The beginning of the end?

[Letterman1]

https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/council-set-to-close-big-bay-point-road-access-to-lake-simcoe-2413227

[LakeSimcoe MessageBoard]

[ROFF]

Hopefully the ones that leave all their garbage behind read this and see what happens if you don’t take out what you bring in.  It’s the same old story, a small percentage of arrogant people ruin it for everyone else.  It’s gonna make it tough on the walkers that like to fish that area.

[Thinlips]

easy decision to drop $350K  to reduce access.......  Hmmmm   and mentions selling off other owned access points.....(which may or may not be in use......  )

[Mrbeee (Terry)]

Well that sucks big time

[Letterman1]

Hopefully the ones that leave all their garbage behind read this and see what happens if you don’t take out what you bring in.  It’s the same old story, a small percentage of arrogant people ruin it for everyone else.  It’s gonna make it tough on the walkers that like to fish that area.

Agreed, I seem to remember someone around here stating that's exactly what they do and the locals have had enough.  And launching a 26 footer on a dead end road beach was enough to seal the deal.

[Sunfish]

This will continue around the lake

[BB]

This will continue around the lake

Not if you keep yer yap shut and keep yer access spots to you and only close pals. Keep it quiet ,keep it clean and respect the locals. If you can not do that then, hang up your fishing gear, or go play with the slobs.Until they ruin another spot.

[VB]

This will continue around the lake

Amen.

[Saltydog]

This will continue around the lake

Not if you keep yer yap shut and keep yer access spots to you and only close pals. Keep it quiet ,keep it clean and respect the locals. If you can not do that then, hang up your fishing gear, or go play with the slobs.Until they ruin another spot.

I don't  understand those that like to fish/hunt or whatever outdoors and leave garbage behind and disrespect the people around them.  I love being outdoors as much as the fishing and nothing is ever left behind.  It is so easy to make sure you take your garbage with you.  Nothing pisses me off more than seeing coffee cups and fast food bags anywhere other than in the garbage.  One minute a coffee cup has the nectar of the gods and the next minute people can't stand to have it in their vehicle. 

[Brooktrout]

I just saw this article today, and unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised.
All winter long, when I get back to my truck, I pick up coffee cups and other garbage, and throw it in the truck to dispose of properly.  I'm always amazed at how lazy or disrespectful people can be.

[wil wegman]

Closing access to the lake for visiting anglers is just plain wrong. Comments here lean towards justifying the move by town council because there are some slobs who leave garbage and do stupid things.  First off- these are not always visiting anglers from outside of Innisfil- not all of their residents live on the lake and many like to fish. Secondly - in other municipalities where visitors frequent publicly owned land or water assets for other recreational activities ... are those areas closed down to access because of the few slobs who abuse? Of course not. As anglers we can be our own worst enemy pointing a finger at other anglers but instead lets have each other's backs and not be too hard on ourselves - because the vast majority of us are not slobs and are responsible stewards of the incredible Lake Simcoe resource. Below is a copy of the note I left on the newspaper's website after I read the article:

Lake Simcoe is a publicly owned body of water whose fisheries are managed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. IMHO, the Town of Innisfil - nor any other municipality around the 740 sq km lake have the right to restrict access to this crown resource. Visiting anglers to Innisfil contribute significant economic benefits to your communities.   I'm sorry the odd slob leaves garbage or launches boats inappropriately but if we closed down every area in the province where that occurs there would be no access to anyone anywhere. Innisfil, Georgina, Oro, Barrie and Brock residents may pay local municipal taxes but we all pay provincial licence fees and taxes to manage and patrol the lake - so the lake, nor access to it is our right as much as yours! Using a survey to allow a few local residents to dictate that the Town should close off public access to a lake owned by the all people of Ontario is closed minded and self serving. I wish the province would step in and say NO!

[fishingmagician]

I just saw this article today, and unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised.
All winter long, when I get back to my truck, I pick up coffee cups and other garbage, and throw it in the truck to dispose of properly.  I'm always amazed at how lazy or disrespectful people can be.

