What the #$%@

yo mama

Active Member
I just heard for the second time this week that one of our very own members has been drifting down the Cowichan with a shot gun on board shooting Mergansers! You gotta be kidding me. Those things have been there longer than you ever have and human do way more damage to Steelhead than a bird could ever. This is just another example of how sad our fishery has become.[V]
 
...LOL - Mis-informed hunter!

He should be targetting all the Char in the flow, rather than wildlife...with all the enhancement of Cutthroat into island flows over the past number of years, it is any wonder that we have any salmoniod in the flows of VI.

I'll tell ya that I certainly have no issue catching these nasty meat eaters on any of our flows...it seems that they are a fat healthy species today - with no worries of entering a cause for concern, let alone extinction as chance may fall onto other species that wonder the waters of BC in the not too distent future!

Bonk, bonk! Their as bad as the *$#@'in Bass in our lakes!

Put the money into salmoniod, **** on char!

Cheers,
RVP. ;)
 
mergs are stinky saw bills kill em all. Set up on one the corners in block 51 and shoot em up. Forbesy will tell ya all the old timers used to carry a gauge in the drift boat.
 
Not to mean any disrespect Rob, but:
Cutthroat = salmonid
Cutthroat = trout
Brookie = char

As far as I know there are no bulls, brookies or dollies in the cowie. If there are we have real trouble.

But back to the mergansers....You are right, that is plain ignorant, and will do nothing to save the steelies. Those rednecks have to give their heads a shake. Look around, there are countless other factors influencing the steelies on the cowie.
The fricken ducks are pretty minimal!! How about the MILL in the estuary!
 
...My nickname for cutthroat is char because of their intrusive mannor and veratious feeding habbits - they are flesh eating carivours just like the dollyvarden and similar to other char species...they are the closest smolt gobblers in the trout family that act similar to that of char...gobble,gobble...gobble,gobble,gobble! Oh, crap! that's a turkey! Never mind...

Steel and salmon are what need our attention the most, and it starts at the bottom of the food chain with plankton and krill...

Ps. no offence taken, as I did not relay my own meaning or nic for the term "Char" in a way that everyone would get my humour.

Cheers,
RVP. ;)

quote:Originally posted by Jughead

Not to mean any disrespect Rob, but:
Cutthroat = salmonid
Cutthroat = trout
Brookie = char

As far as I know there are no bulls, brookies or dollies in the cowie. If there are we have real trouble.

But back to the mergansers....You are right, that is plain ignorant, and will do nothing to save the steelies. Those rednecks have to give their heads a shake. Look around, there are countless other factors influencing the steelies on the cowie.
The fricken ducks are pretty minimal!! How about the MILL in the estuary!
 
quote:As far as I know there are no bulls, brookies or dollies in the cowie. If there are we have real trouble.

There are dollies in Lake Cowichan - you can catch them at the creek mouths when the cohos spawn in the little tributary creeks. So I assume there will be the one or the other in the river? But neither they nor the non-native and voracious brown trout is a real concern to the native stocks. If the few smolts they eat make a difference then the stocks would be by long not sustainable anymore...
 
speaking of what the !@#$.i've been finding in the last few days as the water drops.barbed hooks everywhere.and by looking at the knot its probably an experienced angler.another example of pure ignorance towards a sustainable fishery.if this person is fishing barbed,whos to say hes not killing wild fish.and the garbage,its everywhere.pack out what you pack in.you might not think it but this crap kills fish.
 
I've heard that the merganzers actually eat a lot of fish and eggs. Is this true? I heard that they can eat up to 50 eggs a day and that they will actually dig them up out of the gravel. and also eat a lot of fry when they are just hatching. If this is true then it would make pretty easy meals for those birds. And if it was true then I think that the number of them on the flow could use some trimming. I know i see probably 50 of them everytime I'm walking the river. Is it illegal to shoot merganzers?
 
I hear that fisherman eat alot of steelhead too, can we get rid of them chromedome?[:0]

It's one thing to be blasting birds because people can realize that humans are the destuctive ones out there not the birds or seals, but it's another thing to be firing a gun off while in a boat in the area that people are fishing. This individual think he s@#$ don't stink and that he owns the river as it is.
 
