Your place to tell it all!
2012
February 17th
From: rd
Angler's Voice: Southwest Brook on the West Coast of NL is taking a beating each and every year due to it's early run of salmon. We should pressure government to close the river to hook and release only from the beginning of the year, June 1, to say approximately June 21, when the other rivers in the area pick up numbers of salmon. We are seeing people from all over the province fish this river and the pressure is just way to high. The angling during this time of year is horrible and hundreds of individuals from all over NL fish this river during that time period. It's only getting worse.
(A good idea RD....Wish this was to us before the Salmon Advisory meetings with DFO, although it's still doable because a Variation Order could be issued varying the retention to zero from June 1 to June 21.....Did you contact DFO on this???) On the other hand quite a few other rivers are open that have salmon so maybe there's no need??
February 18th
From: AL
2011
October 11th
From: Exploit Angler ... if you check out a good fly shop for deer hair you will find that most places offer it in "fine" & "coarse", you noticed you had little in the hollowness of your deer hair so you would have "fine". If you want the more hollow stuff its coarse you are after. Personally I like to use "Elk" (also available at a good fly shop) the hair is longer (so easy to cut the tip end off before spinning ) & is VERY hollow.
October 4
SPAWN wishes to inform it's readers, its members, and the general public that the Bob Mercer of Pasadena who was named as the person recently convicted of retaining improperly tagged Atlantic salmon is not the person of the same name who serves on the SPAWN board of directors.
Board member Bob Mercer resides in Corner Brook and we regret any embarrassment the recent press release may have caused him.
October 2nd
From: RB
Just another comment on the fence on Harry's. Some of those "extra" fish can be attributed to the fence being moved from upper to lower Harry's, so even salmon from the lower tributaries are counted. However, I do believe that this was an above average year on this river. (Absolutely correct. Prior to the DIDSON the fence at Gallants was used and the total there was combined with snorkel survey results observed from the Gallant's trap to the lower part of the river. This year's total would be the combination of all fish destined for both Lower and Upper Harry's. Therefore the total in 2011 compared to previous years is a definite improvement. The advantage of the DIDSON count is that it would be more reliable than a snorkle count because that count may have missed fish during the swim-through.
The way the snorkel count was done was some swimmers (snorklers) would be in the river and spread out along a rope held by people on each bank. If there was a large number of fish in the pool they would sometimes do the pool twice. The count wasn't done every year because if water conditions were too high or turbidity wasa high it was cancelled. They only had a short window in which to do Harry's, Flat Bay, and a few others. As far as I know, none of the others were done this year.)
September 29th
From: CF
Just curious if the 1700 additional fish in Harry's this year compared to last is thought to be "real" or is perhaps a function of the new counting system? (Yes, the count is real. The DIDSON recorders operate 24/7 and every fish that passes through the "cone" of the beam is counted. In fact, even the approximate length of the salmon can be determined by placing a data point on each end of it. Quite a sight to see them "swimming" through on the computer screen. We had two students working there this summer so I got to see the opertion and can assure you that whatever moves through is counted. )
September 18th
From: RB
What was the final count for this year on Corner Brook Stream? Great to see an established population of fish right in the heart of the city! Hopefully the river continues to grow. (final count on Corner Brook Stream was 81. Quite possible that's a wee bit higher as we did have a few fish in September three years ago...Regardless, this is quite acceptable and the run is certainly strong enough to produce a good run down the road.)
From: DW
Hey does anyone know where there are a few good sea trout runs on the go now on the Avalon? I was thinking about hitting up Witless Bay River tomorroe. Does anyone know of anymore?
September 3rd
From: Aa
Caribou is the best by far! Easy to spin and floats the best. The grey is the color beats all other colors year after year. Big wings on the front and back make it float high and good hackle is the hardest to find.
From: RB
Deer body hair I find is the best for tying bombers. It is a hollow fiber and is your best bet. You can buy bags of it labelled and in different colors at department or fishing stores. I use caribou body hair because it is easier and cheaper to get it from family members during hunting season.
September 1st
From: MJ
Hi, I was hoping someone here would be able to answer a nagging question for me. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in dear hair taken from various part of a dear hide? The reason I ask is I have recently begun to tie the bomber style salmon fly. My attempts while good replicas of the model I have purchased are not the same in one notable area. The ones I've purchase use a hollow fiber material while my material has more of a hair like quality. That is to say they have no hollow structure in there fiber after I clip them. This hollow structure material seems to trap air which enable the fly to ride higher in the water. As well trapped air in these fiber greatly resist water absorption as a result. Mine on the other hand while they initially float high they seem to absorb water far quicker, even when dresses with floatant.
August 31st
From: FF
The poachers are laughing up and down our salmon rivers. Today one such poacher received for his second conviction for poaching salmon a one year ban and $250 fine. Tell me what poacher wouldn't be laughing when that sentence was handed out. It seems to me that the court system does not realize the extent of damage done to our salmon rivers by these people. (You are absolutely right..And the court will be lucky to collect the fine. BTW - On a second offence they can give jail time.....Why not in this case. The system is a bloody joke allright!)
August 30th
From: RA
Thanks MJ to supporting the idea of July 1 as voluntary hook and release day. But only one other like minded angler? There must be more support for the idea - I saw many people release fish this year ...is it only because regulations prohibit catching more than 6 per year? I'm not an old-timer but now a veteran or 35 years and I do remember the days at Big Falls when there was no seasonal limit and 4 per day were easy to catch. Are we only talking c&R because we are forced to? One day - July 1, Canada day, make it international C&R day all across the world salmon are released by all anglers. Not mandatory (never) I believe in the right to catch and eat a fish, its amazing, but one day for the river one day for the fish. Hunting is prohibited in most provinces on Sunday and for shorter seasons. Lets make this idea happen. Come on spawn members and people who love salmon, get some momentum on this idea. BTW i'm gonna keep posting this idea till it gains some momentum or until i'm told off by the editor thanks! (Will bring this up at the next board meeting)
August 29th
From KP:
Must have been some pigs at Boom Siding according to the garbage I collected and brought home this morning....liquor bottle, plastic bottles, TH coffee cups (eight) and more. People go there to enjoy the fishing and many to enjoy the place. They could carry all that to the river but can't bring the empties home! Sad....Oink - Oink - Oink to those who left it there! They are pitiful examples of man's disrespect for the environment! OINK!!!
August 27th
From: synthroid online
Really interesting blog, keep up the good work!
August 26th
From: CAF
Was wondering were all the fish went to in Placentia - was fishing their on Monday, went today and no fish. Didn't see any jump all. Was seeing one or two or three jump... don't know were the fish went to?? Can someone tell me were the fish went - need to fill one more red tag??
August 25th
From: DW
Is there anyway possible when you put up a report and a person mentions a river you can place a little map there indicating where it was they fished? I have lived here for my whole life but never had anyone show me any good fishing rivers/holes....some help would be greatly appriciated. (Very doubtful DW! For one thing, our web space is limited and images take up a lot of room. Not only that, but can you imagine having to develop, locate and post a map every time someone mentions a pool. BTW - I recenly acquired listings of all the pools on four of the BSG rivers. There's 8 pages of names with dozens on each page!! Some very colourful and unusual names in the bunch as well :O)
Further, you wouldn't believe the editing required on some of the material we get. Every submission to Anglers Voice and River Reports isn't automatically posted. Each one has to be reviewed and edited where necessary and believe you me, some of the submissions need a lot of work - and I-mean-a-LOT! This is done as a volunteer activity from my home and the home of our WebMaster and there's a limit as to how much time I 'm prepared to spend on it - KP)
August 24th
From: mj
Re: RA comments on july 21st ...
Hi folks i'm going to leap in here on a subject near and dear to my heart . I hope I don't come off sounding sanctimonious, but things in print often do - intentional or not. Bravo RA on the voluntarily international release day - idea long overdue. I am a 35 yr salmon fisher who has practiced C&R for most of those years . I see more and more taking up this practice ... we should all be grateful to them.
When we all practice it I can safely assure you we will all be fishing in healthier rivers . During my travels I have marveled at the conversations that have taken place over and over on the many rivers , coast to coast i've fished across Canada . We've all been party to them ... where are the fish , it's DFO , it's poachers , it's acid rain , it's the farms ! Let's face it , it's some of each of these ... I also believe an increasing number of us are beginning to include individual greed - we all want something done ... we just haven't been willing , till now, to pay the price individually . now some of you would say that we just don't like to eat salmon so C&R for us is easy ... let me assure you I love salmon. I just felt I couldn't, in good conscience, continue paying the price that killing our breeders was costing me. As fathers and mothers we preach to our kids "It's always cheaper to take good care of our stuff" - Why? because it's irresponsible and short sighted not to. The attitude of "It's mine and I can do what ever I like always cost the individual dearly. In a renewable resource this kind of attitude costs all of us dearly .
I fear we have foolishly allowed ourselves and others to do whatever we've liked for to long. As fishers we rise, drive for hours, fish for hours, and drive home - each time telling ourselves it cost just a $$. Bulls**t ... I fear my honey do list would greatly expand if the missus knew what a single fish day cost me. The real cost is in the neighborhood of $300 or $60 a lb. That's right folks, do the math.
Now i'm no genius, and she's sure no dummy, so I've got to believe i'm going to have a h**l of a time selling her the idea this is an economical way to feed the family!! S**t my local grocer offers me that same fish for under 30 bucks. I can hear me now "Charlotte my love, when I bring home 2 keeper each and everyday, i'll break even !!! I like my balls too much to even try to sell the missus that crap !!
No, I practice C&R because it improves my chance of enjoying a great sport! for those of you who feel your involved in a food fishery, the sooner we all practice C&R the sooner you'll get to bringing the cost of each fish handy to that 30$ price tag our grocer's are offering to sell us salmon at . in my humble opinion any fisher arguing the retention of the mothers of our next salmon generations are using really, really bad science .
August 22nd
From: FK - Angler's Voice: For the eager Avalon angler, try the Aquaforte River - walk in country to the first pond up from the highway and fish your way back to the road. It's relatively unfished and has both Ouananiche and Speckleds. Use a #14 dry fly for August.
August 22nd
From: X - For the person that enquired, read somewhere that there are sea run browns that go up the Manuels river in CBS. However I've never fished on the Avalon and have no idea as to the regulations for browns, if it's a salmon or just a trout river or the timing of the run. Check the anglers guide because I think there are differences in dates and rules for browns on the Avalon. Maybe someone reading this who knows the area could add more details.
August 19th
From: Dave.W - Hey guys since August started I've been out to Colinet and Salmonier on 3 different occasions but never managed to catch anything....let alone a salmon. Does anyone know of a good river on the Avalon where I can at least catch a couple pan size trout/sea trout?
August 18th
From: GreatBigC- Is Boom Siding booming yet? (Booming with anglers!! A few fish being hooked...Anyone have more details??)
August 16th
From: gp
Any fish on the go at lomond now i wonder, salmon or sea trout. (Heard things have really tamed down at Lomond)
August 12th
From: RB
Hello all, Just wondering how little Corner Brook Stream is doing this year, what is the count so far. Also, how is the fishing on Harrys at Gallants, (Alexander's, Grilse, etc) and elsewhere below the community. Help would be greatly appreciated! (Corner Brook Stream is plugging along...Checked the trap today and we had three, bringing the toal now to 70. One of the fish was 28 in. Board members are taking turns checking it each day. The run started 10 days late this year so we're keeping it in operation longer than usual. )
As for Harry's - we've had few reports of late..perhaps someone will see this and bring us up to date. The DIDSON counter near the Crossing was removed this week. The count ended at around 4039.
August 8th
From: TL Angler's Voice: any fish out to harrys river now i wonder. anybody know? (Always fish in Harry's - finding them is another story. Almost 4,000 went into the river and they weren't all caught. (I remember hooking fish at Home Pool right up into September 15th - when it closed on that day years ago. The DFO snorkel surveys that were done mid-season, from Gallants to the lower pools, always showed some fish in them (Dump, Burke's, Ledge, Roberts etc. also, some of the run enters tributaries -like Pinchgut -where they go on to Stag Hill Brook etc. Co-Ed)
Someone else may have more info on this.
August 7th
From: SM
Is it legal to infill a beautiful river like the Humber? I'm not a fisher but I saw today while crossing the bridge at Humber village a large machine dumping rocks and making what appears to be a wharf or landing. Doesn\'t seem right to me on such a beautiful river. Just an FYI - Thanks . (Only legal if they have a permit...I'm sending this to DFO habitat for follow-up...Thanks for the info)
August 5th
From: GP
Angler's Voice: any fish on the go up to big falls ,was goin up next week . (Last report we had was that there's fish around, a good many anglers and low water...fish not taking.)
August 1st
From: FK
For a top section to your Hardy Greenheart, try getting in touch with Jim Clarkson at Raptor Rod Works in Chico, California. He specializes in rebuilding, refurbishing & refinishing cane rods. His website is www.raptorodworks.com. Good luck and be sure to fish with it when it's completed!
