MNR crashing our fishery in front of our eye's?

[steelhead101]

im sure as most of you saw in the new's, MNR showing no concern for bowmanville fish, leaving them there to rot and die. the salmon are so thick in that area that oxygen levels begin to drop, the lower river fills with dead carcass resulting in a awful smell for fisherman and park users. also as many of you know the credit fish way is CLOSED to chinook and coho salmon. they do not let a single one pass despite the fact that they clearly reproduce naturally.

not sure if you know but the actual atlantic salmon return numbers or not but last year only 30 returned to the credit, and this year only 9 have been lifted. thats a little shy of their 300+ projection to the media? I do some volunteering my self but almost feel like whats the point? the atlantic salmon project is not worth an amazing chinook, coho , pink, rainbow and brown trout fishery even if it was successful! some sort of petition needs to be made or we should start holding sign's at the next atlantic stocking.. clearly whatever goes into that project is coming out of fish that actually can live in lake ontario.

so whats your guys opinion?
is the grass really greener on the other side?

 

[Dozer]

The MNR does care however in todays world there are many behind the scenes obstacles and problems that slow the process down. RE : the dam out east, from my understanding, was that there were some issues with the paperwork and contractors, political stuff can take time to figure out. The MNR cares, believe me they do. I've dealt with various groups and they all have the right intentions however the control over projects often times is out of their hands.

We are still learning as human beings, we've only got decent records for what? 100 years of work with fisheries? Maybe a bit more? We have successfully planted different species into Lake O which now have solid runs of mostly wild fish. The atlantic program was a bit much, why stock a new species where you already have 5 or 6 that are doing well? But it is what it is, they're slowly catching on ( too bad a lot of our fish end up on the south shore ) and I bet they we will eventually have runs of wild atlantics providing the balance doesn't crash out in the lake. I'm type the that thinks that the program should continue, you're in this deep might as well go all the way... we don't know what we could learn. Our rivers have improved drastically, our knowledge increases with every step forward we take and future does look good, at least thats how I see it.

Keep up the volunteering man, kudos to you. I am involved with an atlantic thing out on the east tribs, they aren't only focusing just on atlantics, keeping an eye out on all species.

Lets keep this thread clean and respectful.

 

[416fish]

This is my first year doing salmon fishing and I've hit many tribs in the east. Bomanville is my main spot I fish 4 or 5 days a week and it's a real mess compared to the other tribs. There's tons of fish to caught but there are also carcasses everywhere, half of them or more because of people who take out the roe and dump the bodies in the bushes. It really stinks everywhere.

Honestly, bomanville has become the wild west of fishing, there's more loogans than fishermen. Even the guys who look like proper fishermen are loogans. Today I saw 2 guys, waders and fishing hats on, doing bad things. One was snagging salmon in the back and even showed us his rig, which was a 3 hook spreader (much like ice fishing) with no bait, and a useless bobber (didn't look like he was using it the way he just clamped down on the salmon). As I walked away, I heard him yell to his other buddy in another part of the river, literally just holding a net. It's obvious what he was doing. They had a little trolly full of stuff and a few salmon carcasses. I wanted to throw it in the river but there was families around.

It's hard to try to be legit legal fisherman when you're within casting distance of blatant loogans. Never mind the stink of countless salmon, the MNR needs to come clean up the river of loogans.

As for the atlantic salmon project, I have not seen any results on the river. I seen rainbows, huge browns, many coho and countless chinook. No atlantic in sight. I have seen the MNR volunteers counting fish on a different trib's wire dam. THought it was interesting and cool but they should instead walk the river and ask people for fishing licenses and check their rigs.

 

[NADO]

im all for the Atlantic project, bring back the native species we destroyed. If it were up to me I would like to see atlantics replace chinooks, but that's just one of many opinions. At the very least I think they can slow down the chinook stocking efforts, its getting a little overboard in some places and there is plenty of natural reproduction.

