Large mouth bass are not welcome to the Maritimes.

[SwampDonkey]

So please leave them where are. They are predatory on salmonids such as atlantic salmon and other native fish. Recently, one was found at a fish ladder at St. George on the Magaguadavic River.

Introducing exotic fish species is considered so serious under the Canada's Fisheries Act that it carries a maximum penalty of $100,000 for a first conviction.

News Item

[slowzuki]

They have been pulling introduced sturgeon out of the fish ladder at Mactaquac, some huge ones.  People have also put striped bass into the headpond.

[thecfarm]

Someone put Nothern Pike into Mosher Pond in Fayette Maine.This has caused quite a stir.Came out in the newspaper and there was more people ice fishing there in one weekend than there was the whole season.This pond goes into 3-4 other ponds and goes into the Sandy River,a small river and that goes into the Kennebec River that feeds a lot of other ponds and lakes and emptys into the ocean.Not good.The state has posted signs around Mosher Pond about the Nothern Pike.There is only carry in on this pond.There is a nice boat launch,but it is private owned and chained off.

[jon12345]

I think if salmon can get there from the ocean, so can strugeon and striped bass.  Not sayin people didnt put them there, but  both can spend part of their life in ocean and freshwater. ???

As for the largemouths is less likely they migrated but were introduced directly by people, or possible in a pond that was next to the river and got washed out. ???


Id rather have a problem with Bass than with Crap  I mean CARP   :

[sawguy21]

Yellow perch and smallmouth bass have been found in interior B.C. lakes. Fisheries people believe the perch were introduced as live bait, which is illegal in freshwater here,  by Alberta or American  fishermen. Apparently they breed like crazy and are very aggressive feeders.
People who are familiar with smallmouth like to stock them in private ponds but some of these ponds drain into streams and rivers. Once a foreign species gets in, they are pretty much there to stay

[Tom]

A friend of mine and I spent a fairly expensive week in a camp on Lady  Evelyn Lake in  Ontario back in the 1980's.  The camp was full of fishermen from Canada and the Northern USA who were wanting to catch Northern Pike.   Apparently this is the trophy fish of the north.

Me and my buddy, Angus, threw plugs at grass beds and trolled, as we had been told to do and soon got fairly bored.  It was beautiful country, but, we wanted to catcha fish.

The next day, we got in the boat and started exploring.   We found a channel that took us to another lake where there was a high and pure rock outcropping.  This would make a great place to make a day camp.  The wind was low and the water crystal clear.  We could see fish on the bottom about 20 feet down.   We stuck a worm on a little hook  with a split shot, like we would have done back home, and dropped it over the side of the boat to see what we had found.   We immediately began to catch Smallmouth Bass.    It was a good shore lunch.

We kept it secret for a couple of days but returned there and spent all of our time catching Smallmouth bass, cooking fish, snoozing on the warm rocks in the rays of the sun coming from a cloudless sky and talked about past fishing experiences at home.

As the week progresssed, and some of the other fishermen were becoming disillussioned, we told them of the fish we had been catching.  To our surprise, these fellows, almost to the man, practically chastised us for catching "trash" fish.  Why, we had never heard of such a thing, Smallmouth bass as "trash" fish?

We still went back and spent the rest of the week at our "honey hole".   Other boats would show up for a half hour or so and try their luck.  They were fishing right where we were fishing but we were the only ones catching the fish.  It was like Smallmouth bass were only interested in our worms.  We were loading the boat as if we were using a seine.

He and I still talk about the Canadian Trash Fish when we see each other.  I'm going to have to look him up.  It's been 5 or 6 years since we got together.

[slowzuki]

The river system I live on used to be a famed salmon river until it was damned up in the 60's.  Since then small mouth bass have become the predominate species with yellow and white perch.  The bass and perch were considered trash since the salmon was such a prized fish in the past.

I'm told there have never been sturgeon in the river in the past 35 years of the fish ladder at the *DanG, to me that means someone introduced it.

We have lots of eels, suckers, pickerel, and other little fish too.  The suckers clog the brooks every year during their spawning run.

[SwampDonkey]

Sturgeon and striped bass aren't introduced. They were always there and alot of striped bass were caught in the early morning rise in water at Burpy Bar below Mactaquac. An old friend of mine fished for sturgeon for years in the Saint John river, although after the mid 60's or so they were not that common. It's an endangered fish I believe, eggs used for caviar. They tried some up at Woodstock in a fish hatchery, but it wasn't profitable. The place was first used to bottle water, that wasn't profitable either. Too far from the export markets, which is strange since it's only 10 miles from the US and 3 hours drive to a sea port.  :

[slowzuki]

Swampy, perhaps it is a different species of stugeon?  The fishery guys were quite concerned since there hadn't been any in the fish ladder for years and years.

[SwampDonkey]

A fish I haven't seen in years are suckers. There were two or three streams near here with alot of suckers when I was a kid, they must be pretty much wiped out. I don't eat them, but they are part of the grand scheme of things. Alot of our brooks near home have been over taken by chubs, which are similar to suckers.

[SwampDonkey]

Sturgeon are very docile fish, they kind of remind me of a crockodile, only without the teeth or aggression. They just have what look like whiskers underneath and they are bottom feeders like suckers. There are even sturgeon in the northern prarie rivers/lakes and they get huge.

