Anglers should be ashamed says BPSA – We are better than this says President

A Grey-Bruce community group that has stocked sports fish since the 1960’s is asking recreational anglers to clean up their act.

The call came after members of the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen’s Association (BPSA) observed large concentrations of coffee cups, beer cans, fishing line and old chairs at the mouth of a creek where the club stocks rainbow trout.

Photos by Kevin Harders, Paterson Media
For larger views, click on images

“This place looks like a dump. These people should be ashamed;” commented BPSA President Kevin Harders when he visited the mouth of Gleason Brook where it enters Georgian Bay.

Ray Marklevitz, the club’s Fish Committee Chair said “This is horrendous. Why would sportsmen who worship the outdoors treat it so badly? Shame on you so called ‘Sport’ Fishermen.”

                               Angler at mouth surrounded by debris

Gleason Brook originates at Gleason Lake in Georgian Bluffs Township. It flows for 5 miles (8 kilometers), through the Gleason Wetland into Oxenden and Colpoys Bay which is part of Georgian Bay. Gleason is popular among anglers during the spring rainbow trout spawn and the fall salmon spawn.

                                            Anglers at the mouth of Gleason Brook

While there is a sanctuary zone where anglers are forbidden to fish, there are sections at the creek mouth where fishing is legal.

In spring the Gleason Brook mouth is popular with recreational anglers. But in 2020 they have been very untidy.

BPSA advises the public: “You are welcome to try to catch some of the fish we have stocked. But anglers please take with you what you brought to this site. There is no reason for one of our beautiful Grey-Bruce natural sites to be turned into a dump.”

We stock more than 100,000 rainbow and brown trout a year to benefit the sports fishery. Since the sixties BPSA has planted more than 4-million trout and salmon raised at its Wiarton hatchery. Our club boasts the longest running volunteer run community hatchery in Ontario.

We are part of the 38 member Ontario Community Hatchery Program (CHP). The program covers half the costs associated with our hatchery.

During the current PANDEMIC most BPSA member and guest activities are cancelled. Our clubhouse is closed until further notice. However every day club volunteers are feeding fish, doing water quality checks and hatchery maintenance. As one Ontario Natural Resources Minister told us when visiting our hatchery “at BPSA it’s all about the fish.”

If you are interested in checking out more about BPSA please link to our site http://bpsportsmen.com/about-us-2/