Heeere!

At home that is. We were welcomed home to sub freezing flurries and an empty refrigerator – what was still in there had grown fur in response to the cold weather. I immediately fired up the vaunted Antisnow Generator and was pleased to hear HAL’s melodious voice informing me that the interdiction field was propagated and holding at nominal levels. “The sun’ll come out TOMORROW – BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT TOMORROW……” – HAL immediately broke into his latest fav. I let him finish up the song as I found it mildly amusing hearing Annie done by a baritone!

I am sure everyone missed my pearls of wisdom while I was in The Keys and you can be assured that I will be provending a weekly dose of fodder for your cud chewing pleasure. I will be posting Keys pictures and recounting our exploits later but in the meantime I must exploit my readers to my selfish ends! Now we will see if the latent mind control programming has taken root! DEFENESTRATION – DEFENESTRATION.

The Canadian government via the MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) has proposed to change the regulatory areas for fishing and hunting. They are moving to regulatory zones with boundaries determined by ecological considerations. This is a good thing – in theory it should provide for consistent regulation across the various biotopes in the vast Ontario wilderness. But as that crazy rich leprechaun (Ross Perot) says “Ya listen’n? Ya listen’n? Ok – here it is – The devil is in the DETAILS – THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS.”

In this case the MNR has proposed to make Highway 560 a boundary between regulatory zones. The problem is that the zone south of highway 560 has a closed season on small mouth bass (during the spring breeding period) and the zone north of highway 560 has no closed season on small mouth bass! Picture this – Gowganda Lake, Elkhorn Lake, Margueratt Lake, Hangingstone Lake and Fryingpan Lake will be closed to bass fishing in the spring. All the “meat fishermen” in the area wanting to take home a full limit of bass to their hungry chirrun now have to concentrate their efforts on lakes North of highway 560! The best bass lake north of highway 560 (with easy public access) is FIRTH. Firth will get hammered. Obushkong will get hammered. The Montreal River will get hammered. A bad situation and a possible setback to the years of effort we all have put into raising the quality of the bass fishery in Firth. It also handicaps the tourist businesses located on lakes south of highway 560 since their present clientele and customer base expects an open bass season. It also represents a problem for four of the finest small mouth bass lakes on earth. Hangingstone, Fryingpan, Margueratt, and Elkhorn lakes are all over populated by smallmouth bass. All these lakes require spring fishing to help cull some of their over-abundant population.

OK – it is a problem – but not one without an easy fix. Move the zone boundary several kilometers north or south of highway 560. This will make all the regulations for the lakes consistent. I would prefer from a business and fisheries management standpoint that the boundary be moved south of highway 560. This will maintain an open season on bass for all the lakes in our region consistent with past practice. I believe our proposed zone north of highway 560 is zone 8.

Now for the mind control part – I need your help – please contact the Minister of Natural Resources and inform him of your (my/our) concerns and possible fixes. Please go to www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/fishing/fmz/newzones
and comment about this situation and possible fixes. If the site is unavailable or inaccessible please google MNR regulatory zone changes and comment. General inquires can be phoned into 1 800 667 1940. In fact it would be good to do both.

Thanks for your help with this – Jack