July 31st
From: KC
I have been gifted my Great Grandfathers Hardy Greenheart rod. The rod was made in 1898. That makes it 113 years old. That model of Hardy was made from 1888 to 1952. I am looking for a top section to complete this wonderful Heirloom. Can anyone out there point me in the right direction to get a top section for this rod? Tight lines, I also was gifted a Heaton reel made between 1885 and 1901. still works beautifully.
July 29th
From: EW
I think at least investing into the newest tech counters for the 3 class 1 rivers in NL is the right thing to do. These rivers support the masses of anglers in the province and it would be advantagous to be able to talk about the current state of the salmon stocks quoting some actual fact. A poor season of angling probably has a lot more to do with water conditions throughout the season than the # of fish passing through. This season for instance, there's been weeks where the river has been bank to bank, I'm sure the # of fish caught isn't a reflection of what's there.
July 28th
From: Rick M - To RA and Editor - Note I said unbiased. I fully agree angler returns are not completely reliable. But DFO needs to set up some kind of system to get reliable observations on returns from people they can trust on many of our rivers ie. guardians, people who live on the rivers etc. Its funny - I have no trouble getting info. about runs in the rivers I am about to fish - you just need to know who to call........
(I guess a lot goes into interpretation..For example, I released 7 salmon on Friday and 15,000 in June :O)
July 28th
From: RA -I agree that we should not have indicator rivers but we do. Since there is no way that we could afford a counter of any kind on all the rivers specific rivers are used to estimate what the runs maybe WAC year it\'s not the best system but it\'s one way to estimate returns. This system has been used all over the world and does have some merit and a ton of data to support the theory that is the indicator river is down or up (please always be up) then other rivers in that area will follow suit. Scientists use this method all over the world to predict salmon returns. I agree with editor the report cards are all lies but the information is interpreted with the hope that the lies are generally the same. My point earlier is that anglers observing fish on the river is not possible to estimate 25,000 fish or even 250 fish. Observations are antidotal and will only show what you saw on your days fishing, good conditions poor water good water fish jumping low water no fi! sh showing this could only tell trends a good run or a bad run on that small time period. I have heard anglers say for my 35 years on the river there must be 50,000 fish in the Humber this year" impossible to say that couldn't possibly count that accurately with counting fence and seems like the 100k didson information won't be released because of uncertainty in the information. Fisherman only see what they want to see. Positive guys will say all kinds of fish - negative guys will say no fish usually depends on their success it is never objective or accurate way to say run size. Each year on the Margaree river in NS salmon biologists do dice counts in all the pools for days and physically count all the fish. The anglers argue that the actual observed fish is not right. Sometimes the say the count was low sometimes high - once again usually depends on their success. Yes, each river is unique! Sort of! The work done on rivers where salmon are extinct or endangered in NB and NS has found that salmon are unique to an area but are related to each other river by river. In other words in Bay St. George rivers the fish maybe all related from a long lineage and although it is well believed that most salmon return to their river of origin not all do. Actually a real good strategy to ensure genetic diversity so much is still not known of these things because it costs $$$! Good discussions though!
July 28th
From: KC Good discussion on River Lamp Posts. In the medical world a prescreption without and detailed examination would result in a lawsuit. With regard to our salmon management plan, seems we get a prescreption from DFO every 5 years, from people that never visit a river and probably don't even fish.
July 27th
From: RM To RA - There is no such thing as an indicator river. Each river has its own run of distinct, unique salmon. Until we start moving toward individual river management ( like Harry's ); there will always be mis-management. And you're dead wrong about the information anglers could provide. Much science is based on unbiased observations that certain anglers could provide. (A salmon scientist said the anglers returns are not to be trusted and the only reason they are collected and published is because anglers wanted them. "Looks good on paper" People can enter whatever they want on the returns and no one will know the difference.
July 27th
From gp: I just came back from Boom Siding on the Humber. I wish someone would stop those IDIOTS on the sea-doos whipping up and down the river at 40-50 MPH! Why dont they ban all water craft below the Humber Valley Resort bridge? That would solve that problem.
July 27th
From RA: Not to discount any observations that KC or any anglers may have or to suggest that DFO has any good science behind population estimates because they only do on rivers where there is a fishway or counting fence. And even those measures miss lots of fish. But anglers estimating runs of 25,000 fish or even 250 fish is just as off base. Observation from anglers on the surface is not even possible. I\'m tying to create an argument I\'m only suggesting we need to install didson counters on indicator rivers and we need a few if them. Right now! The cost is high but the information would be very valuable.
July 27th
From KC:
River Lamp Posts. If you want to have a look at this years stats form our web site from Sandhill River in Labrador you will see 250% increase over the total run against the 5 year average and a 620% increase over 2010. DFO continues to use river stats as a lamp post, they lean on them. I know that one good year does not indicate future success, however they have no good science in determining the river classes in Labrador.
The Pinware is a classic example. Locals who have fished this river for the past 3 decades figure over 25,000 fish entered this river in 2011. DFO has no idea, yet it is a class 3 river similar to SWB (Southwest Brook). Probably has 5 times the fish as Harrys.
I am all for conservation, but go figure!
July 25th
From RR:
Does anyone know why the Power Generating Turbines at Bishop's Falls and Grand Falls are not running? According to many anglers, it is affecting the "fishability" of this river. What has me equally concerned is while we have hydro developments sitting idle, the Holyrood Thermal Generating Station continues to burn "Bunker C". From what I can gather, part of the problem is that the transmission line to the Avalon doesn't have the capacity to carry the power. According to another "unofficial" official, DFO asked that they be shut down to correct the water flow for the salmon!?!? I'd really like to hear an official, non-political answer as to why the power generating turbines have been shut down.
July 23rd
Southwest, Port Blandford Just wondering if anyone has fished this river up by the falls this year. if so, how was the fishing? FB
July 21st
From Rick M: Keith - that's an interesting finding about the ouananiche. I know when we stocked Rocky River it was believed that the ouananiche there would be a obstacle as they would feed on all the stocked fry. Many still believe that this is why Rocky has taken so long to seed itself - too many hungry ouananiche.
July 21st
From RA: Has any DNA been done on the fish that pile up in Deer Lake trying to go up into the turbines? Maybe these fish are progeny of the land locked salmon upstream? It may be possible that parr or smolt come down from landlocked salmon through the turbines I know but maybe? I dont know the answer, does anyone? Also what kind of talk has there ever been on fruit to get fish passage into Grand Lake? How many dams? That water shed is huge it covers half the province !
(No idea on the DNA of fish there. Maybe someone from DFO did some work at one time.....only they could answer that. SPAWN did the work as part of a contract we had with the Centre for Environmental Excellence at Grenfell College, MUN. It was in connection with a study that was being done in Ireland as part of a Genone study to identify the origins of salmon captured at sea. The data would tell where they came from. Our study collected 50 samples from: Humber River - samples collected from angler catches at Big Falls; Hughes Brook - samples taken from a trap we operated there; 50 samples collected from juvenile salmon in Corner Brook Stream. We understood the data would be given to the Centre which in turn would supply it to ther Genome study. )
July 21st
From EW: A question concerning putting a fishway on the Humber River at the main dam to Grand Lake, what affect do you think this would have on the current population of ouananiche that is there? If the fishway was there would they return to the saltwater? Is there any other sites that made this sort of modification to dams that are 50-100 years old that researched the results? I'm sure it would be a major success and I support it 100%, but I'm just curious if the instinct to return to the ocean with these fish will take over. Either way it would be a major improvement and it should happen.
I can answer your question with "authority" for lack of a better word. I get excited just talking about this because it will show what can be done with vision. I have prepared a PowerPoint Presentation called "75 years to Life" that describes the demise and rejuventation of the salmon run of Corner Brook Stream.
Corner Brook Stream had a regular salmon run prior to 1925. In 1925 the mill construction started and part of it was a dam on Glynmill Pond to supploy water to the Mill. With the building of the dam the run was effecitvely ended! 75 years later the dam became derelict and the plans were drawn up to replace it and the one at Margaret Bowater Park, commonly know as The Swimming Pool.. I won't go into all the details but suffice it to say that salmon ladders were placed in the dam at Glynmill Pond and in Margaret Bowater Park, where the swimming pool is located.
The next step was to re-introduce fry. SPAWN and ASF in cooperation with DFO transplanted thousands of fry for 3 or 4 years around 2000 . Then, about six years ago we saw adult salmon below the Park dam! The fish had returned as adults. Now comes the even better and more intriguing part of the story!
We sent adipose samples to Dalhosuie University for DNA analysis (Dr. Ruzantez) and when they were analyzed we got some VERY interesting information. The fish contained three strains of DNA - One common to Humber River Fish, another common to Hughes Brook fish and a third - unique DNA. Ahah..where did this come from?? The Humber and Hughes DNA was explainable since that's where the fry came from (extra to the ASF Fish Firends program.
Dr. Ruzzantez emailed me and asked about the results..this was unusual..did they make an error.... was there and explanation for the fiundings?? Wwell, no they didn't err at all!
I explained what we had done and about the fishways installed on the stream. BINGO!! There was the answer - Fish that were obstructed from returning to the ocean in 1925 were living and breeding in the system above the dam for 85 years!! They became "Landlocked salmon".
There is also a possibility that in the very limited area below the Glynmill dam that perhaps some salmon had spawned there maintaining the gene pool, but the most likely explanation was that the landlocked salmon had bred with the introduced stock! What a story.
So - to answer your question YES..it's entirely achievable that the fish in similar circumstances that have been isolated for so many years, can re-populate. Maybe it will take introduction of fry to get it jump-started, but it seems quite plausable that it can (and should ) happen. KP
July 21st
From: RA:
The comments are amazing. I thought I was writing into an abyss. CM is so very right about Greenland and the buyout of commercial fishery. The Greenlanders still have a food fishery like Labrador but as you pointed out it is difficult to Canada to negotiate and ask Greenland to stop for us. So the politics of salmon allocation is complicated and the best direction is to be proactive.
Every measure strengthens our negotiation power on the international scale. Back in June and early this month I proposed July 1 as a day for voluntary hook and release day. I want to emphasize once again VOLUNTARY. Dont want too lose support by anglers by them thinking Spawn or DFO is taking priviledge away from them. But this simple act if supported and promoted by the largest conservation group in NL would go a long way in showing the world we are concerned and are willing to give back to the rivers on Canada Day. Make a big deal have the media involved - push ASF to back and support it and make it an international Voluntary Hook and Release Day. And show how NL is leading the way in conservation of the resource. Record how many fish were given back to the river. This small act is a great way to change the culture of the people - it shows judges who convict poachers how concerned anglers are about the resource. Im going to mention this often so... fingers crossed thanks.
(One thing we'd like to see is - when jail time is given poachers make them serve it in the summer! BTW - We've had quite a response from people who share the same concerns about managing the recreational fishery. We did forward some information to Govt. at both levels and had positiveresponse from them as well.
It seems everyone is on board - Let's get this moving...New improved tags; Right now jail time can only be given on a second offence! Why not on a first offence? Is a poacher any less guilty the first time he/she is convicted? They must laugh at the whole system!; More road checks at places like Big Falls; Manage rivers like Harry's and Flat Bay (and others) on their own data/merits - Index rivers don't cut it; Collection of fines must be streamlined...What is the point of fining someone when they make token payments or can't pay at all?
A perfect example of fine abuse would have to be the driver in today's paper who had three more charges laid against him and he already has about $40,000 in unpaid fines!
FWED, DFO, Aboriginal Guardians must be frustrated to death going through all the effort to apprehend people and spend a fortune in the legal system to get them to court only to have the convicted get a mere slap on the wrist. )
July 20th
From CM:
RA, thanks for the insight into how the decisions are made at DFO. I like others have a slightly wrong impression about how it all gets figured out within your department and its good to hear from someone who has some first hand knowledge. I believe that if we don't hear explanations then everyone is left to think up "why" on their own terms and that isn't necessary all that productive.
On another, note it's clear that there are some major issues that need to be addressed. They are the trap system being used in Labrador by natives, the reclassification of Harry's and Flat Bay and as usual poaching. Something I haven't seen mentioned is the extension of the Greenland commercial buyout. Boy, if we don't come up to the plate with improvements in a year then the Greenlanders will be back at their commercial fishing and it is going to bite us big time.
There have been improvements in large salmon numbers thanks to that buyout and it should be continued so long as Canada can address some of the issues to make the playing field fair. I don't blame the Greenlanders for being upset when they know full well that the Canadian recreational anglers and the native Labrador fishery are harvesting large salmon that they have given up the right to fish in an effort to conserve for us mostly. I think that DFO made a good move by eliminating the large fish retention in Labrador. Sure it would be nice to hook into one and bring it home like the good old days but lets not get carried away. Our stocks need all the support they can get, here and abroad. Now that I know someone from DFO is reading our posts I just want to say that there are some good ideas being put out here and time is ticking... we need to make sure SCNL, DFO and others who get together each fall to hash out a salmon plan improve year after year and iron on the kinks. The fish are too valuable for us in terms of economics, culture and pride. There is a growing conservation movement for our fish and together we can make this happen if we are all on the same track.
