MNR what a joke

[Dave Bailey]

Got checked by a CO a few years ago when shore fishing near Moore Falls. Checked our licenses, had a chat, wished us luck. Then we heard whining and crying from the bushes about fifty feet away. He nabbed some guy with three lines in the water.

[bare foot wader]

I went to school in Peterborough from 2003-07, every single year I reported walleye poaching, multiple times per year based on the premise if you report it enough times they'll do something....no CO ever came out, just "thank you for your concern"

 

they were not native either, that's an interesting excuse they gave you lol

 

I get they are severely underfunded and short staffed, but still, 10 mins from their big office and they can't check up on it?

 

oddly enough, aside from the busy ice fishing spots, the only CO's I encountered in ON were on smaller rivers and back lakes, never in well known/easy access spots

[porkpie]

Are the people catching the Walleye unaware of the regulations or do they just not give a crap? Blows my mind. The MNR should deputize some civilians if they don't have the man-power! ?

You are now deputized. On your 6th check of the evening you come across someone who doesn't respect the role you are filling. It is nighttime, he is larger than you, has a fillet knife in his possesion, he is between you and your vehicle which is your only safety, and you have no use of force options. He becomes irate and combative. Discuss.

[Acountdeleted]

Chris K and I were talking about this. It drives me nuts because CO's pay for themselves. If you were to hire more CO's and they were to go to the walleye spawning areas, a few fickets and gear confiscations and the guys salary is covered for the year.

 

I talk to the CO's on Cooks bay during the winter and they say that handing out 40 tickets is a slow day.

 

I've seen guys fishing right beside barriers and dams, guys keeping bass out of season, all sorts of other infractions. The CO's can make their own money. Hire more.

[Acountdeleted]

 

You are now deputized. On your 6th check of the evening you come across someone who doesn't respect the role you are filling. It is nighttime, he is larger than you, has a fillet knife in his possesion, he is between you and your vehicle which is your only safety, and you have no use of force options. He becomes irate and combative. Discuss.[/quote

 

I see your point but in this situation I calmly say 'really? You are going to go to jail for the rest of your life over a couple of fish. Let it go. It's not worth it.'

[Terry]

yup

but there they are on simcoe all the time and regularly they fly into flyin camps , which costs a lot of money and time

[bigugli]

would you not figure they would have one or two of them working nights this time of the year just driving around. In the Peterborough area they could easily hit 10 or 15 similar locations in a night to stop this

 

Nowhere near enough to go around. Our MNR office has 3 CO's, and a week has 168 hours. At 40 hrs a week per man, we are still a man short for round the clock coverage. That does not account or allow for court time, surveillance, border busts, or big targeting pushes that take place on season openers.

[Mister G]

yup

but there they are on simcoe all the time and regularly they fly into flyin camps , which costs a lot of money and time

YEP, kind of makes you wonder............

[Sinker]

Last time I was checked i was about 15km back in the bush on a snowmobile access only lake. Never get checked around here on my home water. I couldn't even tell you the last time a CO checked me around here its been so long. It used to be Mitch Phinney locally to me, but I haven't seen him in so long, I'm not sure anymore. I could keep hundreds of walleye any day of the week and nobody would know the wiser.

 

S.

[fishnsled]

yup

but there they are on simcoe all the time and regularly they fly into flyin camps , which costs a lot of money and time

 

Oh I know about that. Don't forget to leave the skin on the fish until the oil is hot in the pan. Otherwise you'll get a fine to help justify the cost of flying that plane.

[Sinker]

 

Oh I know about that. Don't forget to leave the skin on the fish until the oil is hot in the pan. Otherwise you'll get a fine to help justify the cost of flying that plane.

Meanwhile, 2km from MNR head office, guys are ripping fat hen walleyes left right and centre.

 

Burns my ass so bad!!

 

I bet if I went down to lock 19 tonight I would get busted. Maybe i'll try it just to see.

 

S.

[AKRISONER]

I may be wrong here, but assuming they are fishing a zone which walleye is in season during the fall, I think that keeping walleye in the slot size is perfectly legal, and is what I strive for. I play it safe and only keep walleye between 14-19 inches but if I catch one in the slot, I keep it. That being said walleye is open in my zone till November 15 and I will keep 4 of them if I can get them. But anything outside of the slot goes back.

 

I wasnt clear, in district 14 the slot is what you are not allowed to keep. Its the opposite of many other places where slot fish are the ones you are supposed to keep i.e. in the kawarthas you can keep walleye between 15-22 or somehwere in that range, meanwhile in 14 you are not allowed to keep anything between 16 and 22.

 

 

Seconded to the idea that CO's pay for themselves, there is more than the hourly wage to account for, boats, gas, benefits etc all cost money, although personally I am not against the idea. its the old point that I have fished my entire life and purchased my sport license and followed the rules to a T (with the very rare honest mistake) meanwhile guys are sitting on peirs fishing out of season fish and gutting them on the spot.

