Urban Fishery Management

[antoniojay]

Urban Fisheries and fish populations

Just today, I decided it would be a great day to head out to the Kitchener-Waterloo area to visit my brother and do a bit of fishing at the lake near his place, as we heard that the crappie there were bitting hard.
When we approached the lake to go fishing, we saw a woman (nationality is regardless, but you could probably guess) fishing very close to the store by just dragging a bobber with a small worm at the end, where she seemed to just be enjoying herself. Oddly enough though, she kept eying my brother and myself as we were just looking over the lake, and it was when she caught a fish, we realized why.

This woman had pulled out a small largie, no more than 7" and stared at us before she nonchalantly threw it into an awaiting plastic bag behind her. Being an advocate of conservation fishing policies, both my brother and myself approached this woman to explain to her that she wasn't allowed to keep bass at this time, and in general, keeping a fish that small is just wrong, especially considering that this 'lake' is a storm run off where people generally fish for fun. While walking over to her, she had caught another fish, this time a very small sunfish, about 2.5" and threw it in the bag aswell, when she realized we were walking over to her. She was quick to grab the bag up off the floor, but we were already very close, and we explained to her that she had to release the bass.

During our explanation, we noticed her No-Frills bag not only had just 1 bass, it had many. All under 6", as well as roughly 20 very small sunfish, and 1 crappie, which was of decent size. We explained to her that releasing the bass would be in everyones best interest, and explained to her what could happen. She spoke to us in broken english with a strong accent, and packed up and took off to her husband, who was fishing at the other end of the lake. Thinking nothing of it, we continued on, walking to another spot to fish.

On our way back now, we passed the same couple, but this time, we heard the woman speaking to her husband in perfect english, telling him about how we made her put fish back, which made her husband aggressively approach us, to start verbal altercation.

Regardless, I think everyone has been in a situation where they have seen something of this magnitude happen. We are all familiar with the white bucket anglers, or the groups of foreign anglers who keep almost everything they catch, and when confronted, they act as if they didn't know. I do understand that some of them may generally not understand, but in the same fashion, there are many who play the foreign card as a way of escaping. I've witnessed conservation officers let anglers off with a warning for having too many fish, even once witnessed a CO let an angler off with a warning for fishing without a license.

The effecting result of these types of anglers, is reduced fish populations, where ponds and lakes which we used to love to fish, become nothing more than barren water basins. My question for you, the reader is, what do you think should be done in regards to the decay of urban fisheries? Feel free to comment whatever you think, but please, keep this objective and political, not racially biased.

 

[Kit]

It's funny that you mention that I had the same problem in Brantford. People with the white bucket.. He pulled in a good sized small mouth bass and he went over to help his wife with the fish flopping on the ground so I drop my rod and get the fish off the hook and back into the water. He sees me doing this and he looses his cool. Swearing (seemed like it had a thick accent) at me all this crap and I simply ask him do you not know the Ontario fishing regulations? He says to me what? I explained to him what you just did by catching that bass is illegal for not putting the fish back into the water right away and that bucket with rock bass(that were already dead) is also illegal your retaining fish that's not in season yet. You can be charged I said. The man said to me no charge. Then I asked if he had a fishing license he said no as well. So at that point I called the tips line and gave them this guys plate and everything so I hope they nailed him. And these people are so ingnorant the guys wife was fishing and her line was going across my legs and line and my buddy is fishing next to me and she starts reeling in her line and tangels hers mine and my friends. So my friend starts to untangles the line and the crazy women starts reefing on her rod I yelled at this stupid women when she knew that we where tangled up so I got my scissors and cut her line.


I'm not saying this to be hateful or anything bad but the white bucket people don't know sh$* about fishing. And don't know the laws for fishing. To them if it swims throw in it the bucket.

But that's my 0.2 and like I said I don't mean to offend anyone but this is crazy and needs to be addressed somehow.

 

[Mykester]

^Lol, I remember driving by Brantford and everyone there had a white bucket.

 

[Joel52]

We definitely need more COs in Southern Ontario - in Northern Ontario, most of the culprits are Americans. I really take issue with private fishing contests when the guys have stringers in their live wells to keep "their" fish separate, then try to release them later at the docks once the weigh in is finished. I've seen more than a few nice smallies belly up on shore the next day.

 

[chosen 1]

If I'm not mistaken rock bass are considered a pan fish an they are in season all year in most zones. However people who keep oss fish need to be taught a lesson and I don't think that the fines are enough considering the damage that is being done to our resources.

 

[getin]

If you see wrongdoing, report it to MNR, period. Arguing with people and bulding up the stress will cause hatred for both sides.

 

[JimCanuck]

Speak broken English to them then, "Last week, got one, (point to the bass), police drive by and got big ticket" :lol:

On a serious note, don't get involved, one might fake the inability to speak English, while the other might not be so kind.

Call 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667), leave their ID/plates/etc and your name/number if asked for it (sometimes they need witnesses) and let them handle it. Or if you want quicker results call 911.

