Despite an early rash of U.S. anglers not complying with fishing regulations on Rainy River, the Ministry of Natural Resources said the situation is now under control.
After nabbing a number of anglers found to be violating Ontario regulations during their first patrol two weekends ago, the local MNR office accessed extra funding to hire two deputy conservation officers to help out, enforcement supervisor Doug Gibb noted Tuesday.
“Our priority was to get out there in full force and let them know we’re there. Now they know we’re out there every day,” he remarked.
“We’ve had good compliance since, and they communicate that they are aware of us,” he added.
Gibb said the rash of non-compliant anglers was due to the early spring, where some figured they could get out there before the MNR did.
“The river’s opened up a little earlier this year and as a result, we’ve been down there earlier–it is a popular spot for sport fishing,” he noted.
The violations the MNR has found so far haven’t been too “serious,” consisting of licence and a couple of size infractions.
“We haven’t had an overly high number of limit violations–people know they can only have two fish and that’s very important,” Gibb stressed. “And many people are using catch and release.”
The walleye season will be closed April 14 for the spawn, with fishing to re-open May 20.
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