I live near a provincial park. While on my way to work early in the morning, i see what garbage campers throw out when leaving the park. Garbage thròwn out up to a mile down the road.
Garbage the whole camping season.
I realize its not all campers, and nobody is trying to shut the park down because of it.
Most outdoorsman are law abiding citizens, that contribute to society- yet i cant help but feel like we're being picked on.
I have no idea what my kid's generation is going to do,

[Simcoeguy]

As is with any ones private property, the municipality owns the road allowance which works for waterfront as well. the 66' allowance.. Unless you outright bought the "road " allowance on waterfront its municipal owned. the water itself is a federal. any tickets issued on water are a federal offence. But the province is the steward of the lake including the MNR and policing. 3 levels of government are involved so we need to know who to blame. I really think its a people problem messing this up. the usual one bad apple spoils the whole lot for all of us.

[Thinlips]

like i mentioned at the top,  easy to spend money to limit access,  but maybe spending money to improve access is the smarter route in the long run.....  every fished in the  USA ?   most access points put us to shame.  maybe  the surrounding municipalities should  start buying up properties  that adjoin the public access so more parking etc can be had... ??  just a thought....

Will W.  makes some good points,  But as Will knows part of the problem was the downloading.......  if province kept some control they might have some say...  difficult now.  and say costs money.    like everything else this issue is  spreading north...

would you pay $5.00 more per year on your fishing tag if it went to public access?   sure you may never see it in your area..... but if it went to one big project per year?? 

[porkpie]

This will continue around the lake

Not if you keep yer yap shut and keep yer access spots to you and only close pals. Keep it quiet ,keep it clean and respect the locals. If you can not do that then, hang up your fishing gear, or go play with the slobs.Until they ruin another spot.

This guy has it.  Forums are great for technique and advice.  They are the death of access when you combine them with ignorant dicks that can’t clean up after themselves!

[Buri]

If garbage  is the cause for all the above with the technology that exists today they can catch and fine $500 everyone that will leave garbage behind, that will stop those guys fast. Also bylaw guys can monitor hot “garbage” spots and catch them.
That will solve the problem. Blocking or restricting lake access will not solve the problem.
The only way to educate those guys is through their pocket, that’s the only way to fix it

[Tom McCutcheon]

If garbage  is the cause for all the above with the technology that exists today they can catch and fine $500 everyone that will leave garbage behind, that will stop those guys fast. Also bylaw guys can monitor hot “garbage” spots and catch them.
That will solve the problem. Blocking or restricting lake access will not solve the problem.
The only way to educate those guys is through their pocket, that’s the only way to fix it

I like this comment, and agree the only way to fix it is in their wallet, but when it comes to by-law guys monitoring the Hot Spots, this costs money as well, and the by-law guys are already busy monitoring other Hot Spots for other infractions. If a by-law officer makes say $25.00 or $30.00 an hour plus benefits, perhaps money from the access point fines can be directed towards their wages? This would pay for enough bylaw guys to monitor these areas and perhaps other less used access points as well.

[Buri]

Like your idea Tom. Any garbage tickets award the bylaw Officer x amount of $. If garbage is such a big issue the city will reduce resident tax with all the garbage money tixs flowing in.

[VB]

All good points. I live in Innisfil and since garbage collection went from weekly to bi-weekly, the ditches have gotten a lot more garbage bags in them...pigs are pigs no matter where you go. No reason to close access.

[Mrbeee (Terry)]

Yup in Innisfil too and I have seen the difference too
In the winter when icefishermen are dumping
Their garbage and taking a dump beside their truck which is parked in front of a house you kinda expect them to call and complain.   You would think the morons would realize that they are screwing themselves but no and I bet they are the ones screaming about loosing all the access points

[fishfreek]

And that’s how we lost river and trib access. Some folks just don’t care about nature, peoples property the sport and the future generations. We are supposed to be borrowing from our kids not destroying .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mrbeee (Terry)]

If water access wasn’t downloaded to the municipalities, we would not have this problem is

[Louis]

How many littering charges have been laid? I bet zero. We grew up watching an old littering ad and even had Smoky the Bear telling us only we could prevent forest fires. Now no advertising or policing and I live around people who think tossing junk is good for desperate poor people who pick it up for recycling money.
Littering isn't the issue. Resident complaints is. Excuse is littering. How much effort to have a plain clothes cop or city worker watch a launch for a day? Start issuing tickets to send a message to the repeated offenders some of whom might be piggish locals or sneaky locals doing it to cry for launch closures.

[Fishing Rod]

I agree. Closing this is not good.

