[Ron]

Rice Lake Tourist Ass. at it again.
Northumberland News

For anyone who is ice fishing Rice Lake, please send me a PM. I want to make arrangements to attend the council meeting and show our inupt.

This post has been edited by Ron: 13 April 2010 - 10:23 PM

[irishfield]

The last paragraph says it all Ron. They blame the restrictions for not making a reservation... when it's truely the dollar value, and no longer a cheaper vacation by crossing the border.

[Ron]

Exactly Wayne, some of the RL Ass. members understand but the others still have their heads stuck up their Association. They are trying to blame the new fishing regs for the downfall of their business. The sad part of it is, they are trying to convince the local municipalities to get the fishing regulations reverted back!

[Michael Brown]

This really annoys me. A small group is trying to influence how we as anglers are allowed to enjoy our resource. After years of MNR meetings, reviewing the latest science, speaking with as many related stakeholders as possible, public surveys, public meetings, etc. This kind of backdoor fear mongering crap has to stop. It is time for the anglers of the area to step up and let our local politicians know how important our sport is to the tourism of the area. Consider that the person leading this from RLC is only interested in lining her pockets and could care less about the fishery resource. Their target market are the few anglers who were causing the problems by taking thousands of fish during their stay. This abusive group is exploiting the resource, period.
One group of 30 or so members likes to put off that they represent all of Rice lakes interests. I tend to think that the tens of thousands of anglers who enjoy the fishery would have a better opinion.

I take offense to the comment about the sunfish limits were not discussed at the FMZ 17 meetings. Considering I was at all the meetings since the council started and the person making the comments was at zero. I can tell you that she is completely wrong. In fact it was shown that Rice Lake in particular was showing signs of stress due to over-harvest of the larger fish.

I will be at the meeting and I will be speaking up. I for one will not tolerate this. Any other kawartha area anglers who would like to stand up and defend our new angling oppourtunities, please join us.

Get involved or accept what you get.

[Michael Brown]

The upcoming council meeting is Thurs., Mar. 4, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. Grafton Municipal Office with this topic to be discussed at 2:30 pm.

I have sent an e-mail to the council requesting to speak to this topic and provided my opinion of the tactics of the RLCA.

If you wish to send your comments to the municipal council here is the e-mail form link.

http://www.alnwickha...form.aspx?id=75

Get involved or accept what you get.

[Roy]

For 300+ fish, he'd better have a commercial license.

Y'know, when you have problems with your business, it's easy to blame government regulation. I can think of a hundred ways to make their business opportunities more palatable for them and their guests. Stifling MNR directives is not one of them.

[tb4me]

I dont get it? They want people to catch more than 300 at a time? what happens when there is no fish left to be had? Am I wrong here?

[MuskyGreenHorn]

Wow, guys please go tear this lady a new one at the meeting. I saw their both at the fishing show and I kept a wide berth in fear that I may be encouraged by security to leave the show if i paid that both a visit. Just rediculous. My buddy and neighbour decided to go and talk to them. He talked to a women and was telling her that he fishes rice a ton and he lives nearby in elizabethville. She then tried to ask him to come stay and enjoy the resorts and talk about how great the area is. He had to laugh, he said "lady, i am 10 mins from rice lake, why would i stay at a resort." I guess she knows the area really well eh.....

Nice to see good old Ben spoke up and the paper got it right this time though.

[jonnybass]

Based on the limited info in the article, I actually agree with her position if I understand it correctly. Why should there be any new limits on sunfish?

Is the sunfish fishery in any danger? Sweet Geeeeezzzzzzuss. People have gone mad I tell you.

[diggyj]

What was the limit before it was 300 for sport and 15 for conservation?

This post has been edited by diggyj: 26 February 2010 - 01:03 PM

[Michael Brown]

There was not limit before. That was the problem, some abusive anglers were taking thousands of fish and nothing could be done to stop them. It was well known that every spring, anglers with were stopped at the borders with several thousand fish taken from Rice Lake. The unchecked harvest of sunfish has started to show damage to the size structure of population. In sunfish communities large males are very important to the population, not enough of them and the smaller males become sucessful spawners dedicate their energy to reproduction not growth. This causes the population to stunt. There is no question the lake has a good population of sunfish but the need to protect the fishery from overharvest of the larger members of the population is important.
Most of the harvest is by non-resident anglers. Nobody is blaming all non-residents anglers but the need to stop the ones abusing the resource is very real.
The RLCA blaming the panfish limits to the problems with their business is concerning. The increase in the Canadian dollar, price of gas, US Border security and numerous other factors are far more of an issue limiting their business. Maybe effort towards effective marketing would be a better idea instead of blaming their problems on the MNR.
The simple fact that some of the RLCA members have based their business on catering to a small group of abusive anglers, should have all anglers upset.
As a business owner they should be upset when someone staying at their resort is glutanous and harvests excessive panfish. It is also true that over the last few years clients from Rice Lake have been switching to other Kawartha area lakes due to the decrease in average size of the sunfish on Rice.