(Great to have all these insights. So good to have so manyviews, because it gives us a solid reason for the Angler's Voice. It's all about ideas, observations and recommendations on how to improve the system. It's so resfreshing to know that there is such strong support for improvement and streamlining to the benefit of all, including - especially - the Atlantic salmon. This is the right time to be saying these things. This is the right time of the year to bting it to the attention of those who can make the necessary changes that will imrpove the protection of our stocks. Keepo it coming. We at SPAWN will ensure your comments are forwarded to the people who can effect the changes!)
July 20th
From EW: I think RA's tag idea is great, but if your putting that much attention to detail, instead of just color coding, list the blue tag as August only, Class 1, and the same for the reds and the greens. Whether you believe it or not, alot of innocent people do make mistakes with the current system, myself included. A little extra detail that can aid in removing some human error would def cut down on simple mistakes leading to honest people with poaching convictions. And believe me, a simple paper error like this with nothing to gain is perceived the same from the public as netting the river or any other serious poaching offence. Just look at the comments here on June 21, that says it all. I dont agree in dummyproofing for those who are negligent of the rules but for the time and detail gone into improving the tags, how can a little additional text such as AUG or CLASS 1 only or Class 1 and 2 be a bad thing? (Well done EW!!)
July 20th
From RA: FYI using tyvek paper as the tag is cheaper than the plastic tags. DFO buys these tags from a munufacturer and they are used on all fishing gear that requires marking. These tags are very expensive for the government to buy and bulky shipping fees. They would buy into the idea of using tyvek its cheaper! Now fishing! (Already had quite a few responses and all were in favour of the change. Had one from DFO who are sending the information to the person with the province responsible for the tags and licenses. It's a good start and early enough to act on.)
July 20th
From JS: All the rules and regulations in the world mean very little withour sufficient people to enforce them. only the honest person abides by the rules and he/she does not need them.
July 20th
From RA: As far as habitat you are right every little bit helps. Look at the success of the Exploits. Maybe someday run around channels will be around the dams so salmon could go past Deer Lake and into Grand Lake. What an awesome idea!!
As far as the tag is concerned (not blowing my own horn) I designed that prototye and emailed it into spawn many years ago and am glad it has worked and made for some difficulty to poachers. My original design took it a bit further. I dont believe the plastic yellow tag is needed. I hear the abuse with the tags is that they still reopen them and use them on the same day since they are punched for that day. simple solution from my original design is this,the tags should be made of tyvek paper only no plastic just like the wrist bands they give you on southern vacations or in some events. They are so durable that after 10 days of swimming in the ocean and sun they still need to be cut off my kids wrist they simply dont break. Those should be the tags.
I think when spawn ran with the prototype i sent in the interpretation got lost. Those tyvek tags that have a sticky surface cannot be reopened unless you rip them. The idea of the tag visible on the fish helps other anglers police each other, so thats a good idea.
And finally, taking it one last step further, these tyvek tags (coloured as they are now) should be on one sheet and attached to your licence information (name DOB etc) your licence needs to be signed when you purchase it and so should each tag be signed. Once you need to use the tag it is ripped from your licence stub (properly dated) it is then no longer valid cannot be re-used. Signing it at the vendor will also help establish those tags as yours only not the wifes, kids, relatives or neighbours and that is still going on. So for clarity the tags would be one one sheet perforated between each tag and to the licence stub. signed so the signature matches your licence stub and dated as per the day you use it. A visible tag does help us police each other because you can see the tag on the fish going up river bank. That would make it even tougher and its not more complicated. In fact it would help inland enforcement. When they ask to check your licence they could easily see how many tags you have used to date because they do keep an eye on cetain individuals. Of course any system can be beat but thats another issue. Thanks for this forum! Im done for a while going fishin.
(Great ideas re the tags!! I wonder why this didn't go any further? This is certainly something worth pursuing and I'll make sure this information gets to the people who can move on it. Now is the time to spread the news among SCNL, FWED, and DFO. If it can stem more poaching then it has to be worth a try.
Good luck with the fishing!
July 20th
From RA: Thanks for your comments about the way river specific management is done presently. This is called risk management, officials do use information form anglers report cards to make best guesses about how to allocate river specific quotas along with in season fish counts both are very inaccurate however it is the only tools that they presently use. And you are right and others hwre are right officials hope that red tags have already been used and that adding additional effort will reduce some poaching activity. THe biggest problem with the whole tag system is that there is an illusion that there is a total allowable catch (TAC) there is no such thing for any river since there is an unlimited amount of tags that can be purchased by anyone who chooses to fish in NL. So in theory all anglers could fish harry\'s flat bay and fish it beyond the needs of the river. Officials hope that based on historical data that peoples efforts dont really change that much from year to year.
This is a real risky way to manage TAC. THe only real way is to have counting station like they have in Quebec and register every fish. Once the TAC of the river is caught then no more retention fishery. This of course requires money and resources.
There is enough discussion about angler efforts in this forum and am surprised that no one seems to recognize the bigger picture. That is habitat loss results in the loss of more fish and loss of future generations of fish than the few fish caught on the rivers. In my travels I see major problems that result in loss of of habitat. Improperly installed culverts, siltation from construction sites poor ditching practices, deforestation and the horrendous forestry practices, fording rivers and streams with heavy machinery, damming of rivers abandoned dams, no fish ways , hydro projects the list is endless. Just think if few generations ago the engineers who built the hydro station at deer lake the humber river would have designed fishways the river would double the amount of salmon ! it could produce. The Humber is only half the river it could be if there was fish passage into grand lake! What a shame! And we get caught up in discussing how few fish go into Flat Bay Brook or harrys. THat issue should be addressed! food for thought.
(Thank you for your openness RA! I believe in PQ it's called the ZEC system. If I'm not mistaklen they have draws for some of their rivers so the number of anglers is also controlled.
A good place to use that here would be at Big Falls. (not a draw, but the registering of catches.) All the anglers only have a couple of places to come up from the river so it could be a very effective way of keeping tabs on the exact # of fish being retained there. Day after day we hear stories of the abuse at Big Falls. The best thing that ever happened was the introduction of the new tag because it's certainly not so easy to re-use them where they have to have the dates cut out of each tag. Just last night at Quarry Pool on the Lower Humber a couple of guys were relating some of things that still go on there, but they agreed that the new tag made a huge difference.
In Newfoundland and Labrador we are leaps and bounds ahead with such things as barbless hooks, single hooks and the new tags. Other provinces are starting to come on line with these ideas.
As for the anglers catch reports - I gave up sending mine in after I was told by a DFO official that it's very innaccurate infiormation since people can put down whatever they feel like. He said the only figures that he would trust are the logs from outfitters that record the daily catches.
Yes/yes/yes on the Grand Lake watershed! There's perfect example of =what can happen when dams are built with no fishways. We can only imagine the number of salmon that used to go there. Perhaps when a dam is replaced in the future a fishway can be incorporated. Even on litlle Corner Brook Stream where fishways were installed when the two dams were replaced 12 years ago there is now an established run of fish (last year 147 returned and in 2009 ir was 94...so far this year 22).
On the removal of old and adandoned dams. As the result of meetings with the paper company here a couple of actions have resulted in the removal of old dams that were basically derelict obstructions. We worked in cooperation with DFO Habitat and the company to carry out work at a couple of lcoations, one on the Harry's system near Pinchgut Lake. Every little bit helps!)
July 19th
From DW: Something to consider is the fact that a lot of the anglers fishing Harry's and Flat Bay have used their two red tags at the earlier rivers, and therefore, will only be allowed to retain two fish on these rivers. Therefore by allowing the extra two fish it keeps anglers on the river to hopefully help to reduce poaching. Just a thought!!! (A good thought...Didn't mean to imply that all Harry's and Flat bay anglers filled their red tags on those rivers - No doubt many did. What was observed in the last two years was that as soon as most people got their season limit they were gone for good, thus offering little in the way of protection. If all the poachers were day-time poachers it would make the lives of FWED, Aboriginal guardians and DFO contract guardians a lot easier - Not to mention the time that could be better unilized in their operations.)
July 19th
From RA:
Not trying to defend DFO or recreational fisheries and as a 20 year employee in DFO they need to be accountable for management decisions such as changing river classifications. The federal government is all about trasparency and accountablity. Believe me I spend a huge amount of time justifying what I do and not doing it. It is backwards, but it is what it is. Some of my advice about changing river classification of Harry's River is a decision that has to be transparent and defendable. If the DFO science recommended something that the provincial recreational fisheries has gone against science. That should be easy to figure out. As I said these govenrment decisions require transparency. The rational for classifications is spawning requirements. If enough fish have gone upstream of fish counters then the river can support more retention. If not then there should be no change. As far as comparing one river to another as justification for classifiaction it simply does not work that way. This river specific management has to look at spawning requirement for each river individually. So each river has a requirement based on the size of the river and the amount of spawning area available. So Harry's river being a smaller river than the Exploits requires less fish to meet spawning requirements. This is all in theory. The questions that should be asked has that protocol been followed? There is so much wrong with this whole system that I could write volumes on how this whole thing is supposed to work.
(Based on what you are saying it basically confirms the point that Harry's can't be used to justify what is going on in Flat Bay River. The obvious reason is that there was no assessment done on Flat Bay to determine how many fish came into the system. A snorkel count wasn't done in some of the past years, so there is no data for those years to support a change to Class 2 from Class 111.
Also, on Harry's the assessment in the past was based on the combined count through the counting fence at Gallants and a snorkel survey. There won't be a snorkel survey this year. What is being monitored right now is the total number of fish entering the river. How many of those fish are destined for Upper Harry's and its tributaries can't be verified. It's a guesstimate at best.
The spawning requirement is the bare minimum number spawning salmon that can populate given areas of the Harry's system. So, why keep it at the minimum - why not aim for a maximum! What is happening now with the river at Class 11 is that instead of each angler retaining a potential 2 adult sdalmon each can now retain 4. If each angler is successful then that's one heck of a lot of removal from the overal stock.
The whole thing needs revision...this is a crazy way to manage. I know people are doing their best but the word best is only based on what criteria is determined during the Salmon Advisory (which agreed BTW that Harry's can't be compared to Flat Bay) and the meetings that follow. Unfortunately the wheels at DFO, like most Govt, Departments, run at a pretty slow grind. Getting things changed can take forever.
A quick way out of the Flat Bay situation is to state that because confirmed migration numbers aren't available for Flat Bay the Dept. (DFO) is issuing a Variation Order that restricts retention to 2 fish (CLass 111). So the Dept has to swallow some reflux...At least it would be the right thing!!)
July 18th
From PB: When you speak of "they" at DFO, who are you refering to. Someone has to making these decisions and that someone should be held accountable! (Well...Science Branch makes the initial recommendations and then those rexcommendations go to Recreational Fisheries Management. It seems like Science can make all the reccomendations it wants, but in the end it's management that decides! So - It's a Recreational Fisheries Management decision and because the politicians are closely connected with anything that has to do with keeping the voters happy - we know how the decision will go - Right!)
July 15th
From River Observer: A river ( Exploits) that has at least 5-7 times the number of salmon that Harrys will see and that portion of the Exploits from the Grand Falls to Millertown Dam is a class 3 river and Harrys gets reclassified to a class 2 river. We should remove DFO from any further involvement in salmon science in our province. Go figure if you can.
July 14th
JUST IN FROM DFO:
Retention Fishery on Main Stem of Mid-Exploits River
DFO advises anglers that based on the recent mid-season review of returns, the main stem of the mid-Exploits river, from the Grand Falls fishway to the Abitibi-Bowater steel bridge below Red Indian Lake dam, will open to retention angling one hour before sunrise on Saturday, July 16, 2011. This section will have Class III designation permitting the retention of two small salmon. Red tags must be used.
Anglers are also reminded, the section of the main stem of the Exploits River, below Red Indian Lake Dam, downstream to the Abitibi-Bowater steel bridge, will close to retention angling, on Friday, July 15, 2011. On Saturday, July 16, 2011, catch and release angling only is permitted on this section of the river.
Ten Mile Lake Closing July 15, 2011
DFO reminds anglers that as per the management plan, Ten Mile Lake, Round Lake and the tributaries flowing into and out of Ten Mile Lake and Round Lake and the St. Genevieve River system on the Northern Peninsula will close to all angling Friday, July 15, 2011. St. Genevieve River, from its source (the outlet of Ten Mile Lake) to the river mouth will remain open to salmon angling until Wednesday, September 7, 2011. Roses Feeder and Manuels Feeder (tributaries of the St. Genevieve River), remain closed to all fishing.
July 14th
From JR: A good portion of the Exploits is Class 4 - catch and release - they have an in-season review and decide if the mid-Exploits will change to Class 3 - retention of two fish. It is amazing that they can make Flat Bay a Class 2 river. (Amazing is putting it mildy!)
