Back in the game
- Thread starter esoxlucius
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So you are charged a fee every time you go fishing???? And that's in addition to the original one-time rod licence?
What a tax grab! That is so unequivocally greedy that it sounds like something Canada would do. I guess I should keep quiet about it before they start doing it here.
What a tax grab! That is so unequivocally greedy that it sounds like something Canada would do. I guess I should keep quiet about it before they start doing it here.
Some venues give you the option of buying a season ticket for a nice tidy sum, and others remain day ticket. Favourite places that you visit frequently can end up costing you a fortune if you pay per session, so a season ticket would be the cheaper option in that scenario, if the fisheries policy has that option.
Most of the big fishery complexes have cafes and tackle shops on site too, they go the full distance in trying to empty your pockets.
Some of the top top fisheries with potential multiple species of record breaking fish in them are like syndicates. They have waiting lists to join as they only have so many members, and the annual fees are astronomical, probably on a par with the top stretches of Scottish rivers for salmon. These type of venues are usually the top carp venues, carp are king over here.
I forgot to ask
jjohnwm
. Due to the vast expanses of untouched wilderness in Canada, I bet it's pretty easy to have a drive out for a couple of hours and find some stretch of "virgin" river somewhere where you can bag a few salmon.....for free?
No environment agency, bailiffs or fisheries staff to confront you? I mean who'd know? The place is that vast, even if Canada had tight fishing laws there's no way they'd be able to patrol all the waterways, right?
How does it work over there? Evidently nothing like the UK? Are the waterways protected against poaching in some way? Or do people simply refrain from going fishing in the wilderness because the risk of big cat/bear attacks?
Completely different world to the UK.
jjohnwm
. Due to the vast expanses of untouched wilderness in Canada, I bet it's pretty easy to have a drive out for a couple of hours and find some stretch of "virgin" river somewhere where you can bag a few salmon.....for free?No environment agency, bailiffs or fisheries staff to confront you? I mean who'd know? The place is that vast, even if Canada had tight fishing laws there's no way they'd be able to patrol all the waterways, right?
How does it work over there? Evidently nothing like the UK? Are the waterways protected against poaching in some way? Or do people simply refrain from going fishing in the wilderness because the risk of big cat/bear attacks?
Completely different world to the UK.
I personally have the upmost respect for anybody who fish or hunt in bear,wolf,or cougar territory. I watch documentary of people that live in the Alaskan bush and have scary dreams of Grizzly Bears at my door lol.I forgot to ask
No environment agency, bailiffs or fisheries staff to confront you? I mean who'd know? The place is that vast, even if Canada had tight fishing laws there's no way they'd be able to patrol all the waterways, right?
How does it work over there? Evidently nothing like the UK? Are the waterways protected against poaching in some way? Or do people simply refrain from going fishing in the wilderness because the risk of big cat/bear attacks?
Completely different world to the UK.
Yeah, there's some great stuff on TV on the remote living, bushcraft, hunting, generally just surviving off the grid type lifestyle. It's definitely the potential wild animal encounters that would scare me the most.
It's a bit unnerving that as you're fishing for dinner in some river, that there's wild animals in the bushes looking at YOU as dinner!! Gulp!
Southern Canada is fairly well-populated; the bulk of the Canadian population lives within a very short distance of the U.S. border. So it would take more than just a couple hours to access the kind of virgin waters you describe...and you'd be flying, not driving. Any waterway you get to by means of driving will most certainly not be pristine and untouched, although we do have plenty of attractive and productive rivers and lakes in the south as well. A popular destination in northern Manitoba, for example, is Churchill; my wife and I visited there a number of years ago, simply sightseeing rather than hunting or fishing. This is near the north-eastern tip of the province, on the shores of Hudson Bay, and has no direct road access. Best way to visit is by train; it's a 46-hour trip one way through some very impressive wilderness that begins as boreal forest, and progresses through taiga and eventually tundra. Polar Bears, Beluga whales, incredible birding; when you get to Churchill (billed as the Polar Bear capital of the world) you are awoken to a new reality when you learn that leaving your car locked is illegal. Vehicles must be left unlocked to provide shelter from polar bears, which far outnumber the few hundred human residents at certain times of the year. Bear in mind that this is still in the southern provinces; the northern territories are much, much further away.I forgot to ask
No environment agency, bailiffs or fisheries staff to confront you? I mean who'd know? The place is that vast, even if Canada had tight fishing laws there's no way they'd be able to patrol all the waterways, right?
