i am pizzed that creel results are posted. especially on small lakes. it is great to catch fish (a real bonas) but,, leave the dam details outta the story. how would you feel if, next year,, you go into the same spot and everyone and their brother is there,, how would`ya feel then?? the pressure is on all over central ontario. please keep these spots to yourself and let others explore and draw their own conclusions. preserve and protect,, loose lipps sink ships!!! jjjeeezzzzus murphy,, give your head a shake!!

Hey Swedish, I agree with you. From a "preserve and protect" perspective it definitely would be wiser to "fuzzy-up" the details. The photos we show are great to brag by.

So as to "preserve the fishery", it would be wise to merely indicate locations in the general sense .. like, "on our trip to McKaskill Lake we were able to hook into these beauties". That doesn't even say which lake, let alone where on a specific lake. It leaves some mystery and let's others "work" for their fish. Just the visual information inherent to photos gives away some location data.

Geeze, the next thing, someone'll start posting GPS locations of hot-spots! That's when I'll definitely start editing posts in earnest. Thinking about Swedish's concerns, I may even start editing out precise verbal location details. Be warned!

Barry Bridgeford
http://www.AlgonquinAdventures.com
http://www.ABRweb.ca .. Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry

Barry,

I agree 110 % . Too much info being given about which lakes to fish.And in many cases where on the lake and lures,techniques etc. You can see by that aprk survey ,fisherman are keeping around 50% of their catch . Way to high to keep the fishery in good shape. My trips this past season landed about about 45 speckles. 5 were kept.

I have caught just about every kind of fish in Algonquin and some really nice ones to, but only keeped a few. I have for most times not told anybody about the good lakes and their fishing spots.

An 18lb laker, a 7lb speckle, a 12lb channel cat, a 8lb walleye, 6lb smallmouth and big muskies over 20lbs are just a few of my bigger catches throughout the years. Hundreds upon hundreds of fish have been safely put back in the waters of Algonquin....my way to preserve for our kids.

I have paddled and portaged hard to get to some of the isolated spots, some had good results and some were poor, but the fun is to explore and then get rewarded.

I remember seeing the survey, just can not remember who posted it. The park is the one that started handing out the sheets to be filled in and handed back in or emailed in and I am pretty sure they researched it and did it for a good reason. I will say the survey is useful for the Park to keep track of things but maybe they are going to have to keep that info private. I fish the south end of the park, Ragged, Bonnechere, Harkness etc. etc. and there was a lake at this end that had a high fish caught ratio for 2007 and I am sure it attracted a few more anglers last year. On a couple of other forum's that I am on we can send Private messages to one and other and that is how we keep the LURKERS from showing up at our favourite fishing spots. If you ever put down that you caught a 3 lb. speck out of a creek at a certain location there would be 30 cars there the next day. At least in the park you have to work to get to them..

Parks Bay (Hogan Lake): caught nothing
Ralph Bice lk: nada (but lost a lure)
McIntosh Lk: zip (lost a lure, reeled in a smallish stick/twig/branchy thing about 3 oz and 30 inches long)
Big Trout Lk: bupkiss (lost a lure)
Daisy lk: zero (lost a lure found 3)
Burnt Island Lake: zip (hooked a tree)
Magnetewan lk: threw rod in trash bin due to an apparent fault in its design thus ability to catch fish.

DogByte would like to make a declarative statement:
Y'all are a bunch of liars and there are no fish in Algonquin Park.

Next time I go I am going to bring a fish from the market and declare that I got in in the park.

un-named quote: "uuuh, listen Dogbyte, Red Snapper is not indiginess to Algonquin."

Hey Dog Byte, how do even know you where in the park. lol

I was a little hesitant to fill out the survey. It did say on the form in 2007 not worry about it, as Algonquin's fish management system for the interior lakes was working and has been working well for numerous years. As long as the seasons and limits were followed and combined with the restrictions of fishermen due to the amount of campsites on a lake Algonquin's fishery should continue to be excellent. I just hope they know what they are doing...
Plus, how accurate is that survey????? who knows....... (fishermen lie...no way)

Personally I only keep one a day for a shore lunch. Not sure what you would do with 5, wouldn't they spoil by the time you portaged them out?

