Quinte Fishing

My parents just bought a house on the bay and I noticed that there was bleach bottles floating no more than 200 feet from my shoreline. I thought maybe there is a shoal or rocks but a local said its commercial fishermen with “NETS!”. He also said that when he asked them what there catching. They got really on the defense side and said they don’t fish for sport fish only sunfish and perch. But come on who makes a living on sunfish.

Also I know the area and pike patrol there…and you can’t tell me that there not getting caught. Also these guys where not native either. What gives?

Can someone shed some let on this? I have never been on any lake that you commercially net fish…this is horrible especially since the bay isn’t what it uses to be.

http://www.bigtimefishing.ca

Hey Mako, where's the cottage on the bay? I went out with the commercial fishermen last year and there is a want for sunfish in Montreal and T.O. in the Asian population. They use hoops nets which do make for nice live release. Give me more info and I'll tell you if it's them. They also use tall stakes and reach out from the shoreline mostly at points of land.

South side of the bay across from Bellville.

How many fish do they harvest? If you dramaticlly reduce the smaller fish in the ecosystem everything suffers.

Meeting and talking to people that fish the bay it seems that there isn't a a big C&R ethic going on. But I could be wrong .. whats your feeling?

Mako,

My sister inlaws Father raised a family of 12 children
fishing for nothing but sunfish. There is a big demand
somewhere. He is 70 years old, and is still hauling in
those pumpkinseeds (That's sunfish) The sunfish have
put a number of his children through University including
my sister inlaw.

I wonder if there is a market for zebra muzzels somewhere.

BATMAN

I'm up at Hay Bay but if you see how much the sunfish have proliferated since the mussels you'd be amazed. I know that the sportfish feed off them but it's better them then the walleye. The hoop nets (if checked regularly) can still promote a catch and release. When i went out with the locals, you would be surprised the size of walleye and pike released. I know with the MNR trying to keep a watch on the com. fishermen that I don't think they would want to chance losing their license for a couple of "eyes" or pike. My opinion and observations only.

Wow sounds like there is allot of sunfish. Are they blugill or pumpkin?

With that many being caught have any super sized slabs ever been caught and if so how much did it weigh?

How do you cook a sunfish anyways?

:ALL IS FINE AND DANDY,WITH SOMEONE TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING "FISHING" BUT,I WAS OUT YESTERDAY ON THE SOUTH SIDE,WHEN I STARTED OUT,IT WAS FAIRLY CALM,AND I DID SEE THE NETS THAT YOU MENTIONED,STARTING AT THE SHORELINE AND GOING OUT INTO THE BAY,WAY TOO FAR,BECAUSE BY THE TIME I CAME BACK DOWN THE BAY ,IT WAS VERY ROUGH,AND THE WAY THAT THE SUN WAS SHINING ,YOU COULD NOT SEE THOSE WHITE BLEACH BOTTLES UNTIL YOU WHERE RIGHT ON TOP OF THEM.IF THEY(THE COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN) KEEP TAKING THE SUNFISH SPECIES,THE BASS POPULATION WILL DROP OFF,AS THEY ARE THE BASSES MAIN FOOD,ALSO,JUST A LITTLE FOOTNOTE,IF I HIT ONE OF THOSE NETS WITH MY LOWER UNIT AND TAKE OUT SOME GEARS AND SEALS,THER WON'T BE ANYMORE NETS IN THE BAY TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT. HAVE A NICE DAY........THANKS......ROCKET...twisted: