 

 

Thursday April 23. 7:00-9:00 pm. O’Neill C.V.I. (Oshawa)

 

 

Just thought I would bring the meeting schedule forward as well.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Ron

[Garnet]

Hi Ron

 

Was going to Peter burge until this weather.

 

Port Hope is that the Masonic Lodge.

 

And you know I lived around Oshawa for 50 years were is O' Neil

 

Garnet

[Ron]

Hi Ron

 

Was going to Peter burge until this weather.

 

Port Hope is that the Masonic Lodge.

 

And you know I lived around Oshawa for 50 years were is O' Neil

 

Garnet

 

Peterborough Naval Building

 

Port Hope

 

 

O'Neil CVI

Edited April 20, 2009 by Ron

[Sinker]

Thanks for all this info guys, I appreciate it.

 

I'll be at the port hope meeting, hope to see you there. I might even hit the one in oshawa too....just for kicks.

 

A buddy of mine was at the one in Coboconk and said there was a great turn out, and lots of good information exchanged.

 

Sinker

[fluffmaster]

Ron - we agree to disagree for the most part. Poaching is poaching but allowing people to ice fish for panfish is going to allow for more poaching. You are going to put their hand in the cookie jar.

 

It is impossible to say all walleye are done by end of April as water temperatures/levels have a big role in this. They are all but done at the Talbot. And on Scugog you can ice fish walleye, therefore your C.O. won;t be laying out of season walleye charges anyway. I would guess that he laid lots of charges out there for the little time he was out. He laid numerous ice hut charges I know for sure.

 

The CO here in Port perry just charged a couple of guys for 13 walleye out of season in an area where MNR wants to open for panfish. This is where I have the problem. Fishing during a critical period like late March and April is a no vote for me.

 

Thanks - perhaps they will, at the most, only open it for Jan. and Feb. like Scugog.

[Dutch]

Just got back from the Peterborough information session and I must say it was very well done.

 

Some facts (I think I am remembering correctly):

 

Rice Lake is the 3rd most fished Lake in all of Ontario, second to Lake of the Woods and Lac Seul, which are huge in size in comparison.

Almost a third of anglers in that fished in Ontario are "Non-resident."

The fishing industry in Ontario is worth $2.5 Billion a year.

All money from licences goes directly back to the MNR.

Fisheries Management is separate and distinct from Fisheries Enforcement - I had always though they could be looked at in conjunction, but my opinion has changed somewhat on that.

 

My take on the presentation:

 

We need to protect and develop a sustainable walleye management plan to ensure angling opportunities are around for our children and their children.

Regulations are required for panfish to ensure continued angling success.

A winter panfishing season may be a welcome change.

I don't think an ice fishing season will increase poaching - poachers are law breakers and will do what they do regardless of an open season for a different species.

 

I really think I could have answered the survey better had I been to the presentation and then answered the questions. I highly reccommend that everybody attend. Surely some great information.

 

Separate and apart from the presentation - I fully support a single tier fishing license fee. All money raised from licenses goes directly back to the MNR and stays in the Ministry. We can only hope that leads to further enhancements in management and ENFORCEMENT, which should lead to a very strong fishery for many years to come. We need to make an example of poachers in order to deter other law breakers. I'm going to write/e-mail my MPP and the Minister of Natural Resources about that.

 

As far as other OFC'ers that were there, some I met for the first time tonight - b2kptbo, always a pleasure. Jeffbornfishing, Ron and Michael Brown nice meeting you! Hope to see you all on the water!

 

Thanks again Ron and Mike for serving on the advisory committee - it is a very beneficial cause and I hope your service will bring all of us more and better fishing opportunities in the future.

[b2kptbo]

Well said Darren (Dutch), it was very informative and well organized. Yes thanks to MNR and the advisory committee. Was good to see Darren and Jeff as well as meeting Michael and Ron. Any one who fishes Zone FMZ 17 should try to get it out to one of the information meetings...