July 14th
From R.M.: Just read Derek Brace's account of the native netting in Labrador. Now there's a perfect example of bad science and management. Large salmon are in serious decline; anglers are doing their part and not retaining any; yet thousands continue to be killed in the so-called native net fishery in Labrador. I thought even DFO knew conservation trumped everything........ (There's information from SCNL that the Metis Nation, with financial assistance from several groups -like ASF and ASCF and their own money - Is implementing a trap fishery so the catch can be controlled within their area and large ones culled out (released). Don't have the details right here but I saw it this morning and will post it when I get it - The Metis Nation is to be commended for this initiative!! Co-Ed)
July 14th
From River Observer: It never ceases to amaze me how people, both anglers and scientists alike use the river stats. Stats are like lamp posts. You can use it to lean on or you can use it to iluminate the subject. Since the start of the season anglers I have spoken with were almost to the person very concerned about the run in 2011 on Flat Bay Brook. By way of example, more salmon enter the Exploits on a good day than Harrys River sees in the entire season. I believe last summer on its best day, the Exploits saw over 3,000 salmon counted at Bishops Falls. Over 15,000 salmon passed above Grand Falls yet that section of river has the came class as Harrys and Flat Bay have now. The decision to lump Flat Bay in with Harry's is another example of misguided science. FB is a brook, Harrys is a little bigger yet we continue to harvest fish at an alarming rate on these systems. If Harrys is a class 2 river with a 4 fish limit with a run approaching 3,000, how can DFO science dictate the ! Exploits that saw in 2010 over 45,000 fish counted and 75% of the watershed there is also a class 2 river. Go figure. Is it simply poor science, poor management, or political pressure. Maybe it is time to completely change the way we manage our salmon stocks. I don\'t know if my radical ideas are the way to go and I will keep my ideas to my self for the time being. A new salmon plan will be developed for the 2012 season and beyond. It is time to discuss without pre-concieved pre-determined ideas. When our time is done on the planet, will we be able to stand in judgement and say confidently we left Mother Earth and all her beings in a better state than what we inherited. Just asking. We anglers today and there are many more of us today than there were 48 years ago when I started need to think about what will be left for our grandchldren and great grand children.
From GCH: In relation to my comment on July 12... I guess i am going nuts. I apologize for an inaccurate statement. my bad... But in saying that, I was certain that 1 fish for the daily retention is all that was allowed in previous years. maybe I am wrong about that also, and if that is te case, i am calling this my efforts for conservation.! lol Again my apologizes and thanks to you all for setting me straight.. Leaving now feeling like a moron. haha..sorry all. (No need to apologize...I believe you are correct in saying that at one point in the past few years the retention was 1 fish. Nothing wrong with your memory, that's for sure. Must look at some of the older Anglers Guides and see if I can find it - Co-Ed)
From GCH: I dont think I am losing my mind. but i should have read this years guide more closely... page 8 under the GSG south rivers... ***daily rentention has changed to two small salmon***. No I dont have my old anglers guide with me but if my little memory serves, previous years was only 1 daily fish retention. and if i am wrong all together its no big deal to me. I very rarely ever get to retain 2 fish in one day anyway. My intent was to prevent others from trouble with the wardens. Good luck all. (Your comments are welcome at any time!)
July 13th
From JS: Check the angler's guide again...In the watershed management plans section of the guide there is no reference to Harry's, and even if there was, under the Bay St. George Plan at the bottom of page 8, (the list that does not even include Harrys or Flat Bay) it states that the rivers in the region have quote "Daily retention has changed to two small salmon", so, this rule of 1 fish has been changed on all rivers out there that are class 3. So, I guess this would transfer over. (Page 8 is the plan for Bay St. George South rivers. Look at page 10 which is the Watershed Mangement Plan for Bay St. George North Rivers! Harry's and Flat Bay are Class 111 with two fish season retention and if they change to Class 2 (which they did) then it became 4 fish. It has nothing to do with the rivers in BSG South - Co-Ed)
July 12th
From WestFlyCaster: How's the fishing on Southwest Brook these days? (Plenty of rain has left many BSG rivers raging, although one angler reported retaining a grilse on Upper Harry's this morning)
July 12th
From BlueCharm: When Harry's changes status to Class 2 all rules of retention change with it. This means 2 fish per day...not sure why anyone would think otherwise. ((The guide says Classes 2 and 3 are two fish not "a" fish per day - unless I'm reading your statement incorrectly???)
July 12th
A look at the anglers guide says the following about Class 111 rivers and about Harry's.
As a Class three river the season limit is 2 fish and the daily retention limit is 2 fish. So, after two fish you are finished, other than to catch and release other days. The DFO mid-season review changed Harry's and Flat Bay to Class 11, which is a 4 per season limit and still 2 per day maximum retention.
I couldn't find anywhere in the guide where it said it was a one fish per day retention limit on these rivers. So, GCH, where did you see that written???
It's on page 4 of the Anglers Guide..."Two fish on all Class 1, 11, & 111 rivers and unscheduled rivers."
By the way, at the DFO advisory meetings last Fall DFO admitted that they couldn't use Harry's run as a guide for Flat Bay River. SO...what do they do?? They go ahead and make it Class 11 anyway!!
Thanks to BM for bringing the 2 fish retention for Class 111 to our attention. I checked the sections of the guide and find what he said to be correct. Further, with Class 11 and 4 fish, the daily limit is still 2 fish per day maximum. (Co-Editor)
July 12th
Some anglers really should read the guide... All BSG rivers Yes Harrys also, you are only allowed to take one salmon per day. Even now that Harrys is a considered a Class 2 river, you are still only allowed one fish per day. GCH. (Thanks for pointing that out....It's important to know. You mean those people taking home 2 were breaking the law! Ouch. Even at 1 a day, is it right to increase the retention to four and also use Harry's as a benchmark for Flat Bay River?? Prior to the DIDSON counter at the mouth the count was done at Gallants trap and then a snorkel survey done to determine how many were in Lower Harry's. With this count how do they (DFO) know how many are going to Upper Harry's. It's guesswork and politics, not science.)
July 12th
From RAD: I'm with TMB on this atrocity - Here is the email address to the Western Star news room i'm going to send them this important news clip at newsroom@thewesternstar.com
Everybody email them and make the point of world class salmon river safety and the conflict. I do suggest that we take a strong position perhaps even confront with diplomacy the PWC owners at the docks of the resort. If they get confrontational then document that. Take pictures, but it is against the law to harass wildlife including fish in their habitats. I dont agree with the other postions expressed in this forum it is the responsibility of the Coast Guard to enforce speed limits and direct users to act responsibly. The officials are passing the buck! WE NEED Action!
July 11th:
From: TMB To Spawn Board and KP...
I've fished twice on the lower Humber in the last 3-4 days and we have to get the ball rolling on some kind of solution to the high speed PWC'S! Both evenings I waded small and large PWC'S came up and down the river at 40-50 MPH. No regard for fisherman wading whatsoever..Large wakes that could knock a guy over,right across the shoal I was fishing. Simply waved and continued on? I'll do anything asked to bring this to the local government or whoever we need to meet to bring in a plan of action. I'd suggest a petition right away posted in several locations and online on the spawn website? Get a lot of signatures and try to have this stopped!! This is a world class Salmon River...!
Mark my words, we will have a death or very serious injury sometime soon and then government will jump all over this at that time !! You have fisherman wading and small boats, canoeists, Kayakers, swimmers, tubing etc. etc. on this river. These Ignorant individuals care about nobody's safety so the salmon are completely ignored by them... Since when has having the ability to purchase a large fast PWC given anybody the right to disrupt wildlife and endanger peoples lives!! I'm stating DFO, TRANSPORT CANADA, RCMP are all passing the buck on this situation and we need a united voice to bring this to the forefront as a hotbutton topic to local officials and the general public... To all anglers who enjoy any type of salmon fishing on any river lets be heard and be front and center on trying to protect this resource or very soon on the Humber at least they can have the river... There won't be any salmon staying there for fisherman anyway!!!
I'll be taking my camera and filming and photographing every incident I see and reporting the same to RCMP, TRANSPORT CANADA, AND COAST GUARD!!
July 11th
Just in from DFO - Harry's River and Flat Bay Brook: DFO advises that in accordance with the in-season review process, retention levels for the main stem of Harry's River, from Home Pool downstream to the river mouth and Flat Bay Brook will change from two-fish seasonal retention limit to four-fish seasonal retention limit as of one hour before sunrise, Tuesday, July 12, 2011. DFO also advises that the section of Harry's River within 23 metres upstream and downstream of the counting facility located in the area known locally as Harvey Gale's Pit, is closed to angling.
July 10th
From gp: Is Harry's River a four fish river this year i wonder ,does anyone know if it is ,or not. (Harry's is definitely NOT a four fish river. - It's Class 3. Until enough fish go through the counter it remains Class 3 (two fish), same as the past couple of years. DFO will decide any change to Class 2 if the returns show it can support it. (Co-Ed)
July 10th
From RA: Sorry for my lack of exiting in last post! I did propose July 1 st as voluntary hook and release day back in June a bit too late for this year. I'm hoping for next year that spawn make this idea a priority. Make it an event get the media involved. This type of momentum if we have good input from anglers who participate could be used by dfo to help convince judges to really throw the big fines into poachers. It really shows how responsible and how. Concerned anglers are for their resource. I think that posters could be up at major pools and everyone who wants to participate can sign up. We could then add up all the fish released! All in favour post as well! Thanks
July 10th
From DW: Re Your comments on tags I didn't mean that you would use 8 tags on all rivers, for example if you get 8 tags with 4 colored coded pairs, except for Big Falls, Exploits and maybe the Gander. Have all the other rivers retain 2 fish with different colored tags for designated rivers. Example 2 red tags for Southwest, 2 blue for Robinson's , 2 yellow for Crabbes, etc. (Thanks for clarification DW)
From DW: I've been fishing Big Falls since 1960 and enjoyed every minute I've spent there. The articles that have been written doesn't give the true picture of all the wonderful things that are so enjoying at the Falls. I've seen all kinds of good sportsmanship as well as all kinds of poor sportsmanship and it's just the nature of the beasts (humans). Anyone remember fishing Southwest Brook on opening day in the 1960's and how it was dog eat dog to get a spot to fish. To eliminate the people staying on the river catching and releasing is to do away with catch and release and go to 8 tags and when they are filled get off the river. The extra 2 fish allowed would not be a great increase in retention when you realize how many fish are injured or killed releasing them. (If , as an example) Harry's River went to eight tags it would be a wipeout of the breeding stock!! Even four is pushing it where today's runs don't go near what they used to be. One time Harry's gave up more fish than now go in the river, in total... Just one example of why limiting the catch on a river-by-river basis makes a difference - Co-ed)
July 10th
From RA: Angler's Voice: Been reading lots of how bad the experience of fishing big falls has become. In my 40 years of fishing there it has always been combat fishing. People have always castes over my line not many respect another persons rise. Peope have always hogged spots. I've had guys hook my waders with a double hook when I was only 12 and ripped a big hole in it on purpose. The guy later apologized to my dad and offered to pay, but he did do it on purpose. Not much has changed in terms of how aggressive the angling has been. If you want to preserve your spot you always need to establish your territory by being a strong caster and even whipping your fly close to people on your back cast throwing your fly over or under the other guys line. Seems like the more aggressive anglers move out the less experienced. So how can this be changed? Do the majority of anglers who go to this spot want it changed? Is it like this on other rivers? In fact it is like this on many rivers, not all but many to some degree or another. This aggressive nature leads many anglers to walk out to far into the pools because of lack of casting ability and they intentionally or unintentionally screw it up for everybody. Thus leading to the next guy to do the same. I see it almost everyday. The only time it's good is when the water is really high and limits people from fishing both sides of the pools. The boats are are whole other etiquette! Spawn should do a better job promoting etiquette. Articles, web site info, etc. etc. Now with the sport changing from retention to more hook and release it is even worse the numbers game how many can you hook? You can't even prove it like the old days when your 4 fish got you off the river. Is it a lost fish or released fished if it comes off after several attempts to get the hook out? It's a grey area! So those are some of the issues but what are the solutions? Education is always helpful largess! Signs explaining etiquette on main pools. Changing the laws, after retention of 2 yuo're done for the day. Some guys will still go to other pools or rivers but while that's an enforcement issue it still gets that one off of that pool giving others a good chance. 200 people fishing at big falls is no fun for anybody so eliminate the ones who got thier 2. This would also promote hook and release. Change the hook and release laws so if you retain one then you may only release one. If you want to practice hook and release and you release more than two you may not retain a fish that day in other words you can't release 3 or 4 and then decide to retain 2. We really should have the option of buying a retention licence more $$ or non-retention licence less $$. One of the problems is because of crowds just so many spots for people to stand so this results in the etiquette of the sport being overlooked. This website and others has made the problem worse. No longer are the days of wondering what water levels or fish anglers can be anywhere in the world and know up to date information. I know guys who are wealthy from BC who wait for fish reports and watch water levels from their phones in downtown Vancouver and fly in less than 12 hours to where the fishing is best. There is no going back now but limit access and educating will help. This sport is in a transition from the old times of killing 4 a day to now releasing 4 a day both of those generation are still using the resource Nd it seems more people with more measure time are enjoying salmon fishing so we need to change the way we use the resource. More people is actually better for the sport because without people involved government does not take notice. If governments don't take notice then who really cares. Case in point - in NS many rivers that once thrived are now extinct. no river associations are left, no people fishing - what are the chances for recovery? So, let's make positive decisions, positive changes, and share the resource in a fun productive way! I still want to promote July as voluntary hook and release day. Next year is coming, so let's make a big effort for that. Thanks
(What a great idea re a hook and release day! Thanks for your input RA)
July 9th
From: RB: So, what is the general concensus for this year0's salmon runs, are they late, not coming, out in the bays etc. Anyone have any theories? Especially for BSG? (So far we've heard all of the above!! Ed)
From SE: I had been fishing Big falls since 1996 and in all those years except for the last 2 have had a great time there. It seems to me that since the park has been upgraded a little, what with the comfort and dumping stations that things on the river have changed. I used to look forward to going down to the river and having a few yarns with the b'ys. Someone would always offer you a good spot for a while, if not they would make room for ya. Not anymore, too much competition. Too many racing to get ahead of the other guy. Even though Big Falls has always been a busy salmon river, it seems that the last couple of years have become an inhospitable place to fish. This is supposed to be a gentleman's sport, and for the first 13 years I fished at big falls it seemed that way. Not anymore. I was hoping to raise my kids there, learning about salmon and the joys of angling for them. I will not subject them now to the behavior that now exists. Guys cursing and swearing at each other, Guys almost coming to blows on the river. Guys racing down and spending all night in a boat just to make sure they outdo the everyone else. This is not what the sport is about. It's about everyone enjoying a resource and conserving it for the future. WRT the lower Humber and the disturbance of the spawning beds. I agree that some sort of control needs to be implemented but it's the same old story everyone is waiting for someone else to do something about it. If you are really that concerned take action yourselves. Get out there and educate people about it. Don't just type letters and bitch about it.
