I have to strongly DISAGREE…

I have to strongly DISAGREE with the proposed changes to the lake of the woods walleye limits, I believe there are many issues with this change and it can be managed in a better way.

Dropping the limit to 2 fish per person will have a negative effect in the following ways: surrounding lakes and rivers will get over fished, tourism and local businesses will be strongly effected in negative ways, this wont stop the poachers and illigal activities but will most likely increase them, shared lake waters with the US will still have a 6 fish limit defeating the purpose of this limit reduction, families will not be able to feed thier family with 1 day catch.

A couple ways I believe would help without having to have this change but be fair to all stakeholders: extended closed season (most fish are still in spawn when season is open), extended closure of sanctuary areas with high spawning (tranquil channel, keewatin channel), slot size to protect prime spawners and allow young to grow, hold netting practises accountable with Treaty 3, hire more conservation officers to monitor the large area.

I have fished for many years and just recently started bass fishing in tournaments and it is nothing to catch a large amount or walleye while bass fishing throughout the entire year, I believe there are still really good numbers in the lake and they are still reproducing well. As with everything comes change we have invasive crawfish which have eaten a large amount of the vegetation in the lake so the fish need to adapt to the change and they are now up on shallow rock areas all year round, just because some people dont catch fish in the same spot they did 30 years ago doesn't mean the lake is dead. I know for a fact that I will not be able to bring home 2 walleye and feed myself, wife and 2 kids with that, small lakes and the winnipeg river are going to get hit hard so people can make thier trip out worth a dinner. Guides and resorts will take a huge loss with this change and may even have to shut down after just barely making it through Covid. This still does not address the issues around gill nets and the accountability that needs to come with them. A lot of the time during the opening few weeks of the season high precent areas where fish spawn get very over fished and majority of the time a large amount of fish are still in spawn the closed season needs to be extended and sanctuarys need to be made on the lake. Poaching will get worse and increased officer enforcement will be needed and is needed already but this change will put even more on the hard working officers we already have.

Thank you for your time and hopefully this gets looked at a bit closer and some other options get taken into consideration.