 

[W_boughner]

On a west trib in the spring we had a huge run of Atlantic's come in!!! Over the course of three hrs there was I bet 75 Atlantic's caught out of one hole so they are coming back and they aren't a new introduction to lake O they are the only native salmon but they are being re introduced do to over fishing

 

[Rain-Bow]

I think people are missing the fact that the Atlantic program isn't there to enhance the fishery, but to bring back a species that was wiped out through human activity. It'd be cool if there was more stocking of other fish species though.

 

[Captain Barty]

From what I've been told there are a lot of decisions made by people high up not necessarily in the MNR that everyone has to roll with or your ass is grass.... Sure seems like a crazy situation down at bowmanville. They should just blow up that dam and be done with it. :mrgreen:

As for the atlantic salmon program.... Good luck. I think the last 20 or so years of pouring money down the drain have proven that in its current state with the current conditions of lake o tribs and with the strain of atlantics they are using its just never going to happen.

 

[streamside88]

i thought they fixed the bowmanville dam some odd years ago whats the problem exactly? they cant go up the ladder?

 

[BASSMASTER19]

i always fish bowmanville and to be honest its a mess, loogans everywhere, all the mnr does is sit and watch the dam

 

[steelhead101]

the problem with atlantic's is that they dont populate like the west coast fish, many wild rivers with no damns, no pollution and only have runs of 100-200 fish, as soon as the season opened they would be slaughtered unless they had a only floating line with no weight on the fly rule.

the post above, they are not counting fish. they are sorting them, the coho and chinook get thrown back down to the bottom and the rainbows, browns and atlantics get lifted.

streamside: there was a working fish ladder but chinooks couldnt get up unless we had a major rain, bows and browns were fine. so they decided to make a better one, so they started it last year and the volunteers lifted the fish over as they were under the impression that the damn would be complete for this year, but no it hasnt been, resulting in the current damn not functioning properly ( heating the water up) and fish left to do nothing but leap at a concrete wall. its realy sad to watch actualy...

sunfish: do you have any pictures of these fish?

chasintails: your right, all they do is sit and watch! they dont recruit their own volunteers, they dont help at all they do is sit and watch when they should be policing the loogans 500 yards away.

i think my point was that the project should be a extra perk, sure if theres enough funding why not give a stab at it. But the problem is the funding is coming out of what should go to all the other rivers as well. i dont have any statistical data my self but from what i heard youd almost poop your self if you heard how much money goes into that project.

 

[miles]

I am also in support of the Atlantic program. You guys have all made some good points.

I also hear it helps the mnr get permission to build fish laders and funding because its an indigenous species and not just a transplant for sport,

 

[rich_ace_G]

MNR should hire or recruit weekend volunteers to police those areas. I mean, they are understaffed and not all of them can cover as much area specially during runs...heck I'd give up a fishing day just to catch some loogans...wait...fishing day...hmmm...well i'd give up a fishing day on the salmon run but not the chromers...

 

[steelhead101]

was at bowmanville today it is disgusting, you cant even drift the big pool without snagging dead fish. there is literaly a pool of fish that is from people snagging them and swinging them into the shalows. a few spots the dead fish were so thick that the salmon were hiding behind them( some spots 5 fish high and over 100 in a 10 square foot space. bowmanville isnt normaly the cleanest but never ever ever anything like this it is absolutly disgusting.

 

[416fish]

was at bowmanville today it is disgusting, you cant even drift the big pool without snagging dead fish. there is literaly a pool of fish that is from people snagging them and swinging them into the shalows. a few spots the dead fish were so thick that the salmon were hiding behind them( some spots 5 fish high and over 100 in a 10 square foot space. bowmanville isnt normaly the cleanest but never ever ever anything like this it is absolutly disgusting.

