Fish-Hawk.Net

NEW FISHING REGS FOR FMZ 17 (KAWARTHA LAKES).

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/278711.pdf

Get ready for the ice fishing season boys!

Minimum possession for muskie 44" closeing date is now Dec 15th effective 2010 plus other items.

Read it all on the MNR website.

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Le ... 64442.html

Cheers, Ron...

Congrats on pulling this together Ron.....it's been a long time coming....enjoy it!

RJ

I can't seem to open this link??????????

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Le ... 64442.html

At last after 30 years I can ice-fish right outside the cottage , I will not have to go to Simcoe or Scugog to get my fix.

Opening the kawarthas in the hard water season for pan fish seems very trusting towards the angling community. i hope the MNR makes their presents winter long on the kawartha lakes to ensure that anglers are not catching and keeping the dwindling walleye stocks. I highly doubt that many local people of the area are going out to catch piddly crappy, bluegill and pumpkin seed. i would really like to see if this season helps the tourism, one of the reasons there is a new season. i can't see people traveling to fenelon falls or bobcaygeon to catch panfish when there are lake trout at simcoe and to the north scatered around minden and bancroft.
though there are many panfish in the lakes and opening a winter season isn't going to hurt the population, i think the winter season is a mistake giving the opertunity for walleye poaching, because we all know that the mnr will be out as minimal as posible.
To the MNR: Start stocking the kawarthas with walleye and make a winter season that would include them.

Many folks on many boards have welcomed and given praise to the stakeholders and ministry people for opening up FMZ 17 to ice fishing. I'm sure this was a lengthy, diligent process that did not come easily with regards to a very new beginning. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to our management of local fisheries, specifically the Kawarthas.

I did fill out the survey this past winter and made comments encouraging the Kawarthas to remain an open water recreational fishery. Whether or not my comments were justified or taken into account, does not matter now.

I'm no stranger to all of these lakes as they are my old stomping grounds for more than 20 years. I have witnessed the decline of certain species and the proliferation of others, namely Black Crappie and Northern Pike.

These new regulations will offer good and bad.

Lake Simcoe and the Kawarthas are in very close proximity to millions of people in the GTA including tourists from outside the province and both countries. There may be a huge economic variance involved with this change. Opertunities for economic development in the Kawarthas versus a decline in existing commerce amongst those already making an income from ice fishing on the shores of Simcoe will soon feel the pinch.

What about the fish?

While I feel sorry for the Crappie and Bluegill populations in the Kawarthas, this however, may put a wedge in the hopes that Lake Simcoe's Perch rebound to a respectable level in catch and size rates.

What about law enforcement?

Unless the province appointed a new batch of CO's to patrol and enforce there'll be plenty of white buckets brimming with questionable catches.

You might find fisher people having a different opinion and view based on what is 'about' to happen....not what has actually happened. Give it a season or two. That's where I'm at.

Thanks.

What about the other fish that are going to come up through the hole, Ling, Catfish, Carp. are all open as well, not just panfish.