commercial crookery

[Leaky]

This is a very interesting article about the comercial fisherman and his activities. I wonder if all the American Sportfishermen, in the four states that border Lake Erie would be interested in reading this. Anyone know of chat boards in those states, that we could share this info with. Those people have a voice, and since this will affect them, they need to know.

 

[mick]

port clinton ohio is the walleye capital of the world...for the sportsfishermen...no gill nets allowed....thats what we need is to make Port glasgow and Erieau our sport fishing capital over here for us......we need a zone on the north shore where there is to be no gill netting...look erieau is the best we got for the erie sport fishermen and charters and derbys and prime game fish waters...I think this could work...but somebody better get on it so next season no gill netting in our area...send the bill in to parliment and get it official...need a lawyer here to draw it up...and I am not kidding here

 

[G.Mech]

Just for clarity, the conservation officers do have lots of powers but they cannot enter "a building or part of a building that is being used as a dwelling". That is, they cannot enter your house or cottage without a warrant (unless you permit them to do so). You can read about all of this good stuff here, this topic is covered in section 90 & 91 which state:

Searches without warrant
(2) If a conservation officer believes on reasonable grounds that there is in a building or other place any thing that will afford evidence of an offence under this Act but that the time required to obtain a search warrant would lead to the loss, removal or destruction of the evidence, the conservation officer may, without a search warrant, enter and search the building or other place.

Dwellings
(3) Subsection (2) does not apply to a building or part of a building that is being used as a dwelling.

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/97f41#BK109

 

[mick]

ya we have rights in the fine print...good luck telling them to get out of your cottage after they are ransacking your fridge and counting out your walleye fillets and then leave to search the next cottage...lol...thats the way they operate...remember they are also carrying firearms...you are absoulutely defenseless...we stopped goin up years ago..all our famlies concluded why give them the privilege to try and ruin our summer vacation.. the last time it was twice a week and we said enough is enough ...that was a very nice peaceful location on lake temagami where our familys got together for a week in the north fishing...

I do believe every family in our province of Ontario would benefit to have a family member study law and become a defense lawyer to fight law enforcement corruption.

 

[squambo]

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) currently manages Ontario’s commercial fisheries under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. My understanding is they absolutely have the right to board any commercial fishing vessel.

Conservation officers are empowered to:

• stop and/or inspect a vehicle, boat or aircraft
• inspect firearms, ammunition, fish or game
• inspect buildings or other places
• search with a warrant, and in circumstances requiring immediate action, without one
• seize items related to an offence
• ask questions relevant to the inspection
• arrest anyone who has committed, is committing or is about to commit an offence under many of the acts they are authorized to enforce

I agree ,on paper this may be the MNR's mandate. But in reality are they actually boarding commercial
fishing vessels and doing inspections while at sea. Can anyone verify that this takes place ?
Or is there collusion between the fishing industry ,MNR and local gov't to a hands off approach on
monitoring their activity ??

 

[squambo]

This is a very interesting article about the comercial fisherman and his activities. I wonder if all the American Sportfishermen, in the four states that border Lake Erie would be interested in reading this. Anyone know of chat boards in those states, that we could share this info with. Those people have a voice, and since this will affect them, they need to know.

Try walleye.com forum or sons of lake erie

 

[squambo]

port clinton ohio is the walleye capital of the world...for the sportsfishermen...no gill nets allowed....thats what we need is to make Port glasgow and Erieau our sport fishing capital over here for us......we need a zone on the north shore where there is to be no gill netting...look erieau is the best we got for the erie sport fishermen and charters and derbys and prime game fish waters...I think this could work...but somebody better get on it so next season no gill netting in our area...send the bill in to parliment and get it official...need a lawyer here to draw it up...and I am not kidding here

Lets include Long Point ...and do we have a lawyer in our midst ?

 

[Chipper1]

Why isn't OFAH doing something about this??? They are supposedly the voice of the Ontario hunter and angler....

 

[bhutch]

Liars and crooks Eh? How many commercial fisherman do you know? When's the last time you've been on a commercial tug ? As an avid angler and commercial fisherman (both trawl and gill netting) I've got a little better perspective on things, if you want any of your bad information corrected ask away...