July 8th
Let's get a no wake zone at least in all salmon pools and known holding areas for salmon on the lower Humber! These fish spawn on this part of the river and to have these PWCs driving over shoals at break neck speeds all day is a disgrace! Spawn should take the lead and initiate some kind of action immediately! This is a river holding world class salmon and it's treated like a german autobahn for PWCs! I've pleaded, cursed and everything in between with the sea-doo's (Not all operator's) Someone also has to educate them on no wake zones? There are times when seadoo's are doing 50 mph and before they reach the pool they slow to 15-20 mph but they never let off the gas and the boat is dug into the water and creates an even bigger wake then when they were at high speed! You need to lift the gas til the sea-doo boat lifts out of the water and then idle through a pool creating very little wake and keeping a level of safety for fisherman,canoist\'s etc... ! Also, importantly it doesn't scare the salmon and chase them from the pools !! TMB (See the July 6th answer below - SPAWN already took action on this last year. The powers that be apparently don't move as fast as the high speed PWCs. It must be led by the communities on the river according to what SPAWN was told by Coast Guard and RCMP)
July 7th
It is a disgrace to what’s happening at Big Falls. It is not about spending time on the river enjoying the great outdoors, it’s about how many fish you can catch and release in a day and bragging about it after. The law 4 fish released per day apparently does not apply to Big Falls. It’s a free for all and no control.
I was fishing below Brook Pool in the Run on Tuesday July 5th and I saw one person release 4 fish and keep on fishing. The person next to me said he lost count of the number that this person had released that morning. The person that spoke to me was trying to get his last fish to fill his quota for July, and this person was hogging the pool.
That morning there was a dead salmon in Brook Pool in the 12-15 lb range. I guess it was released only to die.
Something has to be done about the hook and release situation. I agree with hook and release to conserve the salmon, but there’s got to be more control! DFO, FWED and all the conservation groups need to deal with this issue immediately. BB (This isn't the first report of C & R abuse at Big Falls. Heard one guy released 12 fish in the same day. Ed)
July 7th
From: G P: I fished Boom Siding last year and was almost swamped just fishing from shore, you had these idiots going up and down the river full out leaving huge wakes behind, nail them all i say!
July 6th
From: River Observer: Just a note to say thanks to the enforcement people who laid a charge of dangerous use of a water craft on the Lower Humber. It was only a matter of time before this was bound to happen given the explosion of PWC's being used on this waterway. People need to start a process to control speed on the Lower Humber or we could see what they have at Big Falls. No motorized water craft of any type being allowed. Don't think it can't happen. It has happened in many places across Canada. A speed limit of 20Km per hour would solve most of the problem. The anglers, rafters, swimmers, Canoeists eyc would be safer and the PWC's would still be able to acess the lake via the river albeit at a much slower speed. Just my thoughts.
(Thanks for this - SPAWN board member Keith Cormier led a committe to investigate this very thing. We share the same concerns. We had complaints about boats and high-speed PWC's zooming by with little respect for anglers and non-power craft users alike. Meetings were held with Coast Guard and RCMP. The outcome was that such a process should be initiated by communities on the river, such as Steady Brook. There appears to be a limitation as to how far control can go. A speed limit and no-wake zones were discussed. In view of your comments the process should be reactivated - and soon!! At least when the log booms were there in the river, and the floating logs, all we had to worry about was a hook-up!! KP)
Are there any reports for the Grand Codroy River? I would like to know when to fish there. SB (This is the time of the year when the grilse start showing up at G. Codroy although reports of late indicate some BSG runs are late. Ed)
June 30th:
From: ASR
Maybe beaching a fish should be made illegal until it's measured for someone wanting to tag a grilse. A moose hunter has the obligation to know the difference between a bull, cow, or a calf before pulling the trigger. If the fish is obviously or likely to be a big one should not be allowed to beach it for measurement. If it's likely a grilse it should be measured in the water. Also, if wardens witness careless catch and release practices they should issue abuse or molestation warnings or charges. Like you guys it really boils my blood when I see someone pull a fish up on the beach then fire it back in the water - especially guys who go out of the way to get the best spot on a pool, guys who know how to catch fish, and then torture and leave them for dead, with the added laugh and grin of satisfaction. same type probably beats the wife! There is a difference between the fly fisherman and a guy with a fly rod.
From: GCH:
I agree with you both. Really though, what the hell are those people thinking. I'm lost for words... IDIOTS... inland fisheries needs to set an example and charge a few of these morons. Get it out there that this is not acceptable. Or maybe even better yet, if you witness someone bootin' a fish around and in turn then release it, all the anglers present should go boot that person in da arse!!! Oh MY... Will some people ever learn???
June 29th
From: CBF.
TMB makes great points. What is worse, and what I witnessed on at least 6 occasions this year, is anglers dragging fish onto the beach, then measuring them (often with a boot on them to keep em from flopping) and then 'releasing' because they are too small, or even worse too big. How is that not molesting fish? (I've seen it as well...Sickening, when they know they aren't keeping it! Cruelty to animals?? Or is it Animals committing cruelty?? Co-Ed)
June
25th
From: TMB
Please Please Please!! Practise good catch and release techniques! Play the fish fast..Keep it in the water if at all possible..Refrain from touching the fish if at all possible..Refrain from beaching the fish..If a photo is taken,very quickly lift the fish supporting it\'s body and back into the water.. Every scale lost may be detrimental to fish survival.. THE OLD RULE OF 1 MINUTE PER LB RATIO IS OUTDATED IN MY OPINION!.. WITH TODAYS GEAR, MAYBE 30 SECS PER LB!!!
I play the fish fast and grab the fly and unhook, never need to revive a strong fish..There's a point where a salmon concedes without exhausting itself..
The more you handle a fish and remove the protective slime the greater the chance you may be killing the fish if water temp. goes up and fungi can develop! (I've seen to many fish played to exhaustion, beached and then an angler spends 10-15 minutes trying to revive it!) We all love this sport and must do our best always to help its survival..
June
22nd
Anybody willing to make July 1 every year
VOLUNTARY hook and relase day?
Think about the gift and contribution
to future generations of fish and anglers to enjoy
them for many years to come. I think its great that we
are still allowed 6 fish total for the year but on
JULY 1st Canada day donate your fishing effort back to
the river.
As a spawn member I would like to get some momentum on this idea make it an annual event get some media coverage increase awareness maybe it would even become an event across all salmon angling waters. A show to All how much respect anlgers have for this important resource. We are the custodians of this precious and fragile resource!
Im not trying to suggest it be ever mandatory or take anybodys fun away and if you really only get that day for the whole year to get your salmon to eat that you should participate unless you want to.
From June 1 to September 7th there are 98 days in the province of NL to retain a salmon (or your 6) just volunterily release one fish on that day!
And everybody who does, send in to SPAWN a picture of your release maybe brief details of where when why etc., and then we solicite a few gear companies to give away fishing gear on a random draw to a lucky angler who gets on ballet for every fish up to a max of 4 on that day of course. Any other ideas or interest. RD
June
21st
June
21st
I am baffled by C and R limits, a live fish is much better in the river than a dead one on the land. If you're a meat fisher person thats fine. I don't see why DFO should listen to uneducated ramblings of C and R. Typical Newfoundlanders have no issue with thowing back small trout or cod when angling and belive its totally reasonable. So whats the deal? Fish4ever
June
19th
Guides
Licence
I
have not paid to keep my guides licence current, but
would like to reactivate it. Does anybody know who to
contact about this? (Dig out your old
license...the info is on there as to who to contact. You
can pay it on line using your ID and
username that's on your moose license as well. I
can post6 the site if you don't have it??)
June
11th
(Good idea Kent. Problem is it isn't mandatory to use that type of hook. Pinching the barb is legal under current regulations. Along with that many of the tyers may have hundreds, if not thousands of barbed hooks that remain to be used and the dealers are in the same boat. Certainly something to aim for in the future! Co-ed)
June
2nd
I was on the river yesterday evening. The river was high but seen a few fish moving but never hook any. If we can get a few days with no rain I think there be good fishing on southwest brook again this year. I think that all rivers should have there own colour that way you can get tag for three different rivers.Just in the Bay St George area we have Five rivers with in 15 min drive of each other for red tags so if we were allowed to take 2 out of southwest. 2 out of Flat bay and 2 out of harrys.we could use all our tags.Just my way of thinking.order your lic on line and request which river you would like to take fish from and have your lic sent to you in the mail just like they do for moose lic. SDY
May
30th
Spoke to woman on the Corner
Brook stream trail system 2 days ago and she saw a
seal in the stream, below Glynmill Inn pond.
JW (Hope it was an Otter instead of a seal - Ed)
February 21st
We try our best to keep poachers off the rivers but are still failing. For example, an individual last July was caught for his second time poaching. The first offence in early 2000 was for netting a river. This poacher served his sentence for that conviction. In Jul 2010 he was caught with untagged salmon on a river. A court date was set for Feb 2011. From July 2010 this individual was free to fish any river he wanted for the remainder of the fishing season. In Feb 2011 he had his court appearance and pleads not guilty; a new court date was set for Aug 2011. The poacher is now able to fish/poach for the best part of the 2011 salmon season. How in the world can we let this happen? We need the laws changed to ensure poachers are kept from the rivers. Persons that have been charged, from the date of the charge should not be allowed to continue to fish until their charges have been settled in court. The way things are now, the poachers are laughing. There has to be a way for the court system to speed up the process in order to keep the poacher from destroying our beautiful rivers. DO
2010
Does anyone know if the flooding from Hurricane Igor could affect salmon in the rivers, spawning, etc.?
December 2nd
I wanted to comment on the latest conviction notice for the angler from Ontario - while I agree fully with the charges and fines - I can't seem to wonder why this guy who broke very minor regulations gets $7000 and the yahoo's from this Province who routinely net salmon gets a slap on the wrist (up to $3000). It seems to me that poachers (i.e. netting, jigging, sale of fish, etc) should be the ones getting the BIG fines with some of the money going to salmon groups - not guys who put the wrong coloured tag on a fish. I know ignorance is no excuse but he may have thought he was using the right tag - he did tag the fish!!!! If he knew the difference why wouldn't he have used the right coloured tag? There is a double standard or there is not enough guidance provided to court judges because you can go to court in Labrador and get a big fine but put the same case in front of a court in St. John's, Gander, etc and there will be different outcomes/fines levied. BW
I believe that the government really needs to look at the seriousness of the crimes and list a minimum fine for each conviction with the judge having the ability to increase based on past convictions up to a threshold, only then will poachers fully appreciate that they will pay big dollars for each offence! There seems to be too much variance in fines levied across the court system! BW
September 6th
Regarding measuring fish, I have always measured "as the crow flies" not along the curvature of the fish body. (unless it is well under the 63cm and I want it to be a little bigger!) DB
September 3rd
Would like to thank the person for their posting on this.
I was the one who landed and tagged my first Salmon on Southwest river. It is a beautiful spot. Words can not express the happiness I felt the three days my buddies and I were fishing that river.
