More than one in ten area anglers were not following provincial fishing regulations during the spring season.
The Ministry of Natural Resources laid 122 charges and issued 91 warnings between March 20 and June 20 this year.
“The most common charge we ran into was fishing without a licence,” said Kevin Sprague, conservation officer with the ministry’s Lake Erie Enforcement Unit. Anyone between 18 and 65 years old is required to have a licence.
Conservation officers checked 2,000 anglers in the waters of Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, Rondeau Bay, and the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. In some cases, officers confiscated fishing equipment and fish.
“A substantial number of (the charges and warnings) are from the Windsor area,” Sprague said.
Sprague said many people were charged for catching and keeping smallmouth and largemouth bass during the closed season, when the fish are laying their eggs and protecting the nest. The season for those fish opened at the end of June.
He added that another issue common in the Windsor area is the spread of invasive species such as goby.
“It’s common that anglers in this area will intentionally fish for gobies and catch them and use them for bait,” he said.
Gobies are bottom-dwellers that feed aggressively on insects, small organisms, and small fish and fish eggs. Researchers say they may have come to the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ships from Europe.
Sprague said it is illegal to possess gobies or use them for bait, since the ministry is trying to stem the spread of the fish.
“If they catch one it should be killed and thrown back in the water or the garbage,” Sprague said.
Sprague said anyone wanting to fish in provincial waterways has an obligation to learn about the rules, either by checking the ministry website, picking up a copy of the fishing regulations summary, or contacting a conservation officer.
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