Lake Scugog Walleye Fishing
On April 28th representatives from the Scugog Lake Stewards attended a meeting at the the Scugog Public Library to discuss the proposed changes to the Walleye regulations on Lake Scugog, (Environmental Registry Posting Number 012-3903). We were pleased to see so many people in attendance.
After reviewing the information it is our belief that the fish community Lake Scugog has changed mostly because of over harvesting of Walleye. (There are other factors such as Zebra Mussels causing water clarity and possible loss of habitat due to other species, but from discussions it appears that the lake still has favourable conditions for Walleye.)
As the number of Walleye significantly decreased over the past 15 years or so, the number of Blue Gill and Black Crappie significantly increased. By continually allowing Walleye to be harvested during the winter and summer, these numbers continue to decrease and that again allows the numbers of Blue Gill and Black Crappie to increase. This ultimately does not allow the post-spawn Walleye to survive. It has only been in the past 4-5 years that many people started to actually consider Black Crappie as an alternative fish to harvest and if this continues we may actually see the walleye numbers increase. The public should be encouraged to harvest Bluegills as well, as they too are effecting the post-spawn.
It is our belief that the only way that Walleye will have a chance to recover is by having a moratorium on the Walleye seasons to ensure that the current numbers do not continue to decrease. By doing so we would ensure that the gap between the fish species would not continue to increase. Furthermore, by not allowing any Walleye to be caught it would encourage people to harvest different species of fish throughout the year, and help change the fish community back to more favourable conditions for Walleye to survive.
We are currently in talks with the Ministry of Natural Resources Fisheries to get a Walleye spawning rehabilitation project started and would welcome any support for this important endeavour to help in the recovery of the Walleye!
Have your say on this issue. Email:
FishPTBO@ontario.ca or telephone 705-755-2001.