So is it illegal? Was he shooting at people? I read the hunting regs and it seems to be legal as long as he is not shooting at less than 100 meters from a house. It is also duck season. Is he hunting only ganzers or mallards also??? For me I could care less if he aint shootin at me! And is perhaps helping the fishery! I'm not arguing that there aren't humans out there that are really killing our fishery because there are but it seems that this guy might be trying to help it?? I heard him shooting on the flow the other day but I can tell you that he never came close to shooting anyone. I could hear them shooting five minutes before i saw them. I was unsure if it was legal but now after checking up on it I know that it is. I called the C.O. in town and he assured me that what they were doing is perfectly legal.
 
quote:Originally posted by chrome dome

I called the C.O. in town and he assured me that what they were doing is perfectly legal.

Legal if they are retrieving all edible portions and only killing their bag limit.
My dog rolled in a dead merganser yesterday on the river.

Is it that this is legal or there is nothing Horny can nail them for?

I'm a hunter, but some issues require some sensitivity around them. This just puts a bad image out there for both hunters and fishermen.
 
I guess it's time for me to come into this topic. First off, You are allowed to shoot from a boat as long as it is not under power. Second it is not illegal to shoot ducks right now. Third we are not shooting at anyone or at any houses. We are chasing down our birds and not shooting over our daily limit. And if there is someone out there that says ganzers dont really harm our runs of fish you should see the amount of eggs that pour out of every bird we get. Atleast 50-60 eggs all the time. We have also been talking with Horncastle about shooting and the ducks and so we have set safe areas where we are shooting.
 
I prefer shootin rednecks vs birds, clean up the gene pool and do even more good for our fishery. My wife and kids were in the back yard and heard the shots on the river ....thats close enough for me...I'm gonna keep the gauge loaded with buckshot just in case somebody floats a little too close to the property like my old man used to.....rock salt anyone??!!....oh and by the way who the !#$! did the study that proves that these birds have any more of an impact now than they ever did previously???...grow up.
 
oh hey mouth!!! Been a long time. Even if your wife and kids were in the yard they were not in any danger. We do not shoot at any dwellings or close to them. Do you think that we want to shoot someone?? Anyhooo yack with ya later. You'll just be hearing the shooting for a couple more weeks as thats how much time is left in the duck season.
 
If you are not eating the mergansers, there are plenty of people in the local retreiver clubs who would love to have the birds for their dog training. Some will even give you free ammo as thanks.
 
Don't get me wrong here guys. I don't mind loggers or anyone for that matter who earns an honest living doing what they have to in order to feed their family. I do hate though is the fact that disrespectful logging strategies have put our river systems in irreversible harms way. Those merganser and seal populations that we see exploding are as a result of our governments stupidity. Notice how those wonderfully green slots that we have all plucked dozens of steelhead out of are no longer on the Cowichan. Year after year that river gets shallower and wider. Because of this it get swifter and repeated loss of land ensues. Pick'ns are easy for species such as the merganser. Seals alike are tell tales of our inadequacy to steward our resourses. For the record, Dollies and Cuthroat are native to the island watershed. Historic runs of Steelhead and other salmon species were coupled with char of all genis as well as cutthroat trout. It is perfect ecology. We @#$%^ that up in a big way. It's now that we pick on one specific animal for eating too many eggs?


..........hmmmmmmm

A little too late for that resolve. Damn. We need something a little more substantial to save the Cowie than shooting birds and killing Browns. I'm on board guys . You?

How bout we rally those butt#$%^&les in office again. With our numbers somebody has to listen before it's too late.




PS for that matter the Cutthroat and Dollie fishery in the river is near non existant to give a rats butt anyway. The healthiest systems up North are chock full of them and have excellent runs of steelhead to boot.

I agree there should be an active salmon and steelhead hatchery on the river. Gets you wondering though. Why the heck would the government go and do a silly thing like that? They are turning their heads to it . They know it's going down the shi$%^ter
 
Back
Top