We need to protect our resource, to ensure it remains a top quality fishery for years to come.

[timmeh]

Michael Brown, on Feb 26 2010, 01:28 PM, said:

We need to protect our resource, to ensure it remains a top quality fishery for years to come.

Exactly, and fortunately people are standing up to this resource abuse.

Who in their right mind would complain about a 300 fish limit? I mean seriously, how dang greedy are some people?

This post has been edited by timmeh: 26 February 2010 - 01:37 PM

[T.J. Quesnel]

RELEASE THE HOUNDS!!

[cram]

Maybe its me, but i wouldn't drive 3 mins away to catch a sunfish. And some people come in from the US to do it?

Yikes.

Let alone cleaning them???

[Rick OBanion]

Seriously..I want someone to tell me to my face that 300 fish just isn't enough,....
Some serious stupidity going on up there. The fish do not belong to the resort operators. They belong to everyone. The MNR doesn't just pick limits out of thin air.

I guess long term sustainability takes a back seat to a quick buck, huh?

[tomfoolery]

Ron and Mike; I figure if I show up also, that will equal two voices to the RLCA members one voice...
I will be there....

Tom.

This post has been edited by tomfoolery: 26 February 2010 - 02:48 PM

[jonnybass]

Does anyone have an estimate of the number of sunfish in Rice Lake? Probably in the millions would be my guess.

So there are a handful of our brothers to the south who are taking occasional trips up here and taking a couple of thousand sunfish (which none of us up here really fish for anyway) - They are pumping money into our economy (during a recession), and we're gonna start imposing limits - on sunfish?

I say heck, come on up and go nuts on the sunfish! Drop a grand or 2 $ during your stay. The local businesses will thank you for it.

A few bad apples CANNOT destroy the sunfish fishery! (it feels weird even saying "sunfish fishery"). It would take an army of thousands of people fishing night and day for years to fish 'em out. Even then, I would guess the sunfish population would bounce right back in a couple of years.

To me this is a non issue.

[Rick OBanion]

jonnybass, on Feb 26 2010, 03:09 PM, said:

Does anyone have an estimate of the number of sunfish in Rice Lake? Probably in the millions would be my guess.

So there are a handful of our brothers to the south who are taking occasional trips up here and taking a couple of thousand sunfish (which none of us up here really fish for anyway) - They are pumping money into our economy (during a recession), and we're gonna start imposing limits - on sunfish?

I say heck, come on up and go nuts on the sunfish! Drop a grand or 2 $ during your stay. The local businesses will thank you for it.

A few bad apples CANNOT destroy the sunfish fishery! (it feels weird even saying "sunfish fishery"). It would take an army of thousands of people fishing night and day for years to fish 'em out. Even then, I would guess the sunfish population would bounce right back in a couple of years.

To me this is a non issue.

No disrespect, Johhny, but there is no way in hell the limit is in any way the reason there are less travellers. The US is in a recession, their dollar has plummeted and most do not have passports.
I would have to go with the MNR's view of the population and sustainability over yours, sir.

[jonnybass]

Rick, I didn't say that the limits were the cause of reduced tourism. The facts you pointed out definitely have a negative affect on tourism. No argument here. BUT, given that fact, why make it even less attractive for the American sunfish anglers to come up?

Granted, I'm not an MNR scientist, but come on, sunfish for all intents and purposes are a limitless resource in Ontario. If there was a nuclear war, everything would be wiped out except cockroaches and sunfish.

Moreover, sustainability is only part of the equation that must be considered. What about economic considerations? Furthermore, if there has been a sharp drop in the number of Americans who travel up here to strip us of our sunfish due to the factors you pointed out, then why at this point in time is this even on the table? This to me seems like a solution in need of a problem.

[Whopper]

cram, on Feb 26 2010, 01:57 PM, said:

Maybe its me, but i wouldn't drive 3 mins away to catch a sunfish. And some people come in from the US to do it?

Yikes.

Let alone cleaning them???

Yep not all people are bass pros, walleye hunters or muskie freaks. Alot of families travel to Rice because of the pan fishing.

The die hards will still come, the new limit won't stop them, it's enough

A lot of people come from Ohio to fish Rice and mostly because of rising cost and job losses they won't be able to return