I managed to land two and hook one. I released one as it was > 70 cm. Beautiful fish.
The day I tagged my first salmon I did run into a DFO officer. He took my name and details and in addition acquired scale samples from my tagged salmon.
When reading about this river being poached it angers and frustrates me to think of the Salmon that I released dead in some selfish sob's freezer. After first fishing this river, I have heard that is heavily poached. Something obviously needs to be done about it. Poachers are not going to this river in broad daylight. So why is this river not patroled at night?
Patroling the river in the day seems to me as preaching to the choir.... I am not saying DFO are not doing their job but in order to stop these dishonest, selfish people, tactics need to be amended. CB
September 1st
Fished Boom Siding this morning from 10:30 to 12:00 landed a small grilse it could not have been in for long it was all nice and silvery all my tags filled now. Can't wait 'till next year.This is my third season and enjoying it more each year.Met a lot of people good conversations and lots of tips.
There's one down side I would like to mention and that is the amount of garbage mostly Tim Horton coffee cups I've seen and picked up.I think that if we enjoy the outdoors so much and obviously we do we shouldn't be leaving this around our rivers and parking places. RMV (They are everywhere!!! Co-Ed)
August 30th
This post is more for clarification than anything else; I'd appreciate lots of feedback/comments. It regards measuring a salmon.
Recently I landed a fish and, upon measuring, found it to be just under the 63cm limit. I measured it again to be sure (as I'm not interested in retaining an illegal, over-sized fish) and let the tape lay on the fish as I measured. This time it read 66/67cm. Kneeling directly over it with the tape on it's nose I measured it again and kept the tape tight; under 63cm to it's fork. I measured it again and let the tape lay down on the length of it and it's over 63cm. The girth of the fish clearly added another inch/inch and a half.
Better sense prevailed and the chunky fish went back in the river.
We've all hooked those "close" ones and most of us want to do the right thing...so how does one "properly" measure a fish?
I look forward to your comments/feedback/stories.
August 25th
After what happened to me last evening on the Lower Humber it seems quite clear that the fishermen are slowly being pushed away. Jet skis, jet boats churning up the pool right in front of me, 20 people in wet suits going right thru the pool directly in front of me, right after i had just rose a fish (one guy laughed and said " we will be out of your way in 5 minutes") . I realize that these people have a right to the river as much as I do, but a little common courtesy would be appreciated. I think we need to put a piece in the paper to at least address some of this behavior. Most of us have been fishing this river for years and I think it's about time we made public our concerns. At the very least, if someone is genuinely ignorant of their behavior and they happen to read about our concerns, then maybe the next time they will think twice about it.
August 20th
So, I was talking with a friend of mine last night and I mentioned how I may head to the cabin this weekend down near Clarenville. After chatting I said maybe I will head into South West River (Port Blandford) and try for a fish in by the falls. He stopped me right there and said "don't even bother. Poachers have got it cleaned out".
This disturbs me in more ways then I care to count. Some guys I know, were in there a month ago and for 2 thirds of the trio it was where they landed their first fish. They had a great time and hooked several fish between the 3 over 2 days. This is a place where fish can't go any further (Now maybe I am creating a whole new problem by posting this because if an true fishermen can get on here and read reports and find directions to unknown waters so can a poacher can't they?) this area is deep water and is a great place for fishing, not bc of its numbers but bc of the room to work a line and bc of the surroundings. Especially for someone just getting into it, you don't have to worry about getting timed out on a rock or having people cast over you, its hard to get to and bc of the moderate numbers of fish it is a lot of the times untraveled. I mean I understand DFO can't be everywhere all the time, and I am not making this a statement about DFO doing their job but I have heard before that this river is prone to poaching......I just hope people get what they deserve. I'll the one fish I have left in the freezer over the Lord-knows-how-many that these individuals have in theirs any day knowing I caught mine by the only method that is permitted.
Has anyone else heard of poaching activity occurring on this river to the extreme of what I have be made aware of?.......
I just don't get it and maybe its simply bc I'm a fair-play kind of person where by I use only what tags I purchase, I use what hooks I am bound by law to use, and I only retain/release (when fortunate enough to do so) the number of fish that is privy to me.
I'm sickened.....
ML
August 17th
To RW who indicated that he hooked and released 4 salmon on the Salmonier River..Then he counted 30 in the pool and he cold identify the 4 he hooked and released..Good for him..I cannot identify individual salmon in a pool...
To JW , yes I can fish everyday...If I wish ...but remember it was a scenario and just that..I think JW missed my point, and yes I do agree with him that there are salmon anglers out there that hook and release far more than they are legally permitted and yes there are anglers that take more than four and he didn't mention that there are still nets in our rivers..That I do not agree with.
But just look at the chief sponsors of ASF and what happened to the 30 million dollar salmon endowement fund...They only give monies from the interest on the 30 million to Salmon groups and for salmon study.
You can find some of the sponsors of ASF on their website and donations of over $5000.00 come from some interesting companies and family Foundations...and even some political parties....
WS
August 16th
Wow - WS really hates hook and release. I'll bet he doesn't consider this: I released 4 fish at a pool on the lower Salmonier one morning this summer. They all survived - I could see them in the pool. As I was leaving two anglers arrived. They wanted to retain fish and I said there were about 30 there. I saw them about 3 hrs later and they said they didin't even hook one. I figure I saved 4 salmon that morning......... R.M.
August 15th
As a conservation minded angler I appreciate some of the responses to SW's analisys of Catch & Release and mortality rates. Other than the actual numbers, to assume every angler could or would fish everyday of the season is way out there, then to assume every one of these anglers would release 4 fish per day is down right impossible. I'm an avid angler, I fish every opportunity I can and struggle to get 40 days per year in, most of the anglers I know fish only a fraction of that. I also fish some very good rivers at prime times, only occasionally do I release 4 fish per day and occasionally do I see or hear of other guys releasing 4 per day. Remember the fish don't alway cooperate and take the fly.
I do admit there are a handful of hook and releasers who abuse the system, just as there are a few hook and retain anglers who abuse system and take more than thier quota of 4 retained per year, this obviously hurts more.(great to see the new tag system working)
I guess in recent years more and more people are in fact releasing thier quota of 4 per day more often, but any logically minded individual know thats the direct result of imcreased fish in our rivers. I suggest SW look at the River Statistic link on this site. The information clearly indicates we are doing something right!!!
There has been some great work done by SPAWN and other conservation groups and we are seeing the results, On behalf of all anglers, both hook and releasers and hook and cookers may I say thanks for your tireless efforts in promoting conservation of this wonderful resource. It must be very satifying for you people to finally see the benefits of your hard work. Keep the pressure on, our children deserve to enjoy this sport as much as we do. JW
August 12th
I have sturred some comments in your anglers voice. My scenario was just that a scenario but a legitimate one at that....What I was talking about is I limited my 90 days to 60 to account for fishermen/women not catching any fish..so I have taken off the 30 days... but for those who want information on hook and release from my viewpoint and plus looking at data from the Ponoi river in Russia....that river is above the Arctic Circle and never get tempoeratures above 22 degrees C. This was a wier fishing river..The weir fishery was cancelled and the salmon increased and according to the study ...it purporated hook and release to be the magic bullett.But wouldn't the closaure of the Weir Fishery exhibit an increase in Salmon and I ask the author to loook at the studies cautionary aspects of hooking and releasing Salmon at temperatures above 22 degrees.
This person also quotes the river Alta study... but read closely and you well see that all of those Salmon that were tagged after hook and release went downriver and some back out to sea....They were not followed to see if they spawned. I have purposed to DFO that we do a hook and release study on a small nl. river...they are not interested. I spoke to an individual about a month ago from a university in Ontario and he said so what if I kill 5-6 fish if I hook and release..I am on the river keeping poachers away....If any of you want to read something I wrote on salmon got to www.nlwf.ca and you will find articles against hook and release.
To the individual who wrote to this anglers voice...I am educated with many degrees after my name, I was a high school principal for 15 years and I taught for 28 and I had a stroke, but I am not stupid yet... I have been salmon angling since I was 11 years old and I am now 54.. I was a guide but as I stated before I get no clients because I do not believe in hook and release... I have seen many big fish dead in the river and if they do survive do they spawn..
A study on the Conne River had hook and release salmon overnight in cages----I largepercentage of them died...Do a study on a smaller river in Nl.. and as I said before money talks
WS
August 11th
Hello: I read with interest the discussion on Catch and Release angling and find it disheartening that many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are still opposed to such an important conservation tool. We remain the only province in Canada that restricts the number of caught and released fish and I believe, as do others, that this was only introduced as a method of keeping folks from hogging pools and has nothing to do with conservation. If it did, why doesn't New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia or any other province have it. Although it has taken a while and a number of studies later, we have come a long way in understanding how and when C & R is to be done to ensure the lowest mortality rates possible. But before I go into it I would like to chat quickly about some statements made previously against C & R. They state there is 10% mortality by DFO guidelines. I am not sure where that figure has been reported but for the purposes of this discussion let's assume accurate. By the same math I can release 40 fish before I have killed the same amount of fish as this individual. Being a meat fisherman, I am sure they will fill their two tags in August on the Gander, Humber, or Exploits. That brings my release tally to 60 released fish before I have killed the same amount as this individual. Obviously this equates to a lot of angling fun, 60 verse 6, but there are other benefits. I am on the river watching for poachers and spending my money in every community I visit...Which by the way, is a lot of time and money if I am to release 60 fish. Looking at this from another point of view, you can now have 15 anglers release 4 fish each verses one person catching and keeping 6 just for themselves. A pretty good resource sharing strategy don't you think. And let's not forget, a released fish for me is just as important as a kept one may be for you, except I get to do it 10 times as much.
Now on to the total mortality question of C & R. A statement was made regarding the total mortality in the province as a result of C & R; "How many dead fish by DFO 10% kill rate from guidelines.......Would I be totally wrong by multiplying 3x3000=9000. A very conservative estimate". I apologize in advance but my personal experience cannot support this. If this were any way accurate, we would regularly see white bellies float up on every river in the province. In reality, we are not seeing any of this. I fish, and I fish a lot through out the entire season and you simply do not see 5, 10, or 15 fish dead every second day. In fact, 99.9% of the days you see none! Unfortunately, I fear the logic here is to discredit catch and release simply as a means to get bigger kill limits.
On to the scientific studies to date...much work has been done and more should follow but key facts are starting to materialize. Here are just a few points from the studies that were done on Atlantic salmon specifically...
Positive population effects of C & R angling are indicated on the River Alta in Norway, where the number of spawning reds more than doubled after introduction of compulsory C & R. (Thorstad et al. 2000)
The results of salmon tagging on the rivers Rynda, Kharlovka and Eastern Litza where the fish were tagged individually under the dorsal fin. On the Kharlovka river during the season 2004 392 salmon were tagged of which 41 were caught for a second time; on the Eastern Litza 254 salmon were tagged and 59 were caught for a second time; on the Rynda 341 salmon were tagged and 43 caught again. This means 10 to 20% of fish were taking the fly for a second or even third time and did not look dying or exhausted by the previous catch. Normal activity of the caught and released fish is also proved by telemetric research (Kuzmin, the press) which was done on the Kharlovka in 2002 when 30 salmon caught by fly-fishing were radio-tagged and released back to the river and their migration within the river system was monitored during the whole summer until spawning. None died and all of them spawned successfully. (The Atlantic Salmon Reserve)
In the River Ponoi in Russia, densities of Atlantic Salmon juveniles increased after the introduction of C & R angling (Whoriskey et. al 2000)
The Ponoi studies showed very low mortality rates with a number of fish being angled a second and even a third time. They have confirmed that C & R fish have spawned and some C & R fish have returned as repeat spawners and were angled again. Overall, the study suggests that the river has been systematically underseeded for years and that C & R fishing regime is contributing to its recovery. (Whoriskey et. al 2000)
Water temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius and above increase the chances of mortality of C & R fish. Essentially warm water creates a higher mortality rate. But as every angler knows, when we have hot water conditions we catch far less fish, a kind of natural protection if you will.
The many studies of Dr. Bruce Tufts of Queens University showed low or zero mortality in most conditions, when the wild Atlantic salmon were carefully handled and kept in the water. Even more interestingly, ninety-eight per cent of the angled fish eggs survived, vs. 97 per cent of eggs from non-angled salmon. Thus Live Release did not impact the spawning success of the fish.
Ultimately, the key to successful catch and release fishing is to not play the fish to exhaustion and keep the fish in the water. Exposure to air increases the chances of mortality so pictures should be at a minimum and all efforts to keep the fish in the water made.
