Valens Derby

[GTAbassangler]

Thinking about entering the Valens derby the day after I come back from a 5 day portaging trip up north.... debating if its worth it or not

https://www.conservationhamilton.ca/component/ohanah/john-burns-memorial-fishing-derby-2

Just seeing if anyone has participated in the past and your opinions!

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Drop_Shot]

Are there even any Pike left in that lake?

 

[Bow Man]

I was there on Saturday at the beach with my kids, saw a few guys catch some pike ( very small 1-2 pounds ). Lots of sun fish......

 

[Christopheraaron]

The derby destroyed that lake (of course I never had the chance to fish it in it's prime), it's a shame they still run it.

 

[MuskieBait]

The derby destroyed that lake (of course I never had the chance to fish it in it's prime), it's a shame they still run it.

The derby didn't destroy the lake. They had the derby for a very, very long time. Undisciplined ice anglers destroyed the lake. During its prime, you can catch 7-8" bluegill and 10-12" crappie as average size fish. In fact, there were so many I used to be able to look down the hole to pick and choose which fish I want. But people came with buckets and kept everything. Now the panfish population is stunted with too many small panfish...and that is affecting the Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike population in the lake. Just too much competition for food for the juveniles.

I know this because I used to chat with Gord Costie all the time. He's the superintendent of the park. That's why they closed the lake to icefishing for a couple of years and now encourages catch and release fishing during the ice season.

It is really icefishing that puts a lot of pressure on the lake. During the summer, much of that lake is very weedy and fish has a lot of places to hide. In the winter, the weeds die and push fish into the main basin area where it is too easy to find and catch them (or used to be too easy).

Same thing happened to Goreski's on Lake Scugog. Before the MNR opened the crappie season on Scugog, we used to catch 12-14" crappie on the regular. They came through in schools after schools between sunset to full dark. But after the crappie season opened, I saw bucket anglers came out in droves every weekend...hundreds of people packed into an area the size of two football fields. What's even more stupid was people tossing small panfish on the ice to die. It took only one winter to wipe that place clean. Now you only find small sunfish, small perch and small crappies in that area in the winter.

 

[JordanMcK]

I was at Valens the other day. Of course, the bridge was packed with people fishing off of it. I was the only person that managed to catch anything for the couple hours I was there; just a small hammerhandle pike.. Each time I go to fish Valens, I leave very disappointed.

 

[GTAbassangler]

Ah crap, this doesn't sound too promising!
Last year I stopped by and fished on the dock at valens for a hour or so, caught a nice crappie on a gulp alive minnow, fought like a nice bass!
I was reading in an article that last year the largest pike caught was like 5LBS or something and the largest bass was 3Lbs 11oz which isn't too shabby.

I did notice anywhere around the bridge gets alot of pressure. Im sure all the fish are at the back end by the road

Thanks for the info guys,

Matt

 

[Drop_Shot]

IT's ridiculous that in a Conservation area that the white bucket fisherman issue can't be neutralized... I can understand public fishing areas and with the small number of Ministry officers out there working would make it hard to enforce all areas. In a C.A area though, employees could simply do their rounds around the lake couple times a day and make sure no one is going over their limit... It's probably a bureaucratic or political thing as to why this can't happen... At this rate if you want any good fishing you're going to have to drive 2 hours outside a metropolitan area.... The big Oil would have no issue with that! lol

 

[MuskieBait]

People don't have to go over their limit to kill a fishery...

A typical winter, Valens may be open from mid-Jan to mid-March. So say that's 2 months or 8 weekends.

During its prime, I saw at least 100 ice anglers on the lake. But for argument sake, let's say 100 anglers.

At the time, seasonal limit for Black Crappie was 25. Even if we assume only half the anglers would keep their limit of crappies, that's 50 anglers x 25 crappies = 1250 crappies taken on a single day. Now multiply that figure by 2 for the weekend, then multiply that by 8 for the number of weekends...we have not even consider the anglers fishing on week days...which there were an average of 15-20 on any given week day...mostly locals.

That little fishery cannot sustain this kind of harvesting...even if people fish within limits.

The problem was that Valens got popular as a great panfish fishery and people started to come in droves...and families came to fill buckets full of big Bluegills and Crappies. After several years of this harvest, the fishery crashed.

People often ask "Hey, where can I find good fishing?"...and I rarely reply. It's one thing being helpful...but it's another thing to start naming fisheries on the internet where hundreds and perhaps thousands of people can see the same information...and the crowds start to build up on any named spots. Fisheries cannot sustain that type of pressure.

 

[Dozer]

...yup

 

[Dozer]

Pics from the portaging trip to lighten the mood?

 

[GTAbassangler]

Pics from the portaging trip to lighten the mood?

oh you know i will be posting pictures on thursday evening when I get home! Pike and smallie galore!

Valens is for the most part pretty shallow, a rough winter could of taken an impact on it aswell.

My uncle tells me stories how he used to catch dinner plate sized crappie and solid bass there on a consistant basis. This news is unfortuina