Let's say they stopped the littering somehow. You still have all of these cars, trailers and sled/ATV's in front of these homes from dusk to dawn. Everything is idling and guys are talking above them ..... at 5 AM.

How would we feel about living with this when it is 100 ft. from our bedroom window? Choice is move or try and get the access closed.

Getting it closed is both easier and preferred for the residents.

I don't have any answers, just saying this is a shi##y situation for everyone.

[Mrbeee (Terry)]

And now they are going to use the other access too and those will be more of a shit show

[Sunfish]

Garbage in not the reason it is the excuse. The local people dont want us there regardless. The squeaky wheel gets the grease

[4trax]

I class bodies of water as multi use recreational areas(swimming,boating,fishing,snowmobiling,cross country skiing,walking,and just plain sitting on the shore enjoying the view). The landowners need to remember and understand that they own property on the edge of this area and that sometimes it not about them.As users we need to be considerate of them also. The politicians need to govern for all those with an interest and not take the easy way out by just shutting it down. Municipal,provincial and federal need to ensure that everybody can access a public recreational area such as Lake Simcoe.

[hardwatr]

In Ontario everyone is supposed to be treated as equal except near Lake Simcoe where discrimination against non-resident lake-users is out of control!

[ROFF]

In Ontario everyone is supposed to be treated as equal except near Lake Simcoe where discrimination against non-resident lake-users is out of control!

Hard to blame the residents for this problem.  If you had the option to not have snowmobiles/ATV’s being fired up at 5am and a bunch of cars parked in front of your house, and garbage up and down the ditches, then you would probably vote yes to close off access.  The issue is that they have the option.  The government needs to step in and simply say that it is public access, end of story.  I’m a resident of Innisfil, and I don’t like seeing any access points closed down, it doesn’t make sense to me.

[Fisherman]

What ROFF said,  When Xman is having a dump in your ditch, pee on your tire and revving up the machine, it gets annoying.  How would the anglers like to have that happen at their house every weekend, not likely.  I don't support cutting off access either, but most of those people live there year round.

[BB]

What ROFF said, When  revving up the machine, it gets annoying.  How would the anglers like to have that happen at their house every weekend, not likely.  I don't support cutting off access either, but most of those people live there year round.

Exactly why the new no parking signs went up on the 2nd of Oro. The season before they went up, there was this idiot running up and down the street at 5:30 am about 8 times picking up his buddies and their gear. It didn't help his muffler was loud as well. A couple of residents even came out yelling.

[LuckyLuke]

Everyone justifying the closing of access    That's why it will keep happening.  This community has no unity or backbone to oppose bad changes.  A few nimbys have more political power than the hundreds of thousands fishing Lake Simcoe....

[Tom McCutcheon]

I understand their concerns. I live on Pigeon Lake and although I don't have to put up with much of the ice fishing antics, we do get a fair number of ATVs, Snowmobiles running up and down the lake at all hours of the day and night as well. Through the summer, the launch at the end of my little street is packed with out of town trucks and trailers. Enough so that if I needed or wanted to take my boat out at the ramp, I couldn't get turned around to back in.

Ever think it might be some of the Hundreds of Thousands you speak of that are ruining it....

[Louis]

Anyone who owns property on an access spot should have known what to expect. They paid more the closer their lot was to the beautiful lake. They were zoned 'seasonal residential' and paid peanuts for taxes for years and some probably still do even though their little beat up cottage/cabin has been completely renovated and is a luxurious full time residence. Prices go up as folks die/move and rich GTA folks want the scenic pleasures as dreamed about and peddled by realters. Well suck it up buttercup.  You knew or should have known going in. The Ontario government needs to stick a tax on roadside shorefront Lake Simcoe property and use it to buy access places complete with managed public parking and sanitation services. The tail has to stop wagging the dog on this one. We all own the lake and its fisheries. No hogging it or hassling people who want to use it as entitled too.

[LuckyLuke]

Yup exactly.  You want peace and quiet, buy in the middle of nowhere, not at the access point to the most fished lake in Canada.

Don't buy next to subway, highway, sports stadium, concert venue, bar etc etc - you get the picture?

So yeah, penalize the asshats who drop garbage and don't respect noise bylaws etc - they will get the message if fines are sizable.

Do not close access to lawful anglers.  Fishing is part of Canadian way of life.  Fishermen who support closing of access - give your head a shake.  This will not stop unless it's opposed and your access points will eventually be affected as well.