[Mooseherder]

Grew up on the Banks of the Saint John River in VB. We used to catch a few trout (very few)
some perch and chub. 
Never caught anything of any size like Salmon or Sturgeon. If your talking about the Dam in Grand Falls having a Fish Ladder. I was wondering if there was one??
I know there has been alot of well intentioned discussion about improving the fish stock north of the dam. Just didn't know if they ever followed thru with it.  It is funny how each tributary running into the St. John had different species dominating. the St. Mary was known for Trout, 2 miles south at Hamlin Brook for Carp and further south between Hamlin and Caswell, trout again.
Canada has done a much better job managing their fisheries compared to Maine/USA.   

[jon12345]

Some sturgeons are becoming a nuisance, because they leap out of the water when a boat comes near them, some have even hit boaters causing serious injury.

[sawguy21]

Sturgeon are very docile fish, they kind of remind me of a crockodile, only without the teeth or aggression. They just have what look like whiskers underneath and they are bottom feeders like suckers. There are even sturgeon in the northern prarie rivers/lakes and they get huge.

There are huge sturgeon in the Fraser River just above tidewater and smaller ones as far north as the Nechako which is a Fraser tributary. The North Saskatchewan in Alberta has them too, they have been caught in Edmonton. Uglier than sin but what a fascinating fish. Not a lot is known about their migratory and breeding habits.

[SwampDonkey]

Salmon never did go above the falls, it would be one mighty leap. The largest run on the Saint John River went up the Tobique. It's the only dam with a fish ladder at Tobique Narrows. There was also a run on the Tinker dam on the Aroostook River that was killed off by the dam co-built by Maine Public Service and local municipalities in NB. There was quite a little run that went up the Salmon River, just south of Grand Falls also.

Getting back to sturgeon, they are an ancient fish as old as the dinosaurs. They are ugly for sure, but no reason to sweep them aside. As far as I knew the sturgeon were in the lower reaches of the Saint John River.

[crtreedude]

We have to be pretty careful about sweeping aside things that are big and ugly. I fear a few of us might be included in the dragnet...  :

[SwampDonkey]

Did a little bit of researching and the Fishing Summery concerning sturgeon and bass in New Brunswick (Lower Saint John Recreational Fishery Area) is as follows.

Sturgeon
Open season (tidal waters only) .......................................... Jan. 1-May 31, July 1-Dec. 31
Daily bag and possession limit ...........................................................................No limit
Minimum size limit ....................................................................... 120 cm (total length)

Striped Bass
Open season (tidal waters) ....................................................................... July 1-Oct. 31
Open season (inland waters) .................................................................... July 1-Oct. 15
Daily bag and possession limit .................................................................................... 1
Minimum size limit .........................................................................68 cm (total length)

Smallmouth Bass
Open season ...........................................................................................May 1-Oct. 15
Daily bag and possession limit
May 1-June 30 ......................................................................................................... 0
July 1-Sept. 15 ........................................................................................................ 2
Sept. 16-Oct. 15 ....................................................................................................... 0
Minimum size limit .........................................................................30 cm (total length)

Tidal water as I understand it extends from the mouth of the Saint John to the Princess Margaret bridge in Fredericton, or the up river reach of tide in a river.


According to Maine fishing regs:

Sturgeon: It is unlawful to take, catch, possess, or destroy any shortnose or Atlantic sturgeon from the coastal waters of Maine.

[SwampDonkey]

Native Saint John River Sturgeon that were raised by a fish farm on the Kingston Peninsula are being used to restock German rivers.

News Item

[farmerdoug]

Jon12345,

I have never heard of sturgeon jumping out of the water because of boat motors but I guess that is possible.  Now there is a species that is invading the Mississppi River called the grass carp.  Now they jump out of the water to beat all DanG when a boat motors pass.  They can be dangerous if you are traveling fast.  They are worried about them getting in the Great Lakes.  All that is stopping them now is the electric wier in Chicago.  They hate electricity and when current from a battery is passed through the water they will boil the surface of the water trying to jump out.  It is a scary site and knowing they are just around the corner from the Great Lakes is very worrisome.  They are talking about shutting off the wiers as it costs alot to run.  I think our Canadian cousins should have a say in that too.

Farmerdoug

[jon12345]

What is one more exotic to the great lakes  :D

I saw a news clip of a guy making a pretty good living off catching those carp.


I like the idea in some states, have a 'no release' law of introduced species.

[Tom]

Want to control a fish?  Create a recipe that generates a fad.  Do away with the harvesting restricitions.. 

Before long you will have the enviro's trying to "save" the species.  :D

[PineNut]

Do you think we could get a fad recipe for enviro's? They certainly are not endangered.

[jon12345]

I don't remember exact numbers for the guy that was catching those carp but it was in the hundreds of thousands of lbs.

Best recipe I've heard of for carp so far, even though I haven't tried it, is to butter it up stick it on a wet cedar plank and bake it,


throw away the fish and eat the board  :D :D


I like eating some fish I've caught myself but usually they go back in the water.  There are a good number of people who won't eat freshwater fish because they say it doesn't have any flavor.  I think a lot of it depends on who cooked it.

[Coon]

I have heard alot of people complaining about freshwater fish not being any good to eat also.  This is due to the way most of the fish is handled.  When the fish comes out of the water, if they are going to be consumed, the fish needs to be blead out, gutted and gilled right away.  I have ate many a fish that this wasn't done right away and then I ate some that was.  I will never eat another fish without this being done.  That includes all fish even given. 

[DWM II]

Carp are used to bait crawfish traps here, but I guess most folks here on the ff dont eat fish bait ;D. Hey pinenut, maybe we could bait the traps with enviro's, crawfish are bottom feeders ;D. Just kidding!! dont nobody get offended.