Comment
I totally agree that walleye populations have been declining significantly. Believe it or not I feel as though covid was a very good thing for lake of the woods. I believe that option 2 is better for a more restricted slot size. Another problem that seems to never be mentionned is that if a shore lunch is offered to guests at lodges then they theoretically have already caught their catch and eaten it. They should not be allowed to fish for that species once they have done that. In theory if a group comes to our area. Fishes all day and has a shore lunch they should not have the same possession limit. Now they have eaten 4 walleyes over the 2 days of fishing and now they are heading home with another 4 to max out their possession limit. Guided trips should be mandatory. Guides should have to meet guidelines and know what they are or are not allowed to do. The laws that are being spoken of don't protect against this from happenning. Proper and improper ways of fileting fish also should be mentionned. I personally have witnessed non residents removing the back straps only from fish at lodges. I was a guide for over 20 years and I spent a lot of time educating other guides on proper ethics. These ethics should be a mandatory course that the mnrf supplies on a face to face basis. 90 percent of guides on lake of the woods I would bet have not personally read the regulations. The lodges have been their own worst enemies. Improperly educating traveller's and Not monitoring catches and limit restraints. Another major problem is how electronics have changed the fishing world. GPS has made it so that people can pull up on a spot with ease. Trolling motors have made it so that when they find the fish they can spot lock on the school. Further advancements on sonar and imaging have made it so that people can literally look around an area and cast right onto the fishes heads. I can't see it being too long before these units become banned as well as I feel they should be. Nothing is left to the imagination anymore. Never mind the advances in boats the past 30 years. There is a huge difference between doing something once the problem is already an issue and trying to get ahead of the curve. I suggest at a minimum the mnrf should impose a possession limit as no more then one day's catch in addition to option number 2.
Submitted January 6, 2023 8:40 PM
Comment on
Lake of the Woods Draft Recreational Walleye Plan
ERO number
019-6067
Comment ID
82190
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