Jim

 

[getin]

Speak broken English to them then, "Last week, got one, (point to the bass), police drive by and got big ticket" :lol:

On a serious note, don't get involved, one might fake the inability to speak English, while the other might not be so kind.

Call 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667), leave their ID/plates/etc and your name/number if asked for it (sometimes they need witnesses) and let them handle it. Or if you want quicker results call 911.

Jim

I don't think it is really a 911 thing. you should call MNR. The message gets across very quickly and hopefuly that stops them. I am relatively new to Canada myself so I don't like to single out anyone here. Call the COs and let them do their job

 

[420Fisher]

well well well, another case where people have to take charge,
just a reminder, if you call MNR, and ask them how many people are covering zone 16, they will tell you they only have 2-3 CO's for zone 16 fishing and hunting.

and as many of you know, i not have the right state of mind to not say something to "people like that"... as long as im not alone...
i would lose it on a person keeping out of season fish.

i know everyone says "lit MNR deal with it" or "dont get involved"

but i just cant do that.... im sorry.......
if i seen a person being a pervert at a school, im gonna confront them, if i see a drug dealer dealing drugs right in front of me, im going to confront them.
i know so many other people will say im nutz, and i am....
when i see soemething that i don't like, i make sure i do something about it..

thanks to the guys that did have the go-nads to confront these people that were breaking the law....

this is just my opinions, you dont have to agree with me.
and i also not saying everyone should be like me. but we should all "try" to do the right thing.

 

[JimCanuck]

Sorry but your being a foolish child right now, even the police know better then to have that attitude. Some of us value our lives, and guess what so do the CO's, that is why they get OPP and local cops to join them in arrests of people who are poaching (be it hunting or fishing), because they know that if one is willing to act in a criminal mannor one is willing to try and get away with it.

Please sit down, think about it, and have a cup or 3 of coffee to wake you up out of that fantasy world of yours.

Jim

 

[antoniojay]

White bucket anglers are a pain. I was in Dunnville this past weekend, and I tried to get there super early to avoid fishing in a vacant hole after the white buckets have had their way. By the time I got there, both sides of the dam were pretty much littered with anglers, armed with their trusty white buckets. One group had a very large cooler which was so full of fish, that they had to use a bungee cord to keep it shut. It's actually disgusting to me. I remember fishing in Dunnville as a kid, and even in the Cayuga area and catching numerous large fish from shore, now it seems as if large fish are few and far between. To make it worse, I saw they using GOBIES as bait. I'm aware that there is some round gobies living beneath the dam, but to my knowledge, they haven't made their way into the upper grand, and I'd like to keep it that way.

But instead of ranting, what do you think should be done? I personally believe that maybe limits on the amount of fish should be dropped, and fines increased. The OPP should also have authority in these situations, because it technically is still a crime

 

[getin]

Well, what I meant by not arguing is that when you see a person is still so rude to argue over his/her wrongdoing, call the MNR and let them fine the person. For ignorant people, this is the only way they learn. On the other hand, if I am with somebody or there are other anglers, I definitly tell the wrongdoers. Last week there was this family keeping bass at hastings and I told them this is not legal. They opologized and said they cannot recognize bass from walleye, and released it. Not sure if they were just playing tupid or they were. Not whitebucket type though )

 

[NADO]

enough of the white bucket b.s. ....... I have a white bucket with an air bubble machine strapped to it that i love to use to store shiners/ a nice catch of perch and white bass. Who gives a **** if people keep panfish, if they are keeping bass out of season thats a whole different story, but as I recall she was using a No Frills Plastic Bag???? So enough of the white bucket B.S, its an overused term that really has no meaning.

 

[Mykester]

I'm sure the term white bucket is only a euphemism for those who keep every little thing they catch. Indeed it's mostly panfish but small bass do end up as part of the catch many times. I find it disgusting that you would need to keep every single thing you end up catching, do these people eat anything else? lol

 

[JimCanuck]

White bucket is profiling a very large and dynamic group of people from all over the world who over fish and take home white buckets full of fish.

It is like calling people with pants at their knee's and flatbrimmed hats, idiots ... I mean drug users/dealers .... is what police officers do right?

Jim

 

[antoniojay]

It is only a euphemism, but I understand your points about it being misappropriated. Ignoring the white bucket then, just think about anglers who keep fish out of season. Even though you say that panfish don't really matter, there is still a limit in place for panfish, even though the person in the OP was technically under the limit for conservation (which I believe is 25), smaller panfish do play a vital role in ecosystems.

 

[NADO]

im a conservationist myself, i recently went perch fishing and got well over 30 keepers and i only kept 12. That is partially beacuse I didnt feel like having to clean so many fish at the end, once I got 8 or 9 I let em go if they had a clean hookset.
There are so many great uses for white buckets and it just rubs me the wrong way when people use the "white bucket" term....whats wrong with "poacher"???

Panfish are definately important, but they have high limits because they are abundant. There is nothing wrong with keeping panfish out of a great lake, if that were tp change im sure limits would reflect that.