The Bog is finished ??

[Northhunter]

The guys who know what they're doing and pinpointing fish will continue to pull a few up whether the lake's stressed out or not. It could continue until the last 500 walleye are left in the lake, and I bet someone would still be pulling up dinner. You can say the fish are still there, you just have to work for them, but it doesn't address any problem or help the fishery.

 

The lake's very productive, but it's shallow and not a monster of a lake. It's 63 square kilometers, and gets close to 1000 huts a year! (those are just the permanent ones). Who knows how many fish get pulled out any given year, but there's currently no restrictions (no slot, no reduced limit).

 

Compare it to Nipissing, which is almost 900 square kilometers. That lake's walleye pop. had been stressed (as identified by MNR netting surveys), likely due to increased fishing pressures. Now there's a limit on commercial huts - I can't find the stats but think the current number is 8-900? Not including "local", non-commercialized huts, that's the same or less than what's currently on the Bog (a lake less than 1/10th the size!), plus there's a 4 fish limit and the slot. It's stocked as well - over 2 million fry a year, I believe.

 

873 square km's - hut restrictions, 4 fish sport limit (2 conserv.), 40-60cm slot. Stocking as a recoup effort.

vs.

63 square km's - no hut restriction, no reduced limit, no slot. No other lakes open to divert pressure.

 

The best thing for the lake would be to close it completely, let it recoup for a couple years and then bring back a season with restrictions, but that would a) send all the pressure somewhere else b ) put a few people out of business and c) generally just piss a lot of people off.

You can't have any real beneficial plan put in place and keep everyone happy. That's why the public meetings are held. I think what will happen is a reduced limit and a slot, which I think is what is proposed in the MNR's new province-wide, revised management plan (or whatever they're calling it).

 

They say it's to simplify regulations and all that jazz... bottom line is they're trying to save money, but that's another issue I guess.

[lookinforwalleye]

I have strong opinions of this subject as Scugog is my home lake and I would like to buy a retirement home up there,I have voiced my opinions on this subject here before so I will make this brief. Contrary to what one may think the Walleye fishery on Scugog is in serious trouble if you need confirmation talk to the local pro`s like I did last year and they will spell it out it out for you.

The MNR should be taking decisive action rather than studying the situation to death at the very least a reduced limit for the summer season with a slot limit or a catch and release fishery should be introduced and of course the obivious regulation that should be changed is to close it to ice fishing.