As for hot-spots, especially ones that someone could GPS, there really no such thing when fishing for trout. Trout move all around the lake throughout the year, throughout the day even, and sometimes bite and don't bite for some reason I have yet to figure out. Several times I've had great success in one spot then nothing the next day or ever again. Plus, there's a lot more to catching trout than knowing a few spots. To anyone lurking the site thinking there going to find a secret spot.....Good luck! Chances are you'll be disappointed.

I'm a tad confused here. Swede, were you referring to people posting details about their fishing conquests on this forum? Or has there been an official survey posted using those forms that are given out at the access points?

If there is a survey about fishing levels on various lakes, and perhaps on fish populations (not sure how they'd do that) on different likes, I would be most interested in reading it, especially if there were results taken over a multi-year period. It seems everyone would agree that the highway corridor and outer edges of the park have taken a severe beating over the last 50 years, but there seems to be some disagreement about the state of those lakes that take a couple of days travel to get to. I think some well documented scientific surveys might go a long way to persuading folks that it's time for some self restraint, or perhpas time for an expansion of the conservation rules that are applied to lakes like Welcome Lake.

Karior

P.S. Shove over DogByte, your skills at avoiding fish are nothing compared to mine!

Barry posted about the survey results being released, back in this thread:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/352882/thread/1221678252/last-1221753910/Results+of+Official+Spring+2008+Fishing+Survey



The survey results are posted on the Algonquin Park website, on this page:

http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/nature/fish.html



Barbara

consider lakes that are way off the beaten path,, many lakes are just too small to give up fishing details on a open forum. good lake trout lakes that produce slow growing red flesh fish are usually less than several hundred acres. these lakes support fresh water shrimp the main forage.
AGAIN,,,,,LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS,, CLEAR AS THAT!!
now,, back to work i go!! cheers

I could not agree more Sweed!

reads the document

Hmmmmm that IS disappointing. The ranked list of rod-hours per fish is just asking for trouble, and spoils the fun of searching for your own secret fishing hole.

To all those who don't like it, and I'm one that's for sure, start writing letters and/or emails to park management/MPPs etc...

Things I'd like to see:
1) ban on metal fishing line...i'm fed up with catching 50 feet of steel cable of the bottom of the lakes...it just can't be good for the environment either
2) expand the rules applied to "trophy" lakes to all the lakes. Lures only, mandatory release for certain fish, and a limit on how many fish can be kept regardless of fishing license type. I'd like to see barbless hookds too.
3) An enforcement policy with some teeth. A lifetime ban for folks who abuse the park would help more than just the fish.

Karior

wondering why no one picked up on my point,, here goes,, only 10 walleye lakes roughly in the park. fishing any fast water or current in the spring pre/ post spwawn increases a chance of catching a walleye. females stay on the longest. the jack walleye,males, have left the scence. any large walleye caught on right conditions are most likely be a female
do you get my point now,, the photos and a direct link,, realize the lake size,,,,,,,,duh,, forget trout for now. thats a whole new thread.
must sleep now,,,,,,,,zzzzzzzzzz,,,,z,zz,zz doh zzz,,
dream state,,, keep the white fish, eat a white fish, safe a walleye.
dream state ,, save a tree,,, eat a beaver

Swedish, you're no better! There's at least one trip log you are in where there's pictures of fish caught describing where and in what lake.

Also, you standard answer on this board when some asks about fishing in a lake. "Nope no fish there, fished out" if that isn't a dead giveaway that there is good fishing on that lake... I don't know what is.

According to Barry's description of the message board "its a place for Algonquin Park campers, canoeists, hikers and future users to post their questions and answers...and to share their experiences. That's all I've done. Plus, a couple of Walleye is no hotspot!

I agree with you Sweed. You can brag, but keep the details fuzzy. The fishing in Algonquin is seeing more presure,hence the put and take lakes along the corridor. If you want to fish and tell everyone, hit these lakes, at least they are restocked every other year. Leave the good interior lakes as they are, good interior lakes.

that you claim,,, i have only caught one lake trout the last 5/6 years. i also hold a conservation licence,, with reduced creel limts,, do you?
next topic dudes

Creel lists et al and 'hard to get to' don't mean much to me after 36 years of fishing the park and IMHO it's as good as it ever was. Opeongo which is full of motorized boats with fish finders and downriggers is still a consistent producer for me (which I cannot say is the case for interior lakes). For instance, in 1974 my Dad and I fished Little Dickson (a great producer) at ice out for two days and caught one fish. The year prior, we caught more than I care to reveal......interior lakes are unpredictable, always have been and always will be. For the lurkers (who probably don't know how to fish for trout regardless), one back breaking trip into a hard to get to 'secret lake' and get nothing will be enough to encourage them to stick to Lake Simcoe. For those of us who love the AP, we'll try it again and again.

take it from a lurker, we read the messages and use the info. worked out great for me at lavielle last year.