Edited April 14, 2015 by AKRISONER

[davew3]

In regards to what is happening, I hope I have not pissed anyone off but I cut and pasted a good chunk of this discussion and e-mailed it to the office of the Mayor of Peterborough. Now I doubt that I will hear anything back but if I do I will let you know.

 

[email protected]

 

Regards

[Whopper]

From the way most of you guys talk about the lack of CO's I think met most of them in Ontario throughout the years, not to mentioned the OPP's

Try putting a boat on the water with Ohio registration numbers it's like a target.

One year on Rice I was stopped four times in five days, twice in the same day

Been checked on Lake St. Clair, West Arm and also been stopped on the highway not once but twice.

On year on a flyin they flew into the lake I was on and check the cabin and one of the boats in our group, don't know how but they missed me on that one.

Never had a problem with them except for a ticket on Nipissing that was non fishing related

I was kind of ticked off at them one year on Lake St Clair, our boats were side by side at the launch, we shared small talk, I motor out of the channel and set my trolling lines, wasn't out 5 minutes and here they came for the shake down, we were good, they could have asked at the ramp

[Sinker]

From the way most of you guys talk about the lack of CO's I think met most of them in Ontario throughout the years, not to mentioned the OPP's

Try putting a boat on the water with Ohio registration numbers it's like a target.

One year on Rice I was stopped four times in five days, twice in the same day

Been checked on Lake St. Clair, West Arm and also been stopped on the highway not once but twice.

On year on a flyin they flew into the lake I was on and check the cabin and one of the boats in our group, don't know how but they missed me on that one.

Never had a problem with them except for a ticket on Nipissing that was non fishing related

I was kind of ticked off at them one year on Lake St Clair, our boats were side by side at the launch, we shared small talk, I motor out of the channel and set my trolling lines, wasn't out 5 minutes and here they came for the shake down, we were good, they could have asked at the ramp

Interesting, I fish rice lake a couple times a week all year round, and have NEVER been stopped there. CO's or OPP.....I see OPP there, but never been stopped.

 

S.

[Whopper]

Sinker it's the boat with Ohio registration numbers that attracts them. I fished with Lew out of his boat the same week on a different lake and watched the OPP boat go right by us.

I told Lew at the time I couldn't believe they didn't stop

[lew]

 

I told Lew at the time I couldn't believe they didn't stop

 

It's my smile Phil, they can tell I'm too nice a guy to do anything wrong

[Whopper]

It's my smile Phil, they can tell I'm too nice a guy to do anything wrong

That was the day we fished Chemong

 

I have proof you smile Lew

[esoxansteel]

The only time you will see a bunch of CO's in Peterborough, is when they have their G2Gs at the Holiday Inn on the tax payers tab, there is usually about 12 to 15 enforcement vehicles there, when there are boardrooms up the road in the MNR office are sitting empty and would do just fine. These G2Gs usually happens frequently during the summer months possibly monthly

 

As for the MNR saying their probably Natives, that is an insult to every aboriginal, and government stereo typing at its finest, that's just an excuse for them not to not investigate, BTW Native Treaty rights are a Federal issue, and will trump the Provincial fishing regulations every time in court, and if the government hasn't the time, the care or the balls to investigate the disappearance of over 1400 indigenous women, the last thing they want to do is ruffle the feathers of signed Treaty rights.

[aplumma]

Yup my Virginia sticker get me a yearly visit on the west arm of lak nipissing they even made noise about my life vests not being Canadian approved till I showed them that until my boat was in Canadian waters for 90 days it didn't have to meet their guidelines. I however did have the few items that Canada requires that the US doesn't.

 

 

I don't begrudge them checking me but to collect tourist money is really short sited in my opinion.

 

 

Art

[Beavertail]

You are now deputized. On your 6th check of the evening you come across someone who doesn't respect the role you are filling. It is nighttime, he is larger than you, has a fillet knife in his possesion, he is between you and your vehicle which is your only safety, and you have no use of force options. He becomes irate and combative. Discuss.

It was just meant to be a joke, I realize it would never fly.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Beavertail

[Paudash]

good news, he went by again this afternoon. When he got there a CO was sitting in his truck and not 5 minutes later a guy showed up and started fishing and he went and wrote him a ticket. At least it was a start

 

On another front he said the water level was up about a foot from yesterday

[porkpie]

It was just meant to be a joke, I realize it would never fly.

Yes I know, and I'm sorry I used your post as an example, but every year around the spawn these things come up, and every year there are people who really think it would be a sensible idea, and they have no idea what they are proposing.

[netminder]

Yes I know, and I'm sorry I used your post as an example, but every year around the spawn these things come up, and every year there are people who really think it would be a sensible idea, and they have no idea what they are proposing.

well if they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.

[BillM]

well if they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.

 

 

I think I saw the ending to that movie.