O' Canada, Don't take my Fathers Day Away

   I had a great day on the water this past Sunday with my sons. It was a little wind but not uncomfortably so. For 4 hours we were out on an adventure to catch whatever may come our way. Rekindling the past, bonding , catching up. While not all but most of our time on the water was spent on the Queens side of the Detroit River. It seems that may have been our last one. The cost of the license is high but not prohibitive but now with the reports out of New York state in order to fish those waters reporting in is mandatory and failure to do so will cost a $1000 fine.

   Roy M. Anderson, a seasonal resident of Thousand Island Park, found out May 30 that long-held notions of where it's OK for United States citizens to fish no longer apply. While fishing a favorite spot in the Gananoque Narrows with a friend, his boat was boarded and then "seized" by Canadian Border Services Agency officers. I was dumbfounded," Mr. Anderson, 22, Baldwinsville, said. "My dad's 67 years old and he's fished there his whole life without a problem."

   According to Mr. Anderson, officers came aboard his boat and checked his $83 Canadian fishing license, which he always carries, and checked for outstanding criminal warrants, of which there were none. Trouble started when Mr. Anderson was asked if he had reported his presence in Canada at a port of entry, which he had not. At the time, he was less than a quarter-mile into Canadian waters.

   "I was told, 'If you are in Canadian waters, you should be running toward a port of entry. If you're not running toward a port of entry, you are in violation of the law,'" he said. Mr. Anderson, who fishes the narrows daily in the summer, said he had been checked previously by Ontario Provincial Police and Canadian game wardens and was always left with the impression that, as long as he was not anchored or otherwise on shore, he was doing nothing illegal.

   This time, his boat was searched for contraband and seized and he was told that it would cost him $1,000 to get it back. If he could not immediately come up with the money, he would be placed in handcuffs and made to lie on his stomach while his boat was towed to shore in Canada, where he could face a fine of up to $25,000 under the Canadian Customs Act."I had to pay it on the spot," Mr. Anderson said. "They seized my boat and I had to buy it back on the spot."

   Why the change in policy enforcement? Here is something that you need to keep an eye on. Two cases of border patrol giving tickets to boaters on the river (St. Laurence). Case #1 was a US. fisherman who was drift fishing in Canadian. water near Ga. when he was stopped by Cd. border patrol and asked for his fishing license which he had. They then asked for his reporting in # and he did not have one since he had not landed but had had just come by boat for the US to fish, not touched land or anchored. They told him since he was not under power he was deemed to have landed and they gave him a ticket for $1,000.00 which had to be paid on the spot by credit card or they would impound the boat. The guy paid the ticket – I saw the photo copy of this ticket at a meeting of the 1000 Is. International Tourism Council. He was told that he should have gone to report in station in Gan and phoned in when he came over AND phoned back in before he left Cdn. water. US fishing guides and resort owners are having fits!!

   Case #2 was reported to Mary at Caiger’s by a regular customer who said it happened to member of his family ( I have no proof to confirm this ). A guy on a PWC went from Canada to Boldt Castle, just to look at it from the water. He drove around it and decided to stop on the water to look at it more closely. While stopped on the water he never touched land or anchored. He was stopped by US border patrol and given a $300 ticket for illegal entry into the US. The customer that told Mary the story went to customs at Boldt Castle to inquire about the law and the officer on duty said that he knew nothing about the law. The ticket was written by a different agency. Apparently there are laws on the books in both countries that say if you are not under way you are considered to have landed and they have been there for ever but have not been enforced. This should make for an interesting season for tournament anglers and recreational fishermen.

   So it seems that a game of tit n tat is going on for some reason. The Canada Border Services Agency is adamant that all anglers will need to check in. Superintendent Wiley told me the policy is the same in Michigan waters, New York waters and the Boundary waters between Minnesota and Ontario. You must use an approved phone on land in order to do this. Everyone on the boat will have to have a passport, passport card , an I-68 card, a Nexus card or carry their birth certificate with them in case they are checked. The number to call is (888) 226-7277 and is available 24 hours a day.