Well done Anonymous. Lavielle is far from secret, well known before the days of the internet. Thanks for finally contributing something to this site.

Good one Bearcub! LOL!

Not sure if interpretations and purposes were lost in the medium, but I think the Anon means to point out that it certainly is an issue if you choose to think of it that way. That is, writing about waypoints does make it searchable for people who may not be as conservative as others.

I can't really comment either way. I am still not a great trout fisherman, and there are times where I wish I knew of a few hotspots. But I've found that part of the satisfaction comes from finding these treasures on your own. At least in such an enduring process, you establish some sense of appreciation for the fishery and how fragile/unpredictable it can be.

great link. thanks.

http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/nature/algonquin_FishingSurveyResults_2008.pdf

wonderful for link for meals when you have time for such and catch and release other times. wonderful use of tax dollars. i concur.

Im 110% in support of the publication of these voluntarily-returned surveys and I hope the MNR does not change this policy.

It surprises me that some people are so dead-against it. I question their motives perhaps its a selfish desire to keep others out so as only they can enjoy the great(?) fishing that their fave secret spot offers up? Conservation wise its highly debatable whether the publication of this info affects the game fish population in these lakes to any degree. Come on, none of these top 40 CUE or RH based lakes should be surprising - they are all well known charr producers dating back to the first documented reports earlier this century (e.g. Ralph Bice book), and likely some even before that. Most of them lie within the most heavily travelled routes in the Park, from fisher and non-fisherfolk alike. For the smaller or less travelled lakes, I wouldnt expect people to submit their fishing summary, be it good or bad, assuming they are even aware of this volunteer survey. I wasn't until this year.

Will the publication of this data incline me to target them this year. Nope. Ive paddled through ½ and fished ¼ of those 40 lakes listed since the 1980s and the results dont have any bearing on my destination. Will it change other fisherman to target these lakes? Perhaps. Likely if they target one of these lakes instead of their usual spots then that just alleviates the pressure on the lake they would have fished otherwise, helping reduce the pressure there.

Apparently these surveys have been available since 2006, and the same top 40 lakes appear in that list too. Id be interested in not just Charr but all game fish summary from the park. To that end I hope they expand the volunteer survey as the Fisheries Assessment Unit doesnt have the resources to assess all these lakes themselves and this data, although unscientific, will be of some use for historical and reference purposes, especially in tracking unwanted species in certain watersheds.

SM, I am pretty sure it is the Park that is doing the surveys not the MNR. I think your pretty much bang on your assessment. Most of us know that the fishing pressure for the Lake Trout and Specks is the highest in the springtime when they are up shallow, I would not think that to many LT come out of the interior lakes at a high rate in July and August, maybe some of the lakes that have boat access might ( downriggers ) but that would be about it.

Well I do admitt this post is late but I have to agree with both sweed and SM. I got caught so I went back and asked around what happened, I still cant believe the guy asking for pictures to post for his lodge clients, but GPS data etc out for every websurfer is definetly too much. I used to be a lurker so yup they check.

Anyways for SM it is the day and age of quality assurance, six sigma, lean and process devolpment. Organizations and govt and ministries are leaning towards these process. I work in EMS and QA so I know from conferences that all sectors are training and implementing these programs. My guess is this survey is a data collection tool that will be used to change the process to protect these lakes that are getting high pressure and higher keep it numbers. It will help the park staff with limited resources to concentrate their efforts where it will make the most difference. Process may change as well including slot sizes, mandatory catch and release and closing lakes or fish sanctuary status. as with anything there are risks for publishing that data and I am unsure why it needed to be published except to draw more people to the park and to put more revenue back into the park. If it was my project I would have kept the data to myself but who knows the underlying causes.

for the record I have a conservation licence, always have and if I keep one fish in five days thats good for me. If you fish to eat fish you must have a lot of time, if im hungry I go to the seafood counter at Zehrs.

Chris