Opp on fish patrol LOL the big sting

[bardern]

here is where I am on this whole deal. was the fish legal? No. But we have two OPP officers pulling down a pretty damn good wage tooling around in a boat most of us here can't afford checking for legal fish. Now you guys in the GTA can tell me better but every time I am on the 401 the lunacy on the road is appalling and let not talk about the fact there is not enough money to fund the gang unit to clean up the Jane and Finch area and the south of Ottawa but golly we have money for officers checking for fish and pea-less whistles.

If a CO had made the fish call fine, but how can we substantiated the OPP pursuing what is in their purview fish checks over what has basically become urban warfare in our cities, where we are watching pregnant mothers being shot on their way home from a basketball game. Sorry but I don't put a fish over that mother. If the Toronto and Ottawa police are over extended to deal with these issues bring the OPP in and yes a few fish might suffer but oh well.

[sawbill]

The regs are very clear on how to measure. The tail closed and the mouth closed. It can be found right in the summary too.

[MikePal]

But we have two OPP officers pulling down a pretty damn good wage tooling around in a boat most of us here can't afford checking for legal fish.

As mentioned numerous times, the OPP are out on the lake enforcing Boater Safety....if they see other violations to the rules they have the authority to act upon it.

[bardern]

again Mike we have no police money for the Guns and Gang units but we have money to check for whistles and ropes

[terrym]

Nobody here seems to be admitting to breaking the laws on a daily basis while driving while we all know they do. This condescension and finger pointing and name calling has no justification. Hypocrites calling others hypocrites. That's all I'm going to say on this one.

[trimmer21]

As mentioned numerous times, the OPP are out on the lake enforcing Boater Safety....if they see other violations to the rules they have the authority to act upon it.

Not only do they have the authority,but,when presented with a flagrant violation,they're duty-bound to act. As most know,I did some marine work with the OPP way back when. You wouldn't believe some of the abject stupidity we used to see and I'm sure it hasn't improved since then. I'm glad to see them on the water. The effect when people see them "showing the flag" on the water is far-reaching. It lets people think twice about water and boating safety and that's a very good thing.

[JBen]

Those are good points Badern, as I always say the world is rarely black or white, usually a shade of grey. The flip side, or counter or other angle/perspective, is well there are many, too many. Sometimes I find it useful to go to an "extreme", and then pull back towards the middle.

In a perfect world, there would be more than enough OPP to patrol the highways, and everything else we expect of them. In that same world, there'd be enough COs to adequately patrol all our Lakes and WMUs and do everything we expect of them. Is the answer then, pull all the OPP of the Lakes/Rivers and re-assign them to where they can do "more important" things? I can only imagine the effect on our Lakes, where there isn't enough enforcement, as is, counting both COs and OPP, not even close. Perhaps Ms Wynne should fire 500 OPP at 100k each and use the money to hire 600 COs. Wed still be short COs and I suspect we aren't so flush in OPP that various area's of the province can take that kind of hit to law enforcement.

The cities be they the GTA or Ottawa, have their Police forces and pay land taxes so hire/supply those forces. Rural Ontario?
In an odd way, this does relate back to the recent thread about Parking/Ramp fee's in Innesfil.

I'm making an assumption this occurred on Rice Like. I wonder, how many thousands of people vacate the GTA each weekend and descend on Rice Lake. Where it seems like each year, there atleast one SaR (usually recovery) because 4-6 people rented a tin can and...Where there are certainly car accidents, occasionally as with Wasaga this past weekend knifings.....and more. What about
Chemong, Scugog, Buckhorn, Pigeon, Stony, all the Muskoka's and more....

And who pays for all that?
By and large not the residents of the GTA who flood anything within 3hours each and every weekend.

So the way I see it, is whats more efficient. Isn't it better to make use of the OPP and kill two birds with one stone, or perhaps as they and other often get accused of....shall we pay them to sit in donut shops while the Lakes are Swamped each weekend.

The answer to all of this is hire 5,000 or 10,000 COs. Buy a few hundred trucks and boats. Oh and while we are at it, re-hire 20,000 or so Nurses, roughly 10,000 GPs ( 1 Dr for 80 Ontarians without a GP) and we all pay another few thousand in taxes each year.

sign me up.
And ironically we know how Terry feels about being over taxed and govt bloat

[MikePal]

again Mike we have no police money for the Guns and Gang units but we have money to check for whistles and ropes

You'd change you tune if your family suffered a loss on the lake due to a Drunk boater...so NO it's not an either or issue...

[seabast]

Nobody here seems to be admitting to breaking the laws on a daily basis while driving while we all know they do. This condescension and finger pointing and name calling has no justification. Hypocrites calling others hypocrites. That's all I'm going to say on this one.

Are you in a playing mood today?!?!

What most of us are saying, just like MikeP mentioned earlier, is not about breaking the law, that's up to you, it's about whining about it! I break the law everyday while driving or else but when I get caught I shut up and pay, that's all....

There is a line that you can't cross, if you do you can either play the system or pay the price but it both case you zip it (IMO).... If somehow you are border line and you are not too sure (+/- 1/4") you shouldn't expect the authority to be on your side, from my experience they will never be, so you should be safe and give yourself some play.

Do cops have better thing to do? Yes, but they do patrol our lake because of idiots so if they see something illegal why not inforce it. I got plenty of 125$ fines over the years on the lake so I don't like to see them out there either but they are doing their job...

[JoePa]

If I was the officer involved - after measuring the fish and finding that it was about a 1/4 of any inch too long I would have told the guy to be more careful when measuring his fish - I would have given him a warning - realizing that measuring a fish wasn't exact science and he only had one fish - the result - I don't ruin the guy's day - he has $175 to spend on his family - and he goes away with a good feeling about law enforcement - having 7 fish instead of the limit 6 is an entirely different thing - or having a fish that is 2 inches too long - a cop needs to use some discretion at times

One time I was with my son and we were trolling near shore on Lake Nipissing - we each had one line out behind the boat - earlier we had been casting towards shore and each of us had a rod set up for casting laying in the boat - for some reason my son picks up the casting rod and shoots a plug toward shore - some COs must have been watching us because in a moment this boat comes flying over from around an island with 3 Cos in the boat - they told us we were only able to use one line a piece and it was illegal to do what my son had just done - they told us it could cost us $150 for doing that - they gave us a warning - you know something we appreciated what they did and to this day I have a lot of respect for this outfit - had they given us a ticket I don't think I would be feeling the same -in fact maybe I'd be pissed off and find some place else to fish - so giving a ticket for an infraction isn't always the best answer