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[Rodney]

After reading the Cheakamus River report and some questions on the chinook regulations, I had a discussion with DFO this morning regarding my concern. The daily quotas listed in the freshwater salmon supplement, are not updated whenever there is a change. For example, the Chilliwack River pink salmon daily quota is listed as two while it has been upgraded to four in a recent fishery notice. The Cheakamus River chinook salmon daily quota is listed as two while a fishery notice earlier this summer has stated no retention on chinook salmon.

Anyway, the reason behind this is:

The decision was made this year. To leave the website version as to what it was in the supplement and just provide a link to the fishery notices by region.

The responsibility is supposed to be put on the angler, to read the guides/supplement, THEN read the fishery notices for changes.

My main concern is that the fishery notices are not user friendly, and entry-level anglers are not aware of them. To check the regulations, most people go directly to the freshwater salmon supplement, scroll down to the river system, check the daily quotas. Most people don't have the attention span to sort through all the fishery notices just to see if there have been changes to the existing quotas.

What are your thoughts? Note that I'm looking for feedbacks, not DFO bashings, as any additional valid info can be forwarded so possible changes can be made to make checking regulations easier.

[Nicole]

They should not change it, for that matter they should make the freshwater salmon supplement online even better, and drive all traffic there... Any notices should be reflected there at the same time. It's much more user friendly.

And besides, they've been requesting to check it for years, and now people will be confused...

That's bad form, considering how confusing it is for people already...

Why make it worse?
Nicole

[ever_hopefull]

Good points, but how do you deal with the large number of people who are not computer literate.  I am sure everyone who will be responding to Rod's question is fully versed on e-access to information (otherwise they would not be on this site to begin with), but a significant proportion of the population is not.  This lack of computer skills could be due to simple things like age, language impediments etc.  Do the shops become the conduit of information to these people?  I think the answer on how to get accurate and current information to a wide variety of anglers is not as clear cut as one might think.

[Fish Assassin]

I agree that it is not user friendly. You have to go here and there to get all the information for an outing. My opinion is that all the information should be in one central location.

[Rodney]

Good points, but how do you deal with the large number of people who are not computer literate.

This is definitely something that needs to be addressed ever_hopefull. I don't really want to touch how this should be improved in the Fraser Valley, since I don't live there, but I have many ideas how transparency of regulations can be improved in the Tidal Fraser River.

Take Richmond for example, where I fish frequently. There are three main access points where entry-level anglers use plus a few other smaller ones.

• Garry Point Park
• No. 2 Road Pier, London's Landing
• No. 3 Road Pier

At these locations, I would like to see an information kiosk set up where generic regulations such as barbless single hook, one line per angler, daily quotas and fish identifications. In addition to this information, updated fishery notices relevant to that particular location should be posted up. The posting and maintenance can either be done by patrolling officers or a local angling association. This would eliminate a lot of violations such as fishing without a license. The initial cost maybe high, but the long-term result would be very worthy. By providing all the information to those who wish to comply, officers can allocate more of their time and energy on those who are completely aware of the rules and intend to violate.

This idea has been hovering around for two years now. I hope we will be able to do something over this winter. The Parks Department at the City of Richmond seems committed and willing to spend the money on the boards. I am willing to spend the time required to provide feedbacks on what information should be on there.

Secondly, the BC Family Fishing Weekend and National Fishing Week events are good channels for DFO to get the information needed out to the general public. I'm excited that the Steveston C&P is on board to have a booth set up next year at our Steveston fishing event. This will be much better than just having brochures available and our volunteers answering questions.

Back to the online regulations issue, I disagree that those who frequently access the internet are well aware of how to find the regulations that they need to know. I simply get too many emails from confused individuals regarding this. If one person follows the daily quota listed in the freshwater salmon supplement, while another manages to find the fishery notice that states the new daily quota, the two anglers would be on the river system with two different set of information. If the two exchange information at the river, imagine what confusion this would lead to.

At the very least, a link to the latest fishery notice relevant to a particular river system should be available under that river system in the freshwater salmon supplement so people know where to find it.

Hope this makes sense... Headache... increasing...

[VAGAbond]

Take the Nitinat regs.    Two chinook per day, one over 77 cm., two days limit.  So you can have in your possession 4 fish and two can be large if taken on different days.  Simple.   Now the confusion:   If you fish for four days and take one large fish each day so you have four large fish in your possession is that breaking the rules.

