Quinte Fishing

Teppy,

I am on you side on this one. It is hard to do, but it is best not to react to people who do not know you or the fishing regulation rules.

I worked for the MNR for 6 years and I heard every story why someone had too many rods, too many fish, out of season fish and so on. You always know when someone is a poacher and they know it. You are not even close to being one.

As a dedicated lawful angler myself, I have had similar situations piss me off. I had an old guy on shore yelling at me and informing me I was a poacher and he was calling the cops right now. As soon as I told him Bass season was open, he looked at me dazed. Then he said, Oh are you sure?

BATMAN

You have to remember that these people are seeing the not so law abiding guys as well and figure it's all of us that will target oos fish. I saw three guys in a real nice bass boat last weekend flip the weeds and scum along the shore line in the Moira when I was at big music fest. They were right in the sum flipping and pitching. How many hundreds of people seen that? I hope to see the boat at the tourny this weekend.

When I see someone catch an out of season fish I'll watch to see if it's released quickly. If so, no harm no foul as things happen.
If they continue to catch multiple OOS fish without attempting to vary tactics I'll speak up.
Now if I see them not releasing the OSS fish they will sure notice my displeasure.
A few years back I seen a guy running to the back of his car & cooler with a bass about a month before the season opened.
I was all over him. His reason was it was his grandsons first bass. Way to set a good example?
Needless to say the fish was released very quickly exercising his option of not hitting the water before I released the fish.

This April on rice I was sight fishing some shallow reeds for crappies. There was a couple on shore watching me and they must have forgotten how well sound travels over water. I hear the guy say call the Mnr this guys poaching bass. I caught three nice crappies, then came up infront of them. They asked nicely how the fishing was and I answered that it was the best bass fishing I ever had and I got 8 nice lake trout too.

Its a touchy subject, mainly because so many these days are quite visibly deliberately targeting bass out of season, and those like me who live on the water do tend to get a little peeved when we see it. However, this is no excuse to be aggressive or abusive IHO

I fish bass a lot so I know the difference between 'incidental' and 'targeting' when I see it! Fishing a wacky worm or a 10 inch worm along the weedline tends to give a clue! Another one is when they are fishing with spinner baits/cranks etc allegedly for walleye, possibly genuinely so, and persistently hit bass.....and keep fishing the same area, continuing to hit bass, regardless. I see it all the time where I live and have gotton to the stage I don't look any more as it pisses me off so much it can be hard to keep my mouth shut. Even if you point out politely that bass is not open, you still get abuse. So it works both ways....Quite simply it's not worth the stress or the increase in my blood pressure. It is what it is.

As their no enforcement it's hardly surprising that the selfish minority (not such a small minority I am afraid) will take advantage.

Until such enforcement is visible on a regular basis, nothings going to change.

Were it legal to shoot such 'anglers', the few weeks between walleye openers till the day before Bass opens, the bay would be awash with bodies....lol An attempt at levity, so please, no one get their balls in a knot.....

Enjoy the season guys....

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Remember, the best weather to catch fish in, is the weather prevailing when you do!

Be happy, take care, enjoy!

i get what you are trying to say PB seeker....but there is a time when people just need to mind their own business! Some people just think they know more then everyone else. I have a similar story about crappie fishing..... i was out in front of a house with my wife and daughter....fishing crappie with slip floats out of an aluminum boat. Guy comes out of the house yelling about oos bass.....blah blah.... wouldn't take a rocket scientist to see the kid....slip float .....hmmmmm maybe not bass fishing!!! After and exchange of words...where i was as polite as i could be. My day was now ruined..... Why should i have to put up with a ruined trip with my family , because this guy thinks he knows more than everyone else!

A lot of times it is not what people say that pisses you off, it's how they say it. I am a Yank and I like to catch Bass but when I go to Quinte it is strictly for the Eyes (some bass inevitably get caught). Seems like most of the bitching is coming from the shoreline where a landowner is seeing a fisherman catch what he thinks are "HIS" fish. Same arguement can be had about keeping BIG Walleye. Some sportsman will get pissed at people keeping large Walleye and I understand the reason behind the anger... but if these anglers are within their limit should we really have a problem with it?

Some sportsman will get pissed at people keeping large Walleye and I understand the reason behind the anger... but if these anglers are within their limit should we really have a problem with it?

Just as an example.....I rented a cottage last fall for 4 days in the Picton area, and another cottage had about 10 guys staying there. Everyday they came in with 6 or 7 Walleye 10+ pounds. That's roughly 25-30 Walleye over 10 pounds, in 4 days. Were they over their limit?? No!! (if they were eating them daily) I think this is where discretion has to come into play. Keep a few, have a few beers, shoot the breeze and enjoy your meal. I'm not a "Tree hugger" but that's a bit much. That's a lot of eggs that could've been laid in the Bay!!!!!

Them Big Girls taste like crap anyway!!!!

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There's something wrong with that rod.
It has a bend in it!!!

On or about the second day I probably would have walked over to their camp (beer in hand) and congratulated them on their obvious good fortune. Then it would have been a teaching lesson on how important it is to any fishery that big spawners live to reproduce again and how the big girls dont taste as good as a 3 or 4 pounder anyway. Maybe they get educated to the fact that if they let most of them live to see another day the chance at catching a 15 or 16lber is a reality and not a dream. Can you imagine how many "small" walleye they must have caught to have kept thirty 10+ pounders. If they acted like a A-HOLE when I talked to them they would have found 1 of 2 things... (1)Their boat would not run the next day... or... (2)They would have been kicked so hard they would wear their ass for a hat!!!