Exactly. And this tourney happens before bass season. Its one of, if not the first "big" tourney in ON on inland waters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandwagon
S.
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Exactly. And this tourney happens before bass season. Its one of, if not the first "big" tourney in ON on inland waters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandwagon
S.
Re: October tournament. I personally do not believe the MNR should be allowing any "live-release" Walleye tournament in Ontario waters. The species is simply not wired to deal with the stress of catch, retain, thermally shock, transport , and release. Read the literature on the matter. There's tons of it, and now that we all have computers, all you have to do is punch in Google. The scientific community (including our own MNR), has known this for the past four decades. Look at the situation down in the US. The optics and public dissent got so bad from the public disproval over resource impact, that the pro walleye circuit is now running immediate release tournaments will digital photo capture, real-time social media tracking of the teams, etc. Bass are a totally different creature. I personally totally support a well-operated bass tournament if the fish health has been properly addressed. I've even worked as the bio at some, and I felt pretty good about the whole event. It is sustainable, and I don't think it adversely affects the resource to the point that it's not a viable practise. Having this walleye tournament happen on Sturgeon Lake is a worst-case scenario. It's a small lake, with a heavily-exploited walleye population that is barely "holding on". If you doubt what I'm saying, then I BEG you to call the Kawartha Lakes FAU and request a digital copy of the index netting data. It's available under the Public Info Act. Anyone can have access to it. See what's happened to the walleye population over the time block of 1998 - 2012. They will have 13 years of NSCIN netting data, as well as three complete FWIN gill net surveys. Even if you had zero mortality at the weigh station, what logic is there in adding 4000 rod hours of angling pressure to an already bad situation ? Add to this the spillover from the closure of Scugog, the impact of the winter fishery, and direct competition from the still-expanding Black Crappie population, . Not looking so good for what's left of the walleye population.
Some obvious red flags for any walleye tournament, and I insist that you read the literature to validate what I'm saying - anything above 12-14 degree surface temp and YOU WILL have post-release mortality (it was almost 23 degrees this year, as it was also in 2012 when major mortality occurred). YOU WILL have dead fish every year if you run this tournament during the 3rd to 4th week in May. That is as sure as punch. YOU WILL have dead post-release fish if your livewell is not continuously pumping. YOU WILL have post release fish dead if you ice your livewell, or transport tank and enact a temperature fluctuation greater than 2 degrees celcius. YOU WILL kill all your fish post-release if you have a water temp fluctuation greater than 2 degrees C, as the fish is transferred from boat livewell, to weigh-in tank, to release boat tank, and back into the lake. YOU WILL have post-release dead fish if your livewell does not have adequate capacity. Putting 6 fish @ slot length into livewells of non-specified volume for up to 8 hours will kill the fish post-release. You need at least 13.5 liters per fish, hence the reason why Alberta has its 2 fish max livewell rule. I can go on and on. All you have to do is research this stuff yourself. The saddest part of this is that our MNR knows all of this, and continues to allow our resource to take the hit.
Dave
Well said Fenelon.
this tournament is run by some very dedicated people who care about the fishery we have, they take the time to ensure the fish are well taken care of they are not god and cant control the weather this is why the shortened sunday of fishing which was fine. The co that was on hand would have stopped it if any thing was going bad through the day he did not so it seems everything was ok. this may burn some out there but if you cared enough about the walleye fishery, then instead of ing on here then send a letter to your fisheries minister and have him spend some of the funds that people spend on licences to help replenish the walleye numbers on all of the kawartha lakes, slot sizes only work for a short time until it catches up to where there is no larger fish to spawn. So all the people who are against walleye tournaments turn your anger to the mnrf, I look forward to the Canada/us walleye tournament returning next year and hope the weather is more in favour the event staff which are volunteers did an excellent job hosting the event and did their best at looking after the fish under the warm conditions, cheers to all of you
Deerslayer
A few years ago Fenelon came on here and made post about huge losses following the tournament. All kinds of dead fish dumped back into the Lake, and more to come (PRM). He was called a liar, names and many more things. Challenged to provide proof...Go into the water and get video and still of all these non existent dead fish many said. Many of whom were participants.
No-one can say for sure, if that post was solely, that ran for pages, lots of flames...probably thousands of post views, was largely responsible for getting it in the public eye, but things changed afterwards (funny that). Even if it was just a wee tiny bit responsible. Posting here, obviously helped bring it to the front burner.
They take the time?
Well,there was that huge kill back a few years........and another large kill this year. I happen to know some people fishing it, and was reading things participants had to say about Sundays change on Saturday night. Many ripped the organizers for a bad/shoddy release boat. I don't know the specifics of the problem there (suspect A) inadequate tanks and B) length of time...but don't want to speculate. A few were angry the Shimano live release boat wasn't used. Thats the organizers responsibility.
The CO almost certainly...I don't say certainly because I wasn't there, wasn't a fly on the wall, had things to say following so many dead fish at weigh in (and after) Saturday. hence changes for Sunday.
We all buy our cards, money goes to the SPA. Some of us, also buy deer tags. Im sure if Walleye numbers were the only thing happening the MNR could as you suggested make stocking Walleye the be all and end all.
What about Moose?
What about Salmon and Trout in the great Lakes
What about Wolf/Bear problems
What about invasive species be they Gobbies or plants
What about deer numbers
What about Yotes
What about no where near enough COs out there
Im sure people did their best. Im sure many are angry or upset (some aren't, some few participants were more angry that the changes for Sunday all but ensured they couldn't move up in the standings) but even despite their best. Large numbers perished.
Its called taking responsibility, and one thing we (meaning all of us..anglers, hunters, those in various parts of the industry) are always telling the public? Especially when a bad apple gives us all a black-eye?
How much we care about conservation.
Hmmmmmmmm, something doesn't add up when sooooo many fish....especially Walleye (struggling in many lakes) on a known fragile Lake are killed off.
Good post Fenelon - I'm not sure why we are running walleye tournaments either. A walleye is far more fragile than a bass.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fenelon
If they are going to continue with them, why not go all the way and kill, clean and use the fish. At least that way the tournament anglers may have some appreciation for what their tournaments do to fishing stocks.
The only thing I find more disgusting than killing a mess of walleye with a fishing tournament is dumping them back into the lake to rot instead of eating them.
tournaments aside I never see anyone on my part of the St. Lawrence catch and releasing walleye. I am amazed at the quality of the fishery considering there is little to no catch and release.
Please don't bring this tournament back to Pigeon Lake. Unless they move it to the fall or opening weekend, which probably won't happen because they are harder to catch at those times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Attila
Hi John:
It would be wonderful to give out fresh caught local fish, however, the regulations concerning Food Banks make it impossible unless the fish were taken to a plant and commercially cleaned and packaged. The same applies to venison and other wild game. My apologies. Thank you for your generous offer.
Sincerely,
Denise Auger,
Community & Family Services Worker
-----Original Message----- From:
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 4:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Donating fish
I was wondering if I could donate fish that I caught while I was fishing in the area ?
Thanks in advance for your response.
John
Sent from my iPhone
I'll preface this by saying I'm not calling anyone a liar.
I wrote to the Fenelon Falls Food Bank about donating fish and the above was the email response I received
If any of the organizers are on this forum or anyone else that can tell me what food bank they donated to it would be greatly appreciated.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
stragglelake: Thanks for clarifying this. It applies to any wild game.