How does it work over there? Evidently nothing like the UK? Are the waterways protected against poaching in some way? Or do people simply refrain from going fishing in the wilderness because the risk of big cat/bear attacks?
Completely different world to the UK.
Fishing licences are cheap, sold by and valid throughout each province; I think my annual licence fee was about $30 this year, and entitles me to fish anywhere in Manitoba. I visited B.C. a couple years ago to fish for sturgeon, and licences there were about $50, which I found quite expensive but well worthwhile. No other fees, but of course there are regulations regarding bag limits of various species, as well as open/closed seasons depending upon species. Some species are catch-and-release only, such as sturgeon in most places where they occur, muskellunge in some waters, Atlantic Salmon in the maritime provinces, etc. Other species may be kept at some times of the year, or perhaps at certain sizes only. Hunting and fishing regulations are enforced by Conservation Officers ("Fish Cops") who have considerably more leeway in search and seizure than regular police, but of course they are spread pretty thinly and more concentrated in the south. Sure, we have some poachers, but by and large I think that most folks who put in the effort required to hunt and fish in Canada tend to be honest about fish-and-game laws.
Salmon are actually not found in much of Canada; Pacific salmon are caught in the rivers of B.C., Atlantic salmon are in the east coast streams, and a few species like Coho and Chinook are available for fishing in some of the Great Lakes in Ontario (but that's a put-and-take fishery, with virtually no natural reproduction taking place due to pollution and inadequate oxygenation of the waters). Currently, my Grail Fish is the Arctic Grayling, which requires the kind of fly-in trip discussed earlier, and my fishing travel will be devoted to that species for the next year or two. I am also pursuing the elusive Tiger Muskellunge, which is a naturally occurring hybrid between Northern Pike (a favourite of mine) and Muskellunge ("Muskie", a fish I have pursued, caught and revered for the past 50 years).
I've never felt threatened by wolves when visiting anywhere in Canada, although they are widespread and even seen rarely right on my own property. Black bears (not just on my property, but right on my porch!) are a concern simply because a black bear attack on a human being is usually predatory in nature; a black is likely thinking about eating you if it actually does press home an attack (as opposed to merely bluff charging which is what most so-called "attacks" really are). Grizzlies and Browns are mainly a western thing, so I have very limited experience with them; I have fished B.C. streams alongside Browns (sometimes with a bigbore rifle slung on my back), and have worked on jobsites in that province where the entire crew was forced to wait on the shuttle bus for a family of Grizzlies to finish tearing apart a small shack before we could start work. Rural people in B.C. actually tend to consider Blacks more dangerous than Browns simply because they can be much more unpredictable...and many of them consider Moose to be the worst of all.
Fishing and/or hunting in places where encounters like that are possible or even probable is absolutely the stuff of life, nothing like it. Being close to large wildlife without benefit of fences or bars puts things into perspective very quickly; when you look down and see a bear's pawprint that dwarfs your own bootprint...and I wear a size 13...it makes you think.
Thanks, I appreciate the detailled response, very inciteful.
I'm pretty sure if I stuck my size 10 in a bearprint that totally dwarfed it I'd be doing a bit more than "thinking". Possibly sh*t myself at the same time, which could be a bonus actually, the smell might deter any nearby bear, lol.
I'm pretty sure if I stuck my size 10 in a bearprint that totally dwarfed it I'd be doing a bit more than "thinking". Possibly sh*t myself at the same time, which could be a bonus actually, the smell might deter any nearby bear, lol.
I dunno...that would definitely make you easier to trail by scent...and I've watched garbage-dump bears ripping open bags of used disposable diapers and greedily devouring them. Your plan might backfire!