 

[Extra Virgin]

Liars and crooks Eh? How many commercial fisherman do you know? When's the last time you've been on a commercial tug ? As an avid angler and commercial fisherman (both trawl and gill netting) I've got a little better perspective on things, if you want any of your bad information corrected ask away...

Ok @bhutch, August 5-13th 2016. Where did all the dead fish come from along the ENTIRE bay and beyond, from bluffs bar to Port Ryerse? I believe all the "junk fish" that I witnessed dead floating in Erie that week came from gill netting, and tossed back from the commercial fishermen. Out of all them, not a single perch or pickerel.

 

[bhutch]

Ya I'm sure that sheephead did get tossed off a tug, it's a common thing to see in the pickerel nets in August shad As Well. So what in your opinion would be a better option than to throw them over board and go back through the cycle?

 

[Leaky]

Hey bhutch, I always wanted to know just what kinds of fish and how many you throw back daily, as you certainly get the attention of all the seagulls.

 

[Josh Roelofsen]

Throwing any number of dead bycatch is an utterly disgusting waste. The disturbance and destruction of "trash" fish that are part of the lakes ecosystem sickens me. How we continue to allow such mindless destruction is beyond my comprehension.

BTW, For those that may not know, Ohio still does allow some commercial harvest. It's done with trap nets

Josh

 

[Extra Virgin]

Ya I'm sure that sheephead did get tossed off a tug, it's a common thing to see in the pickerel nets in August shad As Well. So what in your opinion would be a better option than to throw them over board and go back through the cycle?

There were hundereds, if not a few thousand of them floating that week. Such a waste as @Josh Roelofsen said.
Isn't it illegal to throw back dead fish &/or carcasses into the lake???

 

[mick]

Look there are only a few reasons for massive fish floating dead out on the lake. We all know that lake erie water turns over from gale forced winds. This causes rapid temperature change in certain locations of the lake. This can cause sudden and quick fish die offs...

Look I know first hand some of the stanley tugs have littered the lake with dead fish floating in the lake. One of the worst I witnessed is my fishin buddy and myself were out trollin walleye offshore one morning...well we were trolling along on calm water and shocked to find numerous large yellow perch floating out on the lake...I will never forget that wasteful sight left by a stanley tug. If I had a cell phone back then I would of definately called the MNR. Anyway we pulled up are trolling lines and went around scouping up the yellow perch with the fishing net. We filled my large salmon cooler with quality jumbo perch. There was still lots of perch left floating dead and then the seagulls moved in to feed...I could not understand why they were dumped...it did not make any sense. the fish were definately killed by gillnets....every fish was a large jumbo perch..nothin else..

I am telling you it is still a mystery to me why the waste of these yellow perch

 

[bhutch]

Hey bhutch, I always wanted to know just what kinds of fish and how many you throw back daily, as you certainly get the attention of all the seagulls.

Hey bhutch, I always wanted to know just what kinds of fish and how many you throw back daily, as you certainly get the attention of all the seagulls.

Hey @Leaky that is an Omstead boat trawling for smelt . You can see by the first photo they are done for the day and shaking the net out. The Dover fleet had an awesome season this year!

 

[bhutch]

Look there are only a few reasons for massive fish floating dead out on the lake. We all know that lake erie water turns over from gale forced winds. This causes rapid temperature change in certain locations of the lake. This can cause sudden and quick fish die offs...

Look I know first hand some of the stanley tugs have littered the lake with dead fish floating in the lake. One of the worst I witnessed is my fishin buddy and myself were out trollin walleye offshore one morning...well we were trolling along on calm water and shocked to find numerous large yellow perch floating out on the lake...I will never forget that wasteful sight left by a stanley tug. If I had a cell phone back then I would of definately called the MNR. Anyway we pulled up are trolling lines and went around scouping up the yellow perch with the fishing net. We filled my large salmon cooler with quality jumbo perch. There was still lots of perch left floating dead and then the seagulls moved in to feed...I could not understand why they were dumped...it did not make any sense. the fish were definately killed by gillnets....every fish was a large jumbo perch..nothin else..

I am telling you it is still a mystery to me why the waste of these yellow perch

That is strange what time of year was this?

