| 267[Verso]
Department viz from 15th April
to 15th May, but a certain number
of Fishermen residing on, and
about Hay Bay, an inlet of the
Bay of Quinte, claim that, as Pickerel
only come in that locality to spawn
unless they are permitted to catch
them, they are prevented from
obtaining these fish at any time,
without going out into the larger and
deeper waters of the Bay of Quinte.
No effort was put forth to show that, the
“close season” was an improper one
or that, it was not the true period
in which Pickerel spawn etc. All that
seemed to be asked was that, as
they were poor fishermen, and could
not get these fish except when they
came to their shore to lay their Eggs,
they thought the “close season” should
be so shortened as that they might
be allowed 10 or 15 days during the
present “close time” in which they
could kill some of these breeding
fish.
From what information I ob-
tained from Mr. Tills the overseer,
and from these fishermen, and
from the practical knowledge which
I have had myself, for the past
[Recto]
241
50 years of these fish, I feel perfectly
safe in recommending to your Dept.
that, no change whatever should
be made in the present “close season”
for Pickerel of Dore either in the
waters of the Bay of Quinte or
elsewhere in Ontario. | 267[Verso]
Department viz from 15th April
to 15th May, but a certain number
of Fishermen residing on, and
about Hay Bay, an inlet of the
Bay of Quinte, claim that, as Pickerel
only come in that locality to spawn
unless they are permitted to catch
them, they are prevented from
obtaining these fish at any time,
without going out into the larger and
deeper waters of the Bay of Quinte.
No effort was put forth to show that, the
“close season” was an improper one
or that, it was not the true period
in which Pickerel spawn etc. All that
seemed to be asked was that, as
they were poor fishermen, and could
not get these fish except when they
came to their shore to lay their Eggs,
they thought the “close season” should
be so shortened as that they might
be allowed 10 or 15 days during the
present “close time” in which they
could kill some of these breeding
fish.
From what information I ob-
tained from Mr. Tills the overseer,
and from these fishermen, and
from the practical knowledge which
I have had myself, for the past
[Recto]
241
50 years of these fish, I feel perfectly
safe in recommending to your Dept.
that, no change whatever should
be made in the present “close season”
for Pickerel of Dore either in the
waters of the Bay of Quinte or
elsewhere in Ontario.
I may be permitted to
mention here that, in 1836, 37 & 38
I resided in the then small village
of Napanee as a clerk in a store, and
all my leisure time was
spent (during the fishing season)
in catching Pickerel, Black Bass
and the large Red-Finned Sucker,
the Pickerel, and Suckers was then
so numerous in the spring months
that, the farmers came there for their
supplies of these fish, carrying them
away by the waggon load: -- I have
seen them taken by the thousand
in a night. And I then, as a boy
frequently caught a hundred or
so of a night myself. The Napanee
river, on the rapids just below the
falls in the village, was the great
spawning ground for these fish,
and they congregated there in
thousands upon thousands,
practically in layers [?] |
EN