More bad news for the fishing resort business

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2199652

Strongly agree with her opinion. If panfish need to be protected (limit imposed) why open up to all year around fishing??

Summer anglers certainly outnumber winter anglers. There are more than enough lakes open for ice fishing like L. Simcoe, L. Scugog and Georgian Bay areas.  No need to open up the Kawartha lakes. It might upset the balance of a healthy fish population in the K lakes.

Safely is another issue. Those lakes are not open for ice fishing before, anglers who are not locals might not be aware of any undercurrent (soft spot).

http://northumberlandnews.com/article/144743

Resort owner raises concerns over new Rice Lake ice fishing, panfish catch limitations http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2270063

“It’s an open season, year round. It is a lot of fish still, but we didn’t have a limit in place at all before. There are some people who would take that many. I think it would primarily be U.S. anglers that come here and target the sunfish.”

She said the fish is popular with American anglers because it tastes good, but also because the Canadian sunfish fishery is in much better shape than it is in the United States.

“The population down there has already suffered a pretty significant decline, so from what happened there, we know that we really need to protect the larger male sunfish, so we’re implementing these regulation so we don’t see the same population decline,” she said.

“The problem with the sunfish is not the number of fish out there, but you really need to protect the large males to keep the quality of fishery, because they protect the nest, and they will pass down the genes because they have survived. The thing is, if you take out all the large males in the population, then the younger, smaller males will start to breed sooner, and then you sort of lose the traits for large fish.”

To read the rest of this article, click on

http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/01/14/mnr-limits-sunfish-catch-bans-fishing-for-sturgeon/

I have read on another internet article that one of the reasons there is now a sunfish limit is because there are some tourists visiting the Rice Lake region for years and catching bluegills in the thousands in order to fill bluegill fillet orders for their seafood business. There is no commerical bluegill fishing in Ontario. Ministry of Natural Resources was well aware of this fishing practice.

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2478283

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40984