Early Catch and Release Bass Season in Lake Ontario for 2021

[Pigeontroller]

So, Muskies Canada is a fishing club, they could not possibly make all people who join be excellent about their fishing handling...Its a 42 year old club that typically has 600-1000 members across 3 provinces...They try their best to educate, but there's no test to be a member.  Pete has made comments on FB about the politics of Muskies Canada, based on very little real info. or experience, so be careful about inaccurate info.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Pigeontroller

[AKRISONER]

6 hours ago, Pigeontroller said:

So, Muskies Canada is a fishing club, they could not possibly make all people who join be excellent about their fishing handling...Its a 42 year old club that typically has 600-1000 members across 3 provinces...They try their best to educate, but there's no test to be a member.  Pete has made comments on FB about the politics of Muskies Canada, based on very little real info. or experience, so be careful about inaccurate info.

Maybe there’s a better job to be done there then? I get that they make efforts to try and educate the public so that people let them go when they accidentlY catch them. And try and educate people on how to differentiate them from pike.

but if you have a group of 1000 guys that are specifically targeting them you’d think there would be a standard protocol for fish management that’s shared by the group? 
 

like these guys were throwing fish on the floor of the boat, yanking big trebles out, taking photos before reviving, not reviving the fish fully before releasing...like basically doing everything you can do wrong as an amateur wrong. With a big muskies canada sticker on the side of the boat lmao. 

[Pigeontroller]

2 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Maybe there’s a better job to be done there then? I get that they make efforts to try and educate the public so that people let them go when they accidentlY catch them. And try and educate people on how to differentiate them from pike.

but if you have a group of 1000 guys that are specifically targeting them you’d think there would be a standard protocol for fish management that’s shared by the group? 
 

like these guys were throwing fish on the floor of the boat, yanking big trebles out, taking photos before reviving, not reviving the fish fully before releasing...like basically doing everything you can do wrong as an amateur wrong. With a big muskies canada sticker on the side of the boat lmao. 

I hate to see that as well. Especially with the sticker on the boat. What can you do though...'you can lead a horse to water...'

[BillM]

Proper handling is preached with Muskies Canada.  People are still idiots however, you can't stop stupid.

[Pigeontroller]

A lot of people join Muskies Canada when they are new to Muskie fishing, not unlike myself 15 years ago. Its all part of the initial excitement of a new hobby! Many of them stay members, some of them don't...Just because you see an MCI sticker on a boat doesn't guarantee they are members...Or highly experienced. I HOPE any who are members for very long and actually interact with the club turn into good ambassadors and have all the right gear for safe handling/release, and promote these aspects of the sport in a friendly and courteous manner.

[Snidley]

I saw a guide who I believe is a Muskies Canada executive show a new life saving technique for saving bleeders (of all species not just Muskie)  When a fish is bleeding from the mouth or gills he pours carbonated water or soda down it's throat. It stops the bleeding, which he demonstrated on a fish he caught on the show. I'm betting carbonated water is better than soda but if that's all you've got then better soda than nothing since bleeding, particularly from the gills, is a 100% killer.

 

I agree that you can't force guys to learn proper handling and if you want to get a punch in the face go down to the Whirlpool and criticize a local on handling Rainbow, Lakers Browns etc . It's shocking how they treat them but don't speak out or you will get in a punchup in a dangerous place. The club might have great intentions but they need membership and revenue to do what good things they do.  If you look at clubs like St Catharines Fish and Game, or Credit Anglers or Trout Canada they all feature good and bad. SCF&G promote a catch and keep big fish trout tourney but also do some stocking, Credit Anglers does stream rehab, some stocking and educating but in my experience is made up of guys who stream fish with eggs a LOT of eggs. Metro East Anglers do the best stocking work in Ontario but they also promote catch and keep derbies . Conservation areas offer some great fishing on local impoundments , impoundments that measure out in acres yet they sell bait and some even have big fish derbies.... on bodies of water where boats with live wells are banned. It all revolves around $$ which for all these entities, is scarce. In addition there is, universally, a stubborn reliance on personal belief versus actual evidence based science. Where have we heard that before? 

[Garfisher]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/carleton-study-suggests-diet-coke-doesnt-go-with-fish

 

Please don't pour pop on fish gills no matter how much they're bleeding 😅

[Garfisher]

Also on the original subject of this post, I personally wouldn't mind seeing an open season elsewhere in southern Ontario. Maybe even allow harvest from end of normal open season until whenever walleye or pike close for their closed season (obvious exception being zone 17 but make it Mar. 15th perhaps), but at a reduced limit (maybe S-2, C-1), and have certain lakes remain closed for special management such as the Kawartha chain (the lakes immediately on the waterway), Rice, Simcoe, Couchiching, and the Rideau chain. 

[Snidley]

Science. It's never finished. I would have bet Gord Pizer would be in the know but you can't argue against an actual experiment with controls. Now you would need a peer review to make it official until such time as someone else found out something different, and experimented with it, got it peer reviewed etc etc etc

[AKRISONER]

ya i remember gord talking about this very recently and that guy really knows his stuff...hard to argue with a controlled environment and experiment though. Interesting at the end the guy seems to take issue with how they conducted the experiment. 

[Pigeontroller]

Doctor Steven Cooke at Carlton U did a study on the pop on bleeding gills thing promoted by MCI member and Guide John Anderson. It showed no real benefits to doing it.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Pigeontroller

[Snidley]

That's usually the result when peer reviewed science comes up to dispute. The methodology, the participating scientist or researcher, the laboratory or country where the review was done. Lots of mitigating factors. One centimeter piece of gill removed. Was that a slice all the way up the gill (a very big piece) or was that  a 1 centimeter square piece ( a much smaller piece more representative of a Musky hook) I would bet even the water temperature would be a factor, cold water , cold beverage, how exhausted the fish is and like they said the holding position of the fish The video shows the fish held in the water by the gill plate would a sling make a difference? Gord  knows what he's talking about most of the time so I really don't know. Personally I can't stand soda of any kind but I do own a soda stream for water. Don't think I would take it fishing however

[smitty55]

On 12/23/2020 at 5:21 PM, Pigeontroller said:

Doctor Steven Cooke at Carlton U did a study on the pop on bleeding gills thing promoted by MCI member and Guide John Anderson. It showed no real benefits to doing it.

I remember reading that and I if I recall they actually recommended not even trying it as it may do more harm than good.