MILLERTIME
Member
Fish advisory board to talk halibut
D.C. REID
Chris Bos asks: Can you let anglers know the Sport Fish Advisory Board will meet Wednesday, 7 p.m., at the Four Points by Sheraton Victoria Gateway Hotel, 829 McCallum Road — behind Costco. The big issues are halibut and early Fraser Chinook.
Answer: The halibut issue is about the late, short season and only one halibut per day that fisheries minister Gail Shea instituted. Last week I mentioned she is trying to blame stakeholder squabbling when the entire problem is the fault of DFO’s Individual Quota System for commercial halibut and her sticking to a completely unsubstantiated 88/12 per cent split that hugely limits the public’s ability to catch their own halibut. The solution is to buy, permanently, eight per cent of commercial quota and transfer it to the public’s ‘commercial’ licence.
The regulations regarding fishing during the time the early Fraser Chinook pass through Victoria waters will limit your fishing. Come out and learn about both issues. A lot of dedicated anglers work a lot of years on these DFO panels.
Darlene White:
Charlie [White] always felt DFO was unfair to recreational fishermen in spite of their larger impact on the province's finances. They will destroy an entire fishing lodge industry, never mind the fishery for ordinary folks who love to fish and supplement their food budget with their fresh catches. West Coast Fishery Minister — Yes! 20 per cent or up halibut quota for recreational fishermen: Yes! If Charlie is looking down over my shoulder, he would add his endorsement of your great idea! Answer:
Please ask Charlie to bless my flies and trolling lures, too.
Geoff Chislett:
DFO’s role is to manage for the highest and best use of the resource. If this, after looking at the range and value of benefits, is to encourage the recreational sector (which we know provides much higher value per fish) they should man up and take quota from the longliners, and fight the inevitable compensation battle. We, the citizens of Canada, either own the fish or we don’t, let’s find out.
Geoff Chislett Answer: is a well-respected, senior voice for sport fishing issues. In a recent decision — the Saulnier case — Mr Justice Binnie said fish could not become property until after they had been caught and that anything that violated this rule constituted a fettering of the minister’s authority and therefore would be illegal. In other words, Shea has the choice to change the 88/12 per cent split, must act and it is against the law for her to fetter her decision-making by saying only stakeholders can act to exchange money for fish. Do Canadians have to take our politicians to court to make them do what their own acts — the Fisheries Act — says they have to do? Doug Sly:
I am new to Victoria. Can you point me at some good fishing or tell me whether Elk or Beaver lakes are stocked. My wife and I have a canoe. Answer:
Go to catchsalmonbc.com and pick up my
Vancouver Island Fishing Guide. There are 35 stocked lakes in the CRD, see: gofishbc.com. Elk and Beaver receive trout every few weeks from March to October — 25,000 in total. In winter, you can troll in your canoe using searching patterns on a Type 3 full sink line. Try black or burgundy WoollyBuggers, olive Carey Specials, Doc Spratleys and so on.
todays paper.