[JBB]

I wish they could just adjust the online Salmon supplement to reflect the current changes. I thought that was the advantage of an online version. I was on the Vedder today and thought the limit was 2 pinks. I saw several capable fly guys take 4 fish each and I didn't say anything but I was sure they were in the wrong. I wish there was a simple solution.

[Rodney]

I wish they could just adjust the online Salmon supplement to reflect the current changes. I thought that was the advantage of an online version. I was on the Vedder today and thought the limit was 2 pinks. I saw several capable fly guys take 4 fish each and I didn't say anything but I was sure they were in the wrong. I wish there was a simple solution.

That is exactly the problem I was addressing here. Having two sources of information where one is supposed to supercede the other one is simply too confusing for many.

[Rodney]

doja, you work at a store? If so, there is an email list that the regional manager uses to forward fishery notices as soon as they come out. I believe you can also request the department to fax them to you everytime.

[gman]

The online regulations should be updated with the latest changes to reflect the fisheries notices.

Not updating the online regs, and expecting every angler to browse all fishery notices is, frankly, silly.  As we would say in any businsess, they are not focused on the customer (angler) point of view. An angler is being responsible going online to check for changes - make it easy for them!

If they cannot even keep one set of updated regulations, how are anglers supposed to?

Hopefully they will reverse this policy, and again start updating the online regs to reflect all in season changes.

[Eagleye]

IMO it is DFO's job to make the regulations as straightforward as possible as this will lead to a higher compliance rate which should be their goal.  Saying it is the responsibility of the angler to sort through all the regulation updates before going on an outing is ridiculous and far from user friendly.  One would expect the online version of the freswater regulation book to provide the most current regulations.  For instance they seem to have made a change to freshwater regulations or else they were too vague in their description in a Tidal Water update.  Are we expected to read all the Tidal water updates before we go lake fishing  . Re: this thread http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?PHPSESSID=606bbf9828506dee389a930dbd9a20a2;topic=15253.msg149824#msg149824

It has always been that you are allowed to fish with two rods while alone in a boat but DFO makes it sound as though that is no longer the case.  Regulations should be easy to find, straight forward, with little to no room for misinterpretation.

[Rodney]

It has always been that you are allowed to fish with two rods while alone in a boat but DFO makes it sound as though that is no longer the case.  Regulations should be easy to find, straight forward, with little to no room for misinterpretation.

The two rods while alone in a boat regulation is a provincial freshwater regulation and only applies to lakes.

In tidal waters, unless otherwise stated, you can use as many rods as you want when fishing on both shore and a boat.

This is a very simple fix to a simple problem. BUT, good luck getting any change with DFO.

Luck is not needed. My experience on working with the regional staff has been excellent since I started in the past few years. My concerns are often responded immediately during the off-season and within reasonable time during the season. Take the recent confusion on gear restriction in the Tidal Fraser River. It took a week or so before a fishery notice is put together and released to address the issue. The point of this thread is to provide you an opportunity to point out the problems, which I can then gather and forward to whoever can make the changes for you. Thanks everyone for providing the feedbacks so far.

[Eagleye]

It has always been that you are allowed to fish with two rods while alone in a boat but DFO makes it sound as though that is no longer the case.  Regulations should be easy to find, straight forward, with little to no room for misinterpretation.

The two rods while alone in a boat regulation is a provincial freshwater regulation and only applies to lakes.

In tidal waters, unless otherwise stated, you can use as many rods as you want when fishing on both shore and a boat.

Are you saying they are reffering to tidal lakes in the notice, if so I think they should be more specific in their wording as they do say "any lake, stream or river.  My point is their notice is too vague and leaves too much room for misinterpretation IMO.

[Rodney]

Are you saying they are reffering to tidal lakes in the notice, if so I think they should be more specific in their wording as they do say "any lake, stream or river.  My point is their notice is too vague and leaves too much room for misinterpretation IMO.

Tidal lakes? You've completely lost me, so I will just expand what I posted before.

Freshwater (streams and lakes) are regulated by the BC Ministry of Environment. There are two regulations for rod usage:

• Only one line (one rod with one hook) is allowed to be used if you are fishing from shore.
• Only one line (one rod with one hook) is allowed on a boat unless you are fishing alone. If you are fishing alone in a boat, then you are allowed to use two lines.

Saltwater/tidal waters (ocean and estuary/below the tidal boundary of rivers) are regulated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The regulations on rod usage are:

• You can use as many lines as you want from both a boat or shore unless otherwise specified in the regional regulations.
• For example, in the tidal portion of the Fraser River, you are only allowed to use one rod but up to two single hooks are allowed. This applies to both shore and boat.