Walleye fishing banned on Lake Scugog starting Jan 1 2016

[OldTimer]

Heads up:

http://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/6...e-fishing/

and:

http://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/614...es-scugog/

[MuskieBait]

Yep. Should have done that a LONG time ago...

[Eli]

I can honestly see this becoming a very widespread thing across southern and eastern Ontario. The walleye fishery is a shadow of what it was just a few decades ago. The large rivers still hold substantial populations, but the small inland lakes are way over-fished.

[tweedwolfscream]

Thing is, walleye were introduced to Scugog in the 1920s-1940s for the sole purpose of creating a recreational fishery. Sorry to import the nativeness philosophical debate from the other thread, but it seemed MuskieBait would agree with me about deliberate recreational purpose introductions. It wouldn't bother me on an eco-philosophical level if they just let folks fish these non-native walleye to extirpation, but I'm sure there are well-established businesses that have come to depend on Scugog walleye. Trouble is, of course, how is closing the fishing season any better for them than running out of fish? OFAH is complaining in the articles that without well-defined benchmarks the walleye season will never re-open, and there's probably some truth to that, so what are we gaining here? Saving a remnant population of fish that isn't part of the natural community, and isn't accessible to anglers either?

In short, I'd be totally behind closing a recreational fishery for the sake of a threatened ecosystem component... but it seems more like we're closing a recreational fishery for the sake of said recreational fishery.

I don't know much about Scugog, so feel free to pick this post apart and show me how I'm wrong.

[OldTimer]

(12-15-2015 11:57 AM)tweedwolfscream Wrote:  I don't know much about Scugog, so feel free to pick this post apart and show me how I'm wrong.

You dangled a few participles. (smile)

Other than that - yep - you're spot on.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[tweedwolfscream]

(12-15-2015 03:38 PM)OldTimer Wrote:  You dangled a few participles.

Hm, where? Are you referring to "creating a recreational fishery"? I would argue that it is grammatically correct: creating the recreational fishery was the purpose given to the walleye, and said walleye were the subject of the sentence, since it was constructed in the passive voice. But perhaps I'm missing something?

[Eli]

Interesting.
I didn't know they weren't native to Scugog.

[eppy55]

Hi all, The last time the ministry stocked Scugog was in 1966 and there has been nothing since. I contacted the ministry approx. 3 weeks ago to find out if the ban also included the Scugog River north to the lock in Lindsay and at that time they refered my request to another department and said they would reply promptly but, so far nothing. I do suspect that it does include the river all the way up as this is basically the same body of water but I do not believe it has been acknowledged by the ministry. Last thing you want is a fine for unclarified or hazy laws. Your friend, Trevor Calhoun.

[tweedwolfscream]

The exception in the regs summary that keeps walleye closed year round is listed as "Lake Scugog" only. The former exception that gave walleye a winter season on Scugog also applied only to the lake itself, and now it's gone. So if a spot is considered part of the river and not the lake, you can fish walleye but not until May.

Do you know how far north folks were allowed to fish for walleye in the winter? The same cutoff should now apply to the walleye fishing ban. I know that looking at the map there isn't a clear river mouth really.

For what it's worth, the provincial topo mapping seems put the lake-river boundary right where the south-facing point juts in not quite halfway between the north end of O'reilly Lane and the mouth of Mariposa Creek. If you go to Fish ON-Line, select "LIO Topo" as the map type and zoom way way in on the spot I'm talking about, you'll see what I mean.

[zippyFX]

You should ask MNR.... Last time I asked for a river around here, they pointed to landmarks east and west of the of the river mouth that really cleared things up.