   The State Department said Tuesday that Canadian border officers had the law on their side when they seized an American fisherman's boat and fined him $1,000 for fishing in Canadian waters without registering at customs. In fact, they could have made him pay more, the department said. In a statement, the State Department said the Canada Border Services Agency was acting within "long standing regulations" by penalizing Roy M. Anderson, the Thousand Island Park resident who was snagged by Canadian officers while fishing, unanchored, in a favorite spot in the Gananoque Narrows. All foreign boaters must report to Canadian authorities upon arrival in Canadian waters regardless of whether they anchor their boats, the State Department said, echoing the Canadian government's position. North country boaters have long been under the impression they did not have to report unless they anchored.

   A spokesman at the State Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Charles E. Luoma-Overstreet, said in a statement, "We understand that this case was handled consistent with long standing regulations. We refer you to Canadian authorities for further information."The State Department's backing of the Canadians' approach comes as Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, challenges the CBSA's interpretation of the law and after New York officials asked the CBSA to refund Mr. Anderson his $1,000.

   David A. McCrea, a charter captain out of Henderson who fishes frequently in Canada, said "there's no rhyme nor reason" to be found in the enforcement of the Canadian fishing and boating regulations. He said calls to the border agency's Canadian Passenger Accelerated Service System, or CANPASS, which is designed to expedite the customs and immigration process, rarely provides a satisfactory answer as to what is and isn't allowed. You call that number five times and get five different answers," he said. "You just keep calling back until you get the answer you're looking for and then you get that guy's badge number.""They don't want us to go over there. It's quite apparent to me," he said. "It'll be the last time I buy a Canadian fishing license."

   O'Sammy's been gone for a little over a month now but his reach is still pulling at us from the grave. I don't know the reason for the change in interpretation of the Canadian Customs Act but it seems we're dancing to a tune not familiar to friends but from a place far away. As the war on terror winds down we need to rely on trust more and not a change in policy to crack down on law abiding citizens. With all of the money spent on high tech gadgetry to stop illegal crossings, allowing a dad and his sons to float down the river may be worth more in the long run to all of us.

This was a compilation of info from these articles:
http://www.worldfishingnetwork.com/users/tweinz/blog/be-prepared-if-your-fishing-the-us-or-canadian-side-of-a-body-of-water-109390.aspx

http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110621/NEWS02/306219939/-1/NEWS

http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110622/NEWS02/306229942/0/news
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Derby Days, AIM to please

Thanks to the Wyandotte Jaycees and to everyone involved for a great Kid's Fishing Derby last Saturday. The weather was perfect and the fish cooperated. A big thank you goes out to the bait shops that donated bait for the derby. The Wyandotte Boat Launch donated all the worms and minnows were donated by Bottom Line Bait and Tackle of Gibraltar, Bait and Tackle box of Trenton, The Lighthouse Bait Shop also of Trenton and the Dip Net from Ecorse. Please frequent these businesses because the value of the bait donated is higher this time of the year with the fishing and the weather turning outstanding at the same time.
Derby Winners –

5 – 8 age category

Most Fish – Jonathan Lesko – 13 fish
Largest Fish – Elizabeth Richardson
Smallest Fish – Sean Stambersky
Most Unusual – Kyla Summers – Napkin

9 – 13 age category

Most Fish – Clara Kissling – 10 fish
Largest Fish – Kayla Salamon
Smallest Fish – Wallen Woodward
Most Unusual – Joseph Crenshaw – plastic bag

Judges provided by – Wyandotte Big Boys

In the river a limit of silver bass is attainable with shiners and attention to your rod tip. In Lake Erie a limit of walleye is the norm trolling BBs with meat from Holiday Beach in Ontario to the shores of Enrico Fermi with direction of troll being the trick. Check your bait shop for info on either.
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The Gibraltar Fishing Derby is this weekend, Sunday June 12th. Top prize is $500 for the heaviest 5 walleyes. Many other fishing and raffle prizes will be up for grabs. Check-in at Lake Erie Metro between 6:30 and 9am with weigh-in at the ramp between 11am and 2pm. Fish fry to follow at the Gibraltar Comm. Center. $30 for entry into the tourney and dinner, $10 just for dinner. Kids under 12 fish free. Call Bob at 675-5182 for further info. MI waters only.
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A different type of derby took place in Brimley Michigan. The AIM Walleye tournament was held with Brett King registered 19 fish over three days to take first place and $40,000 in the AIM Bay Mills Resort and Casino Invitational Walleye Tournament. The winning recipe, according to tournament officials, came in the form of slow trolling cranks in shallow water. King jumped out to a big lead on Thursday with seven fish coming in at 26.56 pounds under the organization's catch-record-release policy, and added to his lead on Friday with another 29.02 pounds. Saturday's bite was a tough one for King, but with the overwhelming numbers he built on the first two days no one could catch him even though he only managed to pull two fish totaling 4.62 pounds in the finale.Joe Okada finished second with 49.33 pounds good for just over $7,000, while Robert Blosser came in third with 43.90 pounds and pocketed over $5,700.