There is much more material in these studies and I suggest to any of you who have questions to read them, dry as they might be. In the end, these studies prove that catch and release works and more needs to be done on educating the angling public on doing it properly and the benefits that can be derived. I am not advocating the end of catch and keep fishing in any way, as I do love a meal of fresh salmon as much as the next person. I also believe a catch and keep fishery is critical if we are to keep all facets of the fishing community engaged in the sport. But C & R fishing is an important conservational component if we are to keep the resource healthy and raise the number of anglers entering the sport. If you look at the recent DFO statistics for this year, the island's rivers continue to improve and I strongly believe Catch and Release is critical if we are to see this continue into the future. BH
August 10th
Recently I met an angler from Burego while fishing on Harry's. I commented that he was a long way from home. He was fishing on Harry's because this was the only river that he knew that was a class II river. I commented that these two extra salmon were going to be awful costly. This got me to thinking that Harry's and Flat Bay were going to be having a lot angler pressure for the rest of the season. I've done a fair amount of fishing on Harry's this year. While the eariy returns looked promising the runs have slowed dramaticly since mid July. Personaly I feel that DFO has bowed down to pressure put on by some members of the Enhancement comittee, to have this river reclassified.I guess to some the salmon sports fishery is still a FOOD fishery. EDR
August 9th
- I would like to add the following comments to the post made on August 6th. This post is inaccurate to say the least. As the poster suggested we "Do the math". I did and they are totally wrong. Moreover, at least 15000 salmon licenses are sold each year (5X was is said here.) . Also there are 90 days for June-Sept (not 60).
According to this post we are to assume that each angler will hook 4 fish a day (wrong) and fish 60 days a year (I wish!). That is a total of 240 fish (this is technically correct). 10% of that is 24 fish (not "approximately" 3). If 3000 licenses are sold with this fishing activity that is a total of 72000 fish (not 9000).
My point is, that this exercise in math is full of invalid assumptions and is totally incorrect!
To try another way to looking at this. If 10% of the fish hooked and release die vs 100% die with only retention fishing. 10 times more hooked fish would survive with C&Release than C&Retain. Thus, C&R is better.
August 6th
Hello: I am aware of the hook and release rate over a period of days and I was aware of the number of fished released, but if 10% died that would make it approximately 2 salmon that died for this one fishermans pleasure..Let us assume that 5 people did this over a four day period and if they are telling an accurate story...That would constitute 10 dead fish..buy the 10% guideline....if you keep multipling by the number of licenses sold in Nl. Let us assume 3000 licenses sold(conservative estimate) , season is opened from june 1-sept.1 roughly... 60 days..you can kill four per license legally and can hook and release 4 per day legally for 60 days.that is 240 fish releases and 10% kill rate..that is approximately 3 dead fish per license.. 3000 licenses sold..Do the math ..How many dead fish by DFO 10% kill rate from guidelines to kill rate from hook and release..Would I be totally wrong by multiplying 3x3000=9000. A very conservative estimate. If four fish are permitted to be killed with 3000 licenses sold..Equal 12,000 taken and eaten, while 9000 allowed to die from hook and release. WS
Several thoughts concerning catch-and-release angling for Atlantic salmon:
1. Note to Co-Editor: Thank you for pointing out that within five days of fishing it is reasonable and within the regulations to hook and release up to 20 fish. I released 16. I did not exceed my daily limit.
2. Atlantic salmon cross vast oceans and swim miles upon miles upstream to spawning beds. They are genetically over-prepared for the task; the excess of energy serves to ensure survival in the face of environmental delays or obstacles. If played quickly (5-10 minutes) and then given ample recovery time in the angler's hands, a released salmon has expended only a miniscule fraction of its reserved energy. This of course holds true only when water temperatures are ideal, which they were in my case.
3. When aiming to preserve the health of a particular species, one must aim to secure the survival of as many individuals of the species as possible. Consider these three approaches to preserving individual Atlantic salmon. (1) One can refrain from fishing. This is most certainly the best way to protect the fish. (2) One can release the fish which one hooks. This places stress on the fish, but some science shows that Atlantic salmon are sufficiently resilient, if played quickly and handled and revived carefully, to continue and spawn. (3) One can catch and retain fish. This option guarantees a negative impact on the health of the species. Given these three options and the goal of preserving both the species, catch-and-release angling is worse than not fishing, but it is better than catch-and-retain angling. That is all that catch-and-release angling claims to be. No one says it's good for the fish. We only say it is better than catch-and-retain angling. Rather than killing the fish, one carefully revives it and lets it swim free. Of course the fish would be better off not getting hooked at all. We have to think of catch-and-release angling as a compromise between killing the salmon and not fishing at all. Catch-and-release angling regulations allow for the tradition of angling to continue, a revenue generating and relaxing recreational tradition in our province, all the while giving a reasonable and improved chance of survival to individual salmon. It isn't perfect; it's a compromise.
4. In summary, and regarding the comment of WS, "so much for salmon conservation", catch-and-release angling is a conservation measure that allows for the angling tradition to continue.
August 3rd
- Hello: I read your first report from August 3.. Look at the number of fished released.16 but again look at the rules for hook and release...and people tell me that people who hook and release follow rules and regulations.. I have been talking about such for a number of years...I have witnessed such...I used to be a guide...but no longer...I get no clients because I followed the rules. Do not forget it is not only tourists doing this but locals are doing this also...How many of those fished survived..DFO allows for a 10% kill rate in support of hook and release..So How many dead salmon? I am willing to bit more that 10% died. They do not die immediately but they do not make it to spawn either. (Please note: These releases were done from July 30th to August 3rd, a five day period! Anglers can legally release 4 per day. Co-Editor)
This will continue...you cannot police hook and release...I have had tourists (remember I was a licensed guide)...but I no longer get clients... I can hook and release all day...if I choose to do so and all I have to say or show is that fish got away and I can loose every fish I hook with a barbless hook...Don't get me wrong.barbless hooks are fine but they can be used to loose salmon....Where are we going from here..maybe nowhere because money talks and as for salmon conservation, I am at my wits end....hook and release are not policable..I guess so much for salmon conservation. WS (It's almost impossbile to control unless someone is watching every angler - that is an impossibility. Anyone have a solution?? Co-editor)- Co - editor - Doesn't the fact that we are the only jurisdiction in the world that places a limit on the number of fish that can be RELEASED tell you something. We are so far behing the times on release angling its not funny. Scrap the limit; it should be limitless and let people enjoy their fishing and there will be less ( not more ) hogging of pools. Just watch!!!!!!!!!! RM (With the estimated 10% mortality in release angling your suggestion would mean more mortality, wouldn't it? That hardly seems like a productive solution, but thanks for your input)
- Just a point of clarification regarding the Aug 3rd report on the Terra Nova river and the following email about releasing 16 fish over 5 days. In fact that section of river the person referenced fishing is Class IV, meaning they are only legally permitted to release 2 fish per day not the 4 as in most other rivers. As for policing the release fishing, from an eforcement perspective it is very difficult I am sure. Like most things it is left to the honour system and perhaps some self governance among fellow anglers.... too bad some people get greedy and hog the pools, releasing upwards of 20 salmon per day as has been seen this year. Some ideas would be good. SW
July 26th
Poachers A Plenty Being a Novice when it comes to Salmon Fishing, I strictly adhere to all the rules when I'm out for a flick as I would expect all anglers. This Summer while in Bishop Falls, it appears to be a joke fow a few Poachers to hook with their Barbed Flies, because as it was put " They have plenty of time to haul in their line or cut their the line " before being checked. ( Why not change the Rule, that all flies in your possession must have the Barb Pinched )Some of these fellows are also filling the tags for relatives not even present. So if they have family members with a license, they will fill what ever tags are available including their own. The possibilty of being checked is not great. I heard of one fellow who came a shore in the Fallsview Park area, who had eight untagged Salmon in his Boat. Only to put tags of relatives on the Salmon when they showed up in the Park.
On Middle Brook River in Gambo ( D.Smallwod Park ) I watched a Local hook a fish then pass the Rod to his buddy who then played out the fish then this chap put his tag on the Salmon.......... Salmon Fishing is wonderful opportunity to get out, get a bit of fresh air, relax and enjoy this wonderful Province. It's too bad we have a idiots, who continue to mis-manage this wonderful resource. I guess when rivers are closed because stocks are low, the same Poachers we have around the Province will be the first ones up to the plate, to complain the Government is at fault for low stocks. (We hear you...These are the kinds of things that are being addressed and action was taken in other locations where some of this was happening. Was any of this reported to IFE..their number is on your license?? - I'll pass this along just in case. Co-Editor)
July 23rd
Ok, all this talk about increasing the limits of Flat Bay and Harry's is plain crazy. I can't believe it, it floors me and drives me crazy that we are using all these theories about smolt production and carrying capacity, etc. When it comes down to it all these theories are just theories, the same ones you hear on the river banks about why salmon take or not take because of the weather, the wind direction, the ice in the ocean, etc. We in fact don't know what is going on in the ocean and we might and I use that work lighty might know what is going on in the rivers. For us to know exactly why some years are great and others are bad is far beyond us. We don't have gills and we don't live with the fish and there is no way to factor in all the variables about the survival possibility of a single egg through development.
NL is so lucky to have the returns they are having this year and the years before. In this era it is simply a marvel and wonder to sit on the bank of any river in the province and see natural, wild fish returning year after year with little to no help from us. I believe our negative impact on the rivers is so significant through other means such as burning fossil fuels, over fishing, garbage dumping, etc that it is pure miracle we have anything. People who don't know anything about the salmon affect the fish species well being by their actions. I don't mean to be downer about this but all you have to do is look west and south and you will see the bad shape salmon stocks are in the maritimes. The acid rain impact, over fishing, human population all are factors on the closure of the recreational fisheries there. Nobody there can just walk down over the bank and cast a fly for a silver leaper because they feel like it or want to fill their last tag. Anyone who reads this has heard it before.
As a displaced NFLD'er I have had to travel home to fish every summer for atmost 8 hours on a river. It takes a lot of $$ and time to be able to wet a fly and when you get the chance you appreciate NFLD and its salmon wealth a whole lot more than if you have the river next door all salmon season. I live near Halifax and the only salmon river nearby (Sackville River) is in rough shape. The local group does it fair share of work and it is a sin that a really nice river has so few salmon returning.
So to get back to my main point, I have not yet been home this summer but I hear, read and can see what is going on back home. The rivers seem to be doing fairly well and that is great, get out and enjoy it and make memories for we only get a limited time to be outside. But, what is with increasing the limit??? If we dumb it down and take away all the theories that nobody can quantify it simply means you are taking more fish from a finite supply. More fish taken out of the river means less spawners and grilse spawn too! We as humans are so set in our greedy ways. Does one need to look very far to see what has happened to greed upon a fish stock? COD, no need to say anymore. It's ridiculous and makes me so mad that as an arm chair quarterback I can see the greed set in after a couple "good" years on these rivers. Here is an idea, why don't we just let it alone? Let it continue to be good and bad and turn back to the rivers in 10 years or so to see what is going on. Nobody can argue that leaving a fish in the river is not a good thing, and offers one more chance at species survival. This is as easy as equating it to a long term investment like an RRSP.... good financial advice is to invest (leave fish alone to reproduce and possibly stock) and let your fund mature (let the river expand). Mother nature has a way of working out and is much more efficient than us.... after all she has no greed.
Something else too... I dump into the NFLD economy on each trip home $600-$1000 depending on what I do when I am home. Includes gas, food, parks, lodging, etc. I come home because of family but that will soon stop as they get older, but I will always come back for the salmon. No salmon, no reason to come back. I can spend my cash out west in the mountains or for the same price a week in Europe or a trip down south. How many tourist anglers are dumping what I am putting into your economy? The salmon is worth more in the rivers than on the plate. People have to get smart and realize that fish can generate money money money if used right. Trust me when I say there are some people that will spend much more than me to have a chance at our rivers and our fish. Unfortunately that is what its going to take for some people to connect and make an effort to preserve.
Thans for the rant. Chris Manuel
July 17th
Good Evening,
I would like to know more information concering guides from other provinces who come here on vacation and guide their friends while they are here. I can not go to their province and guide so why is it only in Newfoundland this is allowed? If this trend keeps up there will be no need for Newfoundland guides. As they get familar with the pools they will no longer need a guide from newfoundland. Just one of there buddies with a guide lience from their province.
(Actually, you can go to another province and guide. A reciprocal agreement was signed a couple of years ago between Provinces that allows a guide from one province to guide in another province. What you are saying re out of province guides guiding each other here is already happening - Co-Editor)July 14th
I would like to take the opportunity to respond to RM's comments concerning Harry's and Flat Bay. You make some very valid points, and I agree completely that "all you can ask any river system to do is to produce its maximum number of smolts". The problem is that this is not happenning. It is widely agreed upon that there are no longer any Atlantic salmon rivers, anywhere, that are producing a 'maximum' number of smolts. Even when rivers such as Harry's had runs nearing 15,000 fish, in the mid 1960's, there were no scientific indicators saying that there were too many juveniles in the system. But, because it is near to impossible to determine how many smolts a river system can sustain, DFO uses a minimum spawning "conservation requirement" to determine the status of the river. This "conservation requirement" is aptly named, because it will indeed conserve the salmon. As you correctly stated, assuming a smolt survival rate of only 2%, we would need 100,000 smolt to produce 2000 salmon in the next generation that return. And I guess that is sufficent enough for DFO to sustain, or "conserve" our decimated rivers. So in five years time, another 2000 fish will come back to Harry's river. Great! With DFO knowing full well, that the carrying capacity of smolt is far from being achieved, why not at least try to increase the number of smolt in the river? Maybe the river system can handle twice as many smolt, or ten times as many.
