Balsam Lake walleye slot sizes

[fisherguy]

Good day all'. fairly confusing chat with my son about Kawartha walleye slot sizes in general this morning before he headed out on Balsam this afternoon. It's been many years since either one of us fished this gem of a lake. As I read the 2020 FMZ 17 regs, states under 'species exceptions' Mitchell & Balsam Lakes walleye 'NONE keep' slot is between 37-55 cm (by my calc : 14.5"-21.6").  Zone Wide  FMZ 17 walleye 'keep' slot is between 35-50 cm. (by my calc : 13'7"-19.6"). 

My interpretation of the FMZ 17 Zone Wide keep limits of 35-50 makes sense as these fish are in the 2.5 lb and under weight class. Probably not prime spawners ? 

The Mitchell & Balsam keeper slot over 55cm (21.65") would be approximately 4lb plus class according to google calculations. MNR is essentially encouraging the harvesting of larger class walleye, of which must be a result of nettings, creel surveys etc. Contrary to my logic in thinking these larger fish from Balsam & Mitchell should have had the same regulation coverage as Zone Wide FMZ 17?  

And yep, he released 2 nice pics.

  https://files.ontario.ca/mnrf-fishing-regulations-summary-fmz-17-en-2020-01-20.pdf   

[Garnet]

A over keeper will be just over 3 ib on Balsam .

Balsam never really needed a slot, some locals got on a focus group and said the couldn't catch walleye.

The truth was they couldn't fish.

MNR did't a short study and found this slot was best.

And the first slot was on the Kawrathas.  Now the true giants are almost non existent. 8-10lb Walleye.

This slot has been 15 years or more and they can't change it now.

  

[AKRISONER]

Gord Pyzer spoke to this during his recent video podcast with the gents from fishn canada.

 

i specifically asked about why fmz 14 had different regs than the kawarthas with an even stranger “closed” middle slot

<16  >22 slot limit for walleye. What Gord explained was that the original concept for the “one over” keeper idea was to allow people who had caught a fish of a lifetime to be able to keep the fish in order to get a mount made. He indicated it was the exact same train of thought as the musky over keeper size. He then explained in hind sight it was in error and that if we truly care about our walleye populations people need to stop targeting over fish for consumption. You will even hear folks up in pointe au baril talking And celebrating about getting an over to keep. He explained that contrary to what some falsely believe, the best breeding fish are the largest. They have the biggest eggs and best genetics and therefore their populations should be protected. Gord also mentioned that there are very very few if any actual healthy self sustaining walleye populations in Ontario. As he indicated “stocking” is a reflection of failure of the fisheries management system. He truly believes that with better regulations the need for stocking walleye could be removed through some common sense approaches.

 

i know my family has now vowed to never keep any over fish again in accordance with Gord’s advice and hopefully some others will follow suit. I’m not certain what it would take for the fishing regulations to change? But perhaps after 15 something + years a revision could be considered?

 

i just know that when it was explained directly from the God himself’s mouth, that was enough to change my mind forever

Edited June 14, 2020 by AKRISONER

[cisco]

Gord is a smart man. That lake has a few magnet areas for walleye and thus would be easily fished out with standard slot limits. With the 'reverse' slot limit anglers let many go which are prime breeders. MNR does try new methods to experiment with different ways of managing a fishery. Your son catching two shows it may be working. To not be able to keep the two may simply mean wrong spot or presentation. These days most carry cameras so if a 'trophy of a lifetime' was caught (yeck to eating it anyway) a pic would probably be taken by another person in the boat as being released and should be no issue getting a replica mount done if desired. With Quinte abounding the past years with easily caught monsters a true trophy these days is no longer 9lb but wayyyyy bigger and prob around 12lbs. so very hard to find one anyways. The lake is kept secret by many and anyone going there knows the regs so have to deal with it. Or else hit other places.

[captpierre]

I heard MNR wasn’t sure which slot policy was the best. So they did both as an experiment. You’d think after 15 yrs they’d know 

[Garnet]

The Balsam slot was 5 years before the over all slot for Kawrarthas started.

If they changed the Balsam slot to general Kawratha slot the lake would be devastated as the throw back Balsam slot is the Kawrartha keep slot.

Still fun to go wachm.   

[AKRISONER]

That is what I’m curious about my guess is that the province is in so much debt that changing the fishing regulations isn’t a top priority. I always thought that at some point the guys would figure out which slot system worked best and would implement it across the board 

[cisco]

Fisheries Management Plans have more going on than the average person knows. The whole idea is to balance the pressure and keep pressure off fragile ecosystems. Balsam is very fragile so with the slot many meat fishermen hit the Kawarthas and many trophy anglers hit Quinte.   

[Garnet]

I'm not the Avg fisherman.

Balsam walleye where self protected before the slot.

The reason they hardly ever went shallower than 12ft and spent most of there time 18ft and over.

That's why local cottagers couldn't catch walleye.

This is also why Kawratha assessment couldn't get them in there trap nets . 

I seen there data from early 90's they would trap 2-3 walleyes. Most of there traps sat in 10 ft of water and the net went to shore.

3 of there location where perfect spot just needed to be deeper.

Now the extreme large walleye specimen's before slot where much much deeper , so self protecting.

I had doz spots where 6-9 lb walleye lived in the 22-26 ft, they are gone died off.

We are stuck with this slot. I liked the old Balsam better but can live with the new Balsam.

I've even learned to love eating pike.

[David Chong]

As Garnet stated the Balsam slot was there prior to the rest of the Kawartha's and is like a reverse slot. Confusing to say the least but streamlining the regs is not a priority for the MNR!

[fisherguy]

Appreciate all the responses and insight. As one of those guys that fished BL frequently in late 80's early 90's, sounds like this fishery is a lot more sensitive today than it was then. The tighter regs in play today should be a good thing.