MNR at it again!!!!!

[Pete]

Hey Folks,

I heard this on the news the other morning on my way to work and then I read it more on another local board. Not to repeat their effort but I thought that this would be something interesting to talk about on this board.

The news that I heard on Y101 the other morning was that the Ministry wants to close down the fish sanctuaries on the Rideau Lakes. They also want to remove the size limit on bass and extend the season for zone 10 to end in Nov 30 instead of Oct 30 as it is presently.

A member from the other board had posted a link to the Whig Standard (Kingston newspaper) an article on this topic.
www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=142697&catname=Local+News&classif=News+Alert

After reading it, let's have an open discussion about it, however, please keep it clean.

Pete

[yungflyfisher]

Those peoples logic makes no sense to me.

The sanctuaries are good for the bass to spawn and have no disturbances from pike and crappie fisherman. ....moving the slot limit also made no sense to me....it will just mean more people eating the fish.

mike

[flyfishincanada]

What does this mean for the fish in the sanctuaries of the Rideau. The fish are comfortable there and will be vulnerable to fisherman.

does anyone think they will personally take advantage of the fish or is it morally wrong ??

[Jeremy]

Hi Gang
I personally think it will have know impact on the fishery? I have fishied the Big Rideau for the better part of 20yrs and believe some of the bigger spawning places for Bass are actually outside of the posted sactuaries.
Pulling the size limit I think is great, this means if a person catches and puts them on his stringer at 10 or 11 inches,When he has six its over and those hungry little bass will always hit before those big bass.

You know its amazing to me that we get all up at arms about this, yet every year up at White Lake one of the resorts holds a fish fry that kills between 500 and 800lbs of bass and I have never seen anything posted on web pages?And we all support this lodge still to this day, me included?(I guess it has know )

Jeremy

[Gary]

Hi,

I tend to agree with Jeremy. I think the fish sanctuaries may be over-rated, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have them. As for the size limit. I think having no size limit might cause problems in the long run because it will be abused, but reducing the size limit would be a good idea to improve the population of quality fish.

I talk to people who would rather lose an arm than eat a bass, and they don't realize that it improves the fishery to harvest the smaller fish. Smaller fish are more aggressive eaters than larger, quality spawners, and the more food available to the quality spawners, the better class spawn and healthier population there will be. I think reducing the limit might be something to consider, but eliminating it all together could be the wrong thing to do.

As for extending the season in Zone 10...go for it!!

Gary