Did you catch the 19 fish weighed in 3 days? The limit for walleye is 5 per day in Great Lakes waters of the UP. Do they get special dispensation for the over limits? No, this group of fishermen uses new technology to determine the amount of fish caught. The primary innovation is the exclusive AIM Catch-Record-Release™ (CRR™) format. This is something that many anglers have been clamoring for like Jack Kell from Southgate MI. “It’s a shame that they kill all those big fish just to have a tournament” is his sentiment. Most fishing organizations that have fishing tournaments try their best to keep the fish alive before and after weigh-in. Some studies indicate many of these fish die even days later and far from the weigh-in site, out of sight out of mind. With CRR, teams of Pro Anglers and Co-anglers measure each walleye on the official AIM ruler and take a digital photograph, record the length of each walleye on the official scorecard, and then immediately release the live fish. NO fish are brought to the “weigh-in” stage. Instead, the Pro Angler selects the SEVEN largest walleyes that are tallied for his daily weight. (The length of each walleye is converted to pounds and ounces using a standardized formula prior to taking the stage.)

The photos of the largest walleyes caught are displayed to the weigh-in fans – and also included in the live streaming of the proceedings on www.aimfishing.com. Because all fish are recorded and then immediately released, Pro Anglers are allowed to “weigh” fish within local “slots” that would otherwise be excluded from the daily bag.
The AIM Catch-Record-Release™ format has three huge advantages for the sport of competitive angling.
• First, AIM tournaments can be scheduled at the best times of the year for catching the most fish at each tournament site. Tournaments have been prohibited in many locations at certain times of the year due to fish kills associated with conventional formats that hold the fish in “live wells”.
• Second, AIM tournaments reward the Pro Anglers that catch the biggest fish – not the anglers that were fortunate enough to catch fish in a certain order, dictated by local slot limits and possession rules. As noted above, the daily weigh limits for AIM tournaments include the SEVEN largest walleyes. This also means that a Pro Angler can come from behind and advance many places; the excitement continues up to the last minute of the last day!
• Third, AIM Pro Anglers can not suffer penalties that are assessed in other formats for fish that are not releasable. With many events being decided by mere ounces, “dead fish” penalties are never a deciding factor in AIM tournaments.

Another key component of AIM Pro Walleye Series™ events is that most are being scheduled to coincide with local festivals. While tournament angling is exciting to the participants, it receives lesser interest from the general public. Scheduling AIM events within festivals helps to expose the sport of fishing to an audience of literally hundreds of thousands of new people. The festival attendees will see tournament anglers, along with their impressive boats and tow vehicles (and sponsor affiliations) up close at the AIM weigh-ins.
In addition to the weigh-in stage show for the local fans, the entire weigh-in is also broadcasted live at www.aimfishing.com. This live streaming includes interviews with the Pro Anglers and Co-anglers and photos of hundreds of the largest walleyes caught that day. Also featured are numerous videos taken by the AIM camera crew as well as video clips recorded by the anglers themselves. AIM has adopted the latest video technology to actually upload videos during the course of each tournament day. These “On the Water” videos are added continually to www.aimfishing.com (plus your iPhone) during the day and they provide the head-to-head competition that has never been possible to cover in tournament angling before. On Day Three of each tournament the top Pro Anglers’ boats are equipped with the AIM Pro Track™ GPS systems. Pro Track™ systems provide continual GPS tracks that can be followed all day at www.aimfishing.com. The GPS tracks not only show the exact locations of the leaders but also their travel speeds – allowing viewers to discern whether the trolling bite is working or the leaders have switched to jigging or are making a high-speed run to try a different “secret location.”

Their next tournament is June 22-24th; check them out on-line to witness the new format. Good Luck Mark Martin, http://www.markmartins.net/
Get Outdoors Downriver!