The fact remains that the science is not there to tell us how many there could be. When I first started fishing, more salmon went up Pinchgut river than are now going up Harry's, and it seems that DFO has all but forgotten this upstream tributary of Harry's in their "scientific" models.
This unknown carrying capacity I am sure would be greatly improved if all the habitat above George's Lake were factored in to play. I would not argue that we could gain a recovery in a single generation, but the whole idea of using a "conservation requirement" to maintain the pityful status quo for years to come is not going to cut it.
You are 100% correct in that conditions at sea are hurting the salmon big time! There is less prey, and more predators, as well as a host of other problems of which we are all well aware of. And I completely agree that sea survival rates need to improve. The fact remains, as you have correctly pointed out, that were only getting about a 2% survival rate. Well I would think that 2% of 200,000 smolt would put the river in a much better position than 2% of 100,000 smolt would. And again, there is no available science telling us that this system can't handle 200,000 smolt.
You ended off by saying that "We all should be striving to ensure adequate spawning first". Why not strive to achieve a spawning level that is above adequate? I understand where you are coming from, and I agree with much of what you had to say. But perhaps if we stepped away from the idea of a "conservation requirement" and looked more toward a "Recovery requirement", then we might actually start to see better improvements in the salmon stocks. The biggest fear I have concerning DFO's mandate of maintaing the status quo, is what happens in a few years time if the already poor survival rate drops any further? Yes, conditions at sea need to improve, drastically, but if less and less numbers of smolt are getting to sea, then the salmon will obviously have a lot less of a chance to recover. There remains much need for improvement, both at sea, and in our rivers, thats one thing we can all agree on. Tight Lines!!!
Good for DFO to increase the quota on Harry's and Flat Bay. They clearly believe the rivers will be adequately seeded. Many of you guys got it backwards - putting " extra " eggs in a river can actually hurt - too much competition. All you can ask any river system to do is to produce its maximum number of smolts. Lets say its 100,000 for Harrys. That can be achieved with 2,000 or 5,000 adults so what's the big deal!!! The problem is at sea when these 100,000 smolts go out 4 years from now. If 10% ( like it used to be ) survived you'd have 10,000 adults back; but now its only 2%, so 2,000 adults. If DFO would only fix that sea survival problem, we'd all have lots of salmon. The problem is at sea, not in our rivers - provided adequate spawning is met. We all should be striving to ensure adequate spawning first - then you can catch away. RM
Just seeing the DFO notice regarding the quota adjustment on Flat Bay and Harry's river. I can't comment on Flat Bay as I don't know the numbers on that river, but looking at Harry's it seems to me that someone is really jumping the gun here. Last year, the count for Harry's was less than 1700 fish, and angling log returns indicated that 730 were caught on the river. While many of these fish may have been released, i'm sure the numbers that were not reported caught, not to mention the ones that were taken illegally, would drastically alter the actual numbers of how many fish were taken from last years run. I have been fishing Harry's for 20 years, and I, along with many anglers have seen improvements in the runs on the river. But I remain concerned that these small improvements may not warrant an increased quota. I have never witnessed as many anglers on Harry's river as I have this year, every pool and hole on the entire river has had several anglers on it since mid June. With an increase to a four fish retention, this pressure will most likely increase. There never seems to be any consideration by DFO, given to the number of anglers a river system is seeing. Twice as many anglers will now be able to retain twice as many fish on Harry's river. So I truly hope that by some stroke of magical luck that we end up with 6 or 7 thousand fish through the counter on Harry's this year, because if the run is just early, and we only get the less than 2000 fish that the five year average points to, then this years run will be hard pressed to to reach the minimum spawning requirement. 730 reported caught last year, when you could retain two fish. Double that for a four fish retention and you get 1460 fish, assume there are twice as many anglers fishing... 2920 fish taken. So if were lucky enough to see 3000 through the counter I guess at least there are 80 spawners left! Obviously the numbers would not be as cut and dry as this, especially given the up river location of the counter, but I'm just using them as an example of what could be possible based on previous catch rates and the number of anglers on the river system. Not every fish will take, many will be released, several will be hooked and lost, and many may sail on through to the lake. But on the other side of the coin, many will be caught, several will not be reported, and sadly, several more will be taken illegally. The fact remains, that the only scientific numbers we have on this river, are how many fish pass through the counter above Gallants. Every other factor can only be used as an estimate. I personally hope that the run is not just early, that several thousand more fish make their way through Harry's, and that one day the run is strong enough to warrant DFO to allow a four fish retention, if not more someday. But I remain skeptical that this is just another example of how a fishery is being managed on the basis of poor science and misinformation, and it is very worrysome to think that several years of effort that have gone into restoring this once great river could be decimated by someone jumping the gun. The most troubling part for me, is that decisions are made today, and the consequences of these decisions will not be seen for another five or six years when the offspring of this run return. Sure it would be nice to keep a few more salmon, and because of the work of groups like Spawn, Saen, the ASF, and countless other river stewardship groups, I am confident that things will only get better. With that said, we all know it will take time and patience. I realize funding will always be an issue, but we could easily have a better system in place to determine the catch rates on our river system. If there were still a counter on Harry's river, in a location where the salmon were first entering the river, we could better determine how many of the fish that enter the system actually make it to the spawning grounds based on how many reach the counter nearer to George's Lake. It might not be perfect, but I think it would tell a lot more about what is going on in this river, not to mention giving all involved, a better scientific model to be considered for all our rivers. As well, when angling returns are filled out, catch data is seperated into released and retained fish, why aren't these numbers posted in the guide. With a counter on the top and bottom of a river, combined with information garnered about retained as well as released fish, we would all gain a greater understanding of what is actually happening in our rivers. Not to mention the light it would shed on catch and release angling, thereby dispelling a common myth about mortality rates in released fish. I appologize if I seem a little all over the place here, and I hope that anyone reading this doesn't think I, or anyone else, should begrudge them the right to keep a few salmon if the rivers can sustain it. In fact I am all for retention when it is feasible to have it. But based on the return numbers, and the pressure I have seen on Harry's river this season, I really feel that DFO is acting hastily based on some early return numbers, of what is possibly an early run of salmon, on a river that has seen a dramatic increase in fishing activity this year. As a side note, I have experienced some great fishing on Harry's in the last three years, and I'm sure we all hope it continues. I just hope that the good fishing this year, and the four fish quota, doesn't end up being at the expense of the fish that will return in five or six years. JG
(I/We agree 100%. This is crazy. At one time more fish were retained than is going through the counter...How many salmon entered the river then! They haven't come close to the numbers that Harry's can support. All this talk about having anglers on the river keeps poachers away does have some merit. However, most of the poaching isn't done in the daytime and that's a no-brainer for sure. The argument that changing the river from catch and release only to two fish retention only helps for a while if the anglers-on-the-river theory is correct. From what I've seen, once the two fish are caught the majority of the anglers give up - so it goes back to where it started. Then - increasing the limit to four certainly doesn't help. One, that means the possibility of double the loss of spawning salmon stock and two, it's ditto on the anglers leaving again once they get their extra two fish. Further, opening Flat Bay to four because of the Harry's trap numbers means extra pressure on those two rivers since all others in BSG are either closed or Class 3. This is all about local politics and nothing more. Don't get me wrong - if the river (or any river for that matter) can support giving up extra fish then so-be-it. Not a problem and it never was with SPAWN. Thank you for your comments. - Co-editor)The argument that changing the river from catch and release only to two fish retention only helps for a while if the anglers-on-the-river theory is correct. From what I've seen, once the two fish are caught the majority of the anglers give up - so it goes back to where it started. Then - increasing the limit to four certainly doesn't help. One, that means the possibility of double the loss of spawning salmon stock and two, it's ditto on the anglers leaving again once they get their extra two fish. Further, opening Flat Bay to four because of the Harry's trap numbers means extra pressure on those two rivers since all others in BSG are either closed or Class 3.
This is all about local politics and nothing more. Don't get me wrong - if the river (or any river for that matter) can support giving up extra fish then so-be-it. Not a problem and it never was with SPAWN.
Thank you for your comments.
July 2nd
My son and I took up salmon fishing on the West coast a couple years ago, this is our 3rd year on the rivers. During the last 3 summers we have met many of you on the rivers, about 99.9% of the gents we bump into have been very helpful and friendly. Most people have been only too eager to offer some pointers on when, where and how to fish a particular river or pool. Some of of you have even given us one of your personal favorite flies to try.
Recenly we bumped into a couple of gents from St Johns, after a brief chat, and we went our seperate ways my son said " dad we sure do meet a lot of nice people on the rivers hey "
To all of you TRUE sportsmen I say thanks.
Tight lines all. DB (true enough...A Port aux Basques angler gave me a couple of his favourite flies at Grand Codroy and wouldn't take any in exchange - Also gave tips on where to fish- Editor)
June 29th
- Thanks to the honest anglers on Flat Bay River. I left my good rain jacket on the sandbar at Walker's Pool yesterday evening. When I left there was four anglers there. I suddenly realized at 6:30 this morning that I' didn't take it. Didn't think there'd be a chance in hell of it being there. When I arrived there was 5 anglers fishing...My jacket was still where I left it! How about that. Way to go guys! KP
- Hi, i was fishing on Lawn River today and when i went to one of the pools I saw beer glass all of the place. What happens if someone cut their leg on it. I think it should be fixed. JF
June 26th
Just a comment on the new tags. Personally, I don't have any problems with them but I know for some people the very fine print on the tags is difficult to see. I helped a fellow angler this past week who was having trouble seeing the day of the month. He nearly clipped the wrong date which could have been trouble, especially with his grandson there with him. Perhaps, next year the print can be a little larger. Outside of this, I like the new tag system. DB
On another note, there is an issue I have with the new tag system. I have my tags in my backpack and I did not leave them in a bag. Yesterday, I also had my fly repellent in the same pouch as my tags. When I returned home, I was taking all of my gear out of the backpack so I could wash it, and I discovered that on one of my tags, the print was almost completely gone as some fly repellent had gotten on it. This is a caution to other anglers that this could happen, and now on that tag I cannot see the dates in some places. I guess I will have to go to DFO to get a replacement tag. Bit of a pain in the you know where, but I am glad that tag is not the tag I would have had to use yesterday because there is no way I would have known where to punch the date out because it is completely illegible in some sections. Thought that I would pass that on as a warning to other anglers that you should keep the tags in a bag, and keep it away from your fly repellent. DR
2009
July 21st
Pack it in - Pack it out
"This is more to vent my frustrations because I'm sure most people reading this message on Spawner is a true sportsman/woman and cares about our rivers and the environment. It really bothers me to walk down my favorite fishing spot to find, plastic bottles, empty cigarette packs, beer bottles, chip bags and etc. I thought those days have past where you leave your garbage behind, but it's not the case. I only think it's getting worse, at least the rivers I fish. Every time I walk back up from the river I bring back the garbage left behind from some people that just don't care. If your reading this message and it relates to you, 99.9% of the time the garbage your leaving behind is alot lighter then when you carried it there. And for those people that care, lets all make an effort to keep our rivers clean. If you got room in your backpack, why not take some else's garbage with you. Please keep our rivers and woods clean. Love your website and keep up the great work." JG
Big Falls - Angler etiquette missing
"I fished the upper Humber at Big Falls from June 8th to July 8th and can say it was a challenging year for many anglers. The first decent sign of fish was June 17th but from then on it was spotty fishing. Consistently there were small runs of fish moving through for a few hours and if you were there when they did you may have experienced decent fishing for a short while. It would die off as quickly as it started with as much as 2 days before another run would come through. All this brought out the worst in a lot of fishermen. Guys hogging pools, sometimes standing side by side taking turns while other anglers waited for hours on the bank for a chance. One guy in particular, very well known in the area and can cast 120+ feet of line was very bad indeed. This guy, who probably hooks and releases 100 or more fish a year, still felt the need to hook and release fish while those on the bank who are looking to hook their first fish could do nothing but sit and watch. Other very experience anglers were complaining about the inexperienced guys " F$&King up the pools " Wow, It must be great to have started Salmon fishing as a Pro!!I have been fishing at the falls for 15+ years and in that time I have not seen the unsportsmanlike conduct of this season. I witnessed many overplayed fish, Illegally tagged fish and fish not tagged at all. I witnessed an arguement that nearly came to blows on the river and for the first time I have heard of theft in Sir Richard Squires.
Not to be all negative, some of the regulars that I have come to know over the years are still holding true to river etiquette. Many could learn a lesson from these "Gentlemen".
One last word. The tag system is the shits. I have heard of a few different ways in which guys are re-using them. Why can't DFO devise a better tag system. We really need to start making a lot of noise about this." SE