Quinte Fishing

It's time for our favorite fish to do its thing but the question arises as to what difference will it make? Slot limits and regulations can be effective management tools but can they make the difference in an everchanging enviroment. My understanding of the spawning process is that while millions of eggs are deposited anually on the spawning beds only a small fraction of those ever survive to return and spawn again. Perhaps those who would point thier finger at the fish hogs and native groups should pause to consider another possible reason for the decline in fish stocks. As we all may not know a body of water is much like a farmers back fourty. The ability of a given acre of land to produce a number of bushels of grain is limited to the amount of nutrients available in the soil. While there is a limit to what any field can produce based on ideal conditions it generally produces less than that limit based on other variables such as weather and predation by insects and animals.The bays ability to produce walleye is subject to similar processes. The appearance of zebra muscles has reduced the nutrient quantity of the bay by removing vast amounts of zooplankton,the first building block in a food chain that culminates in you and I, the anglers. Also, factors such as water levels, temperatures and quality affect he bays ability to produce bumper crops of walleye.While the taking of females on the spawn does nothing to contribute to the oveall situation in a positive manner, I am certain that the culprit for reduced stocks lies elsewhere.You can't tell a farmer to grow wheat in a desert and it is no less unreasonable to expect the bay to produce walleye under comprable water conditions.
thanks for listening
Fishhit

In light of what happened Sunday at Northport park where a group of volunteers tried to collect spawn for the Napanee fish hatchery, and were stopped by a group of OPSEU strikers some of have determined the true culprit in the decline of walleye stocks is the mismanagement and interference of MNR, Government and OPSEU strikers. Guess they hoped we'd kill each other off and they wouldn't have a problem. Well folks. it's not the Natives or Commercial Fishermen or Recreational Fishermen that are the problem, it's the powers that be that can't get their heads out of their asses to see what's really going on. Not to offend anyone, of course.