 

[Leaky]

Hey bhutch, with this trawling type of fishing, looking for smelt. Can you descibe the net that is being dragged. How tall is the net and can you control the depth it is being pulled or do you just drag the bottom of the lake. I ask because everyday that I see commercial boats out of Dover fishing this way, my fishing is usually the worst. This trawling action brings a lot of plant life up into the water, and everything is disturbed. With the net being able to trap smelt, you must capture everything else as well. Seems like a bit waste of fish, to kill them and then dump them. Have you tried to sell the unwanted fish to dog food companies? Do you have to keep records of how many lbs, you dump daily?

 

[gilfisher]

Here is my opinion..First i would like to say some of the posts ive read on this thread bashing the commercial fishery,MNR and depleted stocks of fish have also posted many posts boasting what a great season they have had catching limits in rainbows coho walleye and perch so im a little confused.I myself had a decent season this year catching limits sometimes but not everytime i was out. What i did notice this year was the amount of bait fish i was marking on the sonar which i believe were smelt and shad never seen my screen light up like that before with bait. So that tells me that the fish feeding on them must be full. Once i started trolling outside the thick schools of bait that is when i started to catch more fish.Secondly we have had the hottest year on record in southern ontario which brought up the water temps everywhere on the lake that alone will change fish eating habits so what you did last year might not work as good as this year. When i was leaving port to go out i recorded temps near the piers up 80 degrees no wonder not many perch being caught. Remember very little ice last year on lake which would cause the fish to be a little more active and spread out. The commercial fishery has been here long before the sport fishery and its in their best intrests not to over harvest and deplete the stocks for obvious reasons. I believe the governments on both sides of the border have a pretty good idea how to manage fish populations so far so good i guess.There is one thing that needs to change and that is disregarding garbage fish back in the lake. Why dont they keep those fish to use for the farming community to feed the crops im sure that would be better than using synthetic fertilizers high in nitrogen to feed crops which causes the algae blooms on the lake that cause more damage to fish and wild life then the commercial and sport fisheries combined. Oh almost forgot the mnr are doing the best job they can under the mandate they have been given it may be a bit of a pain in the ass when they pull you over but as long as your following the rules your good to go and yes gentlemen they do inspections all the time on the commercial guys.Its been a different year this season quite a challenge and i look forward to next year!!

 

[bhutch]

Here is my opinion..First i would like to say some of the posts ive read on this thread bashing the commercial fishery,MNR and depleted stocks of fish have also posted many posts boasting what a great season they have had catching limits in rainbows coho walleye and perch so im a little confused.I myself had a decent season this year catching limits sometimes but not everytime i was out. What i did notice this year was the amount of bait fish i was marking on the sonar which i believe were smelt and shad never seen my screen light up like that before with bait. So that tells me that the fish feeding on them must be full. Once i started trolling outside the thick schools of bait that is when i started to catch more fish.Secondly we have had the hottest year on record in southern ontario which brought up the water temps everywhere on the lake that alone will change fish eating habits so what you did last year might not work as good as this year. When i was leaving port to go out i recorded temps near the piers up 80 degrees no wonder not many perch being caught. Remember very little ice last year on lake which would cause the fish to be a little more active and spread out. The commercial fishery has been here long before the sport fishery and its in their best intrests not to over harvest and deplete the stocks for obvious reasons. I believe the governments on both sides of the border have a pretty good idea how to manage fish populations so far so good i guess.There is one thing that needs to change and that is disregarding garbage fish back in the lake. Why dont they keep those fish to use for the farming community to feed the crops im sure that would be better than using synthetic fertilizers high in nitrogen to feed crops which causes the algae blooms on the lake that cause more damage to fish and wild life then the commercial and sport fisheries combined. Oh almost forgot the mnr are doing the best job they can under the mandate they have been given it may be a bit of a pain in the ass when they pull you over but as long as your following the rules your good to go and yes gentlemen they do inspections all the time on the commercial guys.Its been a different year this season quite a challenge and i look forward to next year!!

I 100% agree with you. Some company's pay the boats for sheephead, that they sell to mink farms. But the Mnr has are hands tied on the rest of the by catch, if you don't have quota for it you have to mark it down and dump it.