I know exactly where you are talking about. There's a huge pool that looks like a world war 2 battle ground for salmon. Little jacks hiding inbetween the bodies. Its so bad now that I decided to hit another east trib that I know people aren't fishing (it actually has a bad rep for salmon/steelies). Thought maybe if I just fish by myself away from loogans and fishermen, in a place where there are no dead salmon, even if I got 1 fish it would be worth it. It totally was, I caught 6 chrome/white chinook that looked fresher than any salmon I've seen since early season. They fought like beasts instead of the zombie logs in bowmanville. I even saw a deer. And the fact that I didn't see another human during my entire day was refreshing. Just me, nature, and some huge chinook hens

 

[steelhead101]

I know exactly where you are talking about. There's a huge pool that looks like a world war 2 battle ground for salmon. Little jacks hiding inbetween the bodies. Its so bad now that I decided to hit another east trib that I know people aren't fishing (it actually has a bad rep for salmon/steelies). Thought maybe if I just fish by myself away from loogans and fishermen, in a place where there are no dead salmon, even if I got 1 fish it would be worth it. It totally was, I caught 6 chrome/white chinook that looked fresher than any salmon I've seen since early season. They fought like beasts instead of the zombie logs in bowmanville. I even saw a deer. And the fact that I didn't see another human during my entire day was refreshing. Just me, nature, and some huge chinook hens

you made the right choice! i had one decent bow on in the morning, then i had 1 kid down river from me. calls some one on his phone next thing you know 6 kids show up out of the word works. start casting the same small pool im in and one starts whiping chum into it. and they were all float popping it was just awful. youll have to pm this spot with no loogans and no dead salmon! haha maybe see you on the river in a week or three.

 

[BASSMASTER19]

the problem with atlantic's is that they dont populate like the west coast fish, many wild rivers with no damns, no pollution and only have runs of 100-200 fish, as soon as the season opened they would be slaughtered unless they had a only floating line with no weight on the fly rule.

the post above, they are not counting fish. they are sorting them, the coho and chinook get thrown back down to the bottom and the rainbows, browns and atlantics get lifted.

streamside: there was a working fish ladder but chinooks couldnt get up unless we had a major rain, bows and browns were fine. so they decided to make a better one, so they started it last year and the volunteers lifted the fish over as they were under the impression that the darn would be complete for this year, but no it hasnt been, resulting in the current darn not functioning properly ( heating the water up) and fish left to do nothing but leap at a concrete wall. its realy sad to watch actualy...

sunfish: do you have any pictures of these fish?

chasintails: your right, all they do is sit and watch! they dont recruit their own volunteers, they dont help at all they do is sit and watch when they should be policing the loogans 500 yards away.

i think my point was that the project should be a extra perk, sure if theres enough funding why not give a stab at it. But the problem is the funding is coming out of what should go to all the other rivers as well. i dont have any statistical data my self but from what i heard youd almost poop your self if you heard how much money goes into that project.

im going today and im gonna go right up the the lazy a$$ mnr watching the fish and how i could help with volunteering and such

 

[BASSMASTER19]

MNR should hire or recruit weekend volunteers to police those areas. I mean, they are understaffed and not all of them can cover as much area specially during runs...heck I'd give up a fishing day just to catch some loogans...wait...fishing day...hmmm...well i'd give up a fishing day on the salmon run but not the chromers...

id do that, i fine bastards left right and center while my dad fishes, easy vollunteer hours lol

 

[streamside88]

speeking of.... it hit the news chek it out!

http://www.citynews.ca/2013/10/02/fishermen-struggle-to-transfer-salmon-over-bowmanville-dam/

is that the fishbum dude in the red coat?

 

[steelhead101]

sad eh, MNR been "working on finding a alternative for 5 years", what is so confusing about it lol. also funny how they say they appreciate the volunteers help meanwhile they are not helping as they are the ones doing all the damn work

 

[streamside88]

is it just me or wouldn't there be a more efficient way to lift those salmon instead of one by one up that pulley in a garbage bag?