Road Side Fishing

[kenneth Griffiths]

I have noticed that alot of pond on the side of the roads are getting very fished out. This is due to overfishing and high population of people getting easy access to the ponds.

Q. Do you think that fishey's should put a Band on some if not all ponds that are close to the road, to no fishing???

Pritty soon we will see no fish in these ponds at all and it woun't make a difference.

[David]

It would be nice to see somthing done but i dont think a ban would be the way to go about it, there are alot of people who love a day of trouting and are unable to walk the long distance and dont have the access to 4 wheelers so it would not be fair for them. I think the size limit needs to be raised to 8 or 10 inches if not more, and the number limit cut down. Turns my stomach to see people keeping 5 and 6 inch trout in a pond were you can cat 5 and 6 LB trout with a little effort. If there was more of a presence of fisheries officers in these highly fished areas i dont think there would be a problem with people taking small trout or going over there limit.

[kenneth Griffiths]

I don't have a 4 wheeler and i walk everywhere i go fishing, so that is not fair to say. If anyone has a disabilty, maybe a permit could be handed out for those people. Years ago people walked everywhere to go fishing and hunting, now it's by i can't go because i don't have a bike.

 A little hard work would not kill anyone.

[Shawn Reid]

I don't think there is a pond on the island were you can catch trout 5 or 6 lbs with little effort.I think a 6" red trout fried up is better eating than ones a pound or 2. But i agree that some people are not physical able to go to ponds of the road or track that why they are get fished out, but what do you d??

[kenneth Griffiths]

I walk if you are asking me. I have tken tony on a trip out home and we walked in the country for 45 min befor we got to the pond that we fished in. Trust me it was no easy walk. All up hill for 30 min. I agree that a small pan size trout is better than any big one i have ever got.

[Steve Cornick]

To add to your comment, how about restocking the ponds, it makes sense.

[Scott Hudson]

Stocking great Idea,

 

Anyone ever think of the salinity, alot of salt dump into these ponds all winter long that runs right down through the country.  I seen some heavy pressured pond still have lots of fish, small ones are the ones you want to keep, as the large ones are your genetic/breaders  take only larger fish then when there gone the genes are not really there to grow big ones again.  It may take a long long time to get large fish back in road side ponds.  Min and max size is required look at the monster salmon starting to return to the province rivers.

 

I've seen a difference in the size of fish in the past 16yr I've been fish the eastern area of the island, and thats not long. It a crazy difference compared to what or forefathers caught.

[Scott Hudson]

There is heavy restocking efforts on the mainland of canada,  and fisherman per persons ratio on this island is probably alot higher than the majority of the mainland.

[kenneth Griffiths]

All of the big trout are the spawning ones. Take them away and there will be nothing left to get. Restocking the ponds would be good but they would have alot of ponds to restock. But they would have to start somewhere. Schools are one of the great places to start growing new fry for the ponds and i have seen it done with salmon fry and it's works in school's. Just hope it don't be to late when someone there are not trout left to get.

[Lake]

I think that education and respect is the key... no matter if your are talking about fishing, hunting or making a good living.  If you start teaching the kids to respect this beautiful resource we have (hunting and fishing) then in time the resource will take care of itself... Hunt and fish what you eat, eat what you hunt and fish...(catch and release for sport). Does size matter, is most certainly does... As one of the other readers posted, it is the big ones that are the one that will spawn and they should be released, so yes a size limited is required... plus everyone knows the 6 - 12 inch trout tastes the best.  As for the road side ponds getting fished out... well I am not sure that is the case... I think the fish in this ponds are getting smarter therefore are harder to catch.  They have been fished over that much that they are very picky eaters... you want to catch fish on the side of the road... match the hatch! 

[Tom Power]

I think we need size limits for sure. As example under 7 or 8 inches must be released and over 13 inches or something must be released. If we allow the larger trout to be retained it's basically selective breeding for small trout.The number limit must come down too. The 2 dozen possession limit is ridiculous. I ran into a group of guys near witless bay a few years ago who had been camping and fishing for the night on a stream I used to fish a lot. This stream is only a trickle really and these guys had pulled out about 80 small trout between the five of them. And that's legal but of course no stream can sustain that pressure. I don't think stocking is the answer at all. We have healthy stock we just need time and proper management of the resource. We have completely wild brook trout here, adding stock would be a step backwards. On the mainland they stock places they have destroyed, places that can't support cold water fish without constant stocking or places where there aren't many fishing opportunities. I've fished stocked lakes and in my opinion it just sucks. It may seem somewhat ironic but Alberta has some great regulations as far as protecting fish and improving numbers. The bull trout, Alberta's provincial fish was near extinction but has rebounded well after they instituted a no kill policy. They have river specific regulations and it works really well it seems. Sea trout and browns need new regs too. They receive a lot of pressure when salmon and brook trout season is closed.

Personally I'd like to see a few streams set aside as catch and release only and I think it's time we considered having a trout license costing 5 or 10 dollars. The money  could go a long way and would be a small price to pay for healthy protected stocks. To bad fisheries protection has just been gutted in this country and DFO (love'um or hate'um) has been torn to shreds.

[Fred Woodman]

I think that we need a minimum size limit for trout. Banning the sides of roads limit many people from being able to fish. Senior citizens/ handicapped for example. Not everyone can walk.or a ATV

By putting in place a minimum size, we can make sure that every trout will get the chance to spawn, and if size limits work half as well here for trout as it has for every other species in the world it has been implemented on, in a few short years we would be catch more and bigger fish. Even on the sides of roads.

If we are going to keep every trout we catch , it dont matter, whether sides of roads or miles back in country the writing is on the wall. Anyone with a few years of age can clearly see the effects of that. 

[David]

not 100 % on this Fred but I think there is already a size limit in place, 6 " for brook trout and brown trout and 8 " for quinernice