In 2008 Temiskaming Angler…

In 2008 Temiskaming Angler and Hunter association sent a letter to the Minister of Natural Resources of the the day complaining about the over restrictive fishing regs in Fmz 11 .To resolve this issue Mnr committed to fastrac the formation of the Fmz 11 council to deal with these issues . Eleven years later we have a proposed plan which does not deal with one single issue raised in 2008 .
The 2007 planning process created a few problems . Reducing the winter Lake Trout in 90 +- Lake Trout lakes in the Temagami area and redirecting pressure to 44 stocked lakes resulted in the demise of a reasonably good stocking program . The 32+- Lake trout lakes in the North Bay portion of the Zone have 74 stocked lakes and the lions share of the walleye lakes to take up the slack .
Changing the limit from 3 to 2 also had a negative affect . It is my observation that relatively few are fishing planktorial lakes anymore instead concentrating on piscivorous lakes were a larger mass of fish can be caught . Between 80 and 90 % of the people preferred a 3 fish limit with some sort of 1 over regulation .
The State of the Lake Trout resource in 2007 was based on a sample of 21 Lake Trout lakes . I believe that was not a representative sample as 13 of the 21 were selected from the 32 lakes in the North Bay portion of the Zone and only 8 were from the 88 lakes of the Temagami portion . As you know there are significant land use differences between North bay and Temagami Lakes resulting in different utilization rates and different resource states .
I am a little skeptical of the State of the Lake Trout resource . You seem to be saying that all lakes should produce at the same rate while other jurisdictions like Alaska and Minnesota say every lake has a different growth rate i.e you are what you eat and were you live .I think if all the netting done between 2000 and 2005 could be compared to stuff from the 1960 you would have something .
The proposed September Lake Trout closure is based on research on Opeonga Lake in Algonquin Park The research is probably valid but Opeonga Lake is probably not representative of every Lake Trout lake in Fmz 11 particularly the planktorial lakes which don't have large fish in them . I just think there is other ways to protect these large fish without closing the season .Your own research shows that adjusting seasons only works for the first year . After that people adjust there schedules to conform to the new time frames .The last 2 weeks of September provided a excellent holiday period when both trout fishing and small game hunting could be enjoyed . It is interesting that Wyoming solution to produce larger Lake Trout was to increase the limit on smaller sized Lake Trout .
I am ok with a 1 over reg for Lake trout but not a 1 over 40 cm . 40 cm is too small . The size should be large enough to accomodate the size of fish in planktorial lakes . I don't agree with the separate special reg for Lake Temagami Walleye and Lake Trout . Just another example of discrimination as far as I am concerned .
The Brook Trout Tool Kit clearly stated that size based regulations shouldn't be used on put grow and take lakes .As far as I can see size based regulations are not used on Brook Trout stocked lakes in any other jurisdiction in Ontario . I have no probblem using these sized based regulations on natural Brook Trout lakes but given the limited number of Brook Trout lakes and the difficulty accessing them this strategy will have limited affect . Banning live bait in stocked lakes was tried in Temagami a few years ago . It was discontinued after a few years because minnows became established in these stocked lakes again . Why would you try something again that you know didn't work ?
I am ok with maintaining the current Walleye reg until the results of the next broadscale are received . After that it is time to compare the 3 Walleye regs (4 fish 1 over 18, 4 fish 43-60 slot and 5 fish seasonal size limit) with 6 fish no size limit and determine whats best for the anglers . We are still being discriminated against in Fmz 11 as most Fmz's are open until March 31st instead of 3rd Saturday in March
Most of the fish specie objectives say something like maintain or increase fish size or spawning size etc . I hope the council realizes that if fish sizes increases the number of fish will decrease . Something has to go down for something to go up . I personally think that anglers would want to see more fish and more fish means smaller fish .
I think Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike are underutilized in Fmz 11 and could stand more exploitation .I would propose a year round open season and liberal limit for both species. This would drive the population down a bit and make more room for Lake Trout and Walleye .