Outdoors

Loosen perch limit laws: U.S. anglers

For the past five years, Roger Smith and a group of buddies from just north of Detroit, Mich. make the trek each fall to Pefferlaw.
While the comraderie is great, the primary purpose of their expedition is to catch some of the giant perch in Lake Simcoe.
It also serves as a magnet for other anglers such as Smith, who hail from the United States — some of whom have come up this way for the past 15 to 20 years.
“It’s always a great guy trip. But the draw that keeps us coming back is that we know that we will be catching a lot of good size fish each day,” he said.
It’s a rare occasion when Smith and his group go home empty-handed.
In fact, since the Ministry of Natural Resources imposed a possession limit of 50 yellow perch a day and 100 in possession, Smith said their visits are often curtailed much earlier than they would like.
“We can only keep a two-day limit to bring home and we always catch our limit,” he said. “When we’re having a good day we have to come back in after only a few hours on the water because we’ve caught our limit and we’ve thrown back a lot of smaller fish,”
To catch these fish, Smith noted they utilize a simple spreader rig with enough weight to get their offerings to the bottom. In this case they use live minnows purchased from a local bait dealer.
Smith and other American anglers would like the ministry to loosen its restriction on perch.
Out-of-town anglers such as his group would probably stay longer, he added.
This could help with the local economy because anglers would need accommodations, restaurants and bait and tackle shops.
“The cost (for his group to make the trip to Lake Simcoe) is getting prohibitive and I’m sure that if you talked to some of the businesses that rely on this traffic they will tell you it has dropped quite a bit.
“It’s a lot of fun to take these trips and get together. But it’s already past the point where we can go to the store and buy the fish cheaper,” he said.

Former Star outdoors columnist will be missed

Whenever someone picks up a newspaper, there is usually a columnist they tend to read ahead of others.
I’m no different.
From 1970 to 2000, there was one such columnist I eagerly looked forward to reading whenever our sister publication, The Toronto Star.
During those years, John Power penned a column catering to those who fish or hunt.
I was among those who shared in his interests.
While John’s prose are a thing of the past, they evoked plenty of fond memories.
Even now after hearing of his passing Oct. 1 in Brampton at the far too young age of 75.
Being a sports fanatic back then as I am today, John’s literary works took priority.
Even more than reading about the ups and downs of Toronto Maple Leafs, Argonauts or Blue Jays.
The most enjoyment I got from John’s columns was the manner in which he could convey an image of anticipation and excitement whenever he went on some excursion.
One of which involved his annual fall pilgrimage he took with a group of anglers, known as the Muskyteers, to the Moon River basin near Sans Souci in his never-ending quest to catch a muskellunge of “brogdignagian” proportions.
His stories would, more often than not, whet my appetite to get out and emulate his experiences.
In other columns John wrote, they hit closer to home by providing valuable insights informing outdoor enthusiasts if their interests were being threatened by the “bleeding heart Liberals” or “tree huggers”.
What I will miss most though are the personal interactions I had with John, whom I first met back in the early 1980s at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show.
Through that initial encounter and others that followed, which often included an annual invitation aboard the Toronto Star Great Salmon Hunt media vessel for a day of fishing on Lake Ontario, our discussions often centered on how things were going in our profession.
Not to mention a few tall tales of how the big ones did or didn’t get away.
I’m certain that somewhere up in the heavens John is finding some new places to go fishing and hunting.
He might also be writing a column that exists up there for those who share his love of the outdoors.