Welcome to Week XXXIV of 'Fishing Parkland Shorelines'. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I'll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don't have access a boat a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish for a good summer fry.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment (MOE) has announced some amendments to the Fisheries Regulations in the province which they say are designed to reduce red tape while continuing to protect fishing.
"Saskatchewan's freshwater fishing is some of the best in the world," Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said in a recent prepared release. "As a government, we can build on the experience for residents and visitors by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the province's fishing resources."
Reducing the red tape for most competitive fishing events, the amendments will eliminate or streamline the licence requirement. Such events have become an increasingly popular means of raising money for a variety of organizations and a licence will no longer be required for individuals or organizations wishing to hold a competitive fishing event as long as they follow standard requirements.
In correspondence with Adam Matichuk, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation Fisheries Project Co-ordinator he expanded on what the change will mean.
"In fishing tournaments, anglers are still required to have an angling license as the regulations require - exceptions are youth and seniors," he replied. "The change is that the 'host' of the event no longer needs to obtain a permit from the Ministry of Environment to hold the event. They are still required, however, to notify MOE that they are holding the tournament and then report to MOE after the tournament as they have always had to do in the past.
"The reason for this change is to cut out a bunch of administration work that wasted a lot of time."
The regulation changes will also put some added onus on bait importers and fishermen.
"To ensure that fish stocks remain healthy for anglers, the amendments will help prevent the introduction of high-risk diseases into Saskatchewan, including Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS). VHS is a viral disease that has been detected in frozen bait fish from other jurisdictions and has the ability to spread to live fish. Frozen fish from jurisdictions known to have VHS will be allowed for use as bait only if they can be certified to be free of the disease," stated the release.
Again Matichuk expanded on the changes for me.
"With the change in the regulation, the onus is put on the angler or bait importer to prove that their bait is free of VHS," he said. "This would likely come in the form of a certificate from the bait supplier that verifies the bait does not contain VHS."
Matichuk said anglers should take an easy precaution.
"This is a difficult task for the average angler, so the best practice is that if they purchase bait while fishing outside the province, they should not bring it back to Saskatchewan with them," he said. "We would hate to see a terrible disease like VHS get into Saskatchewan waters over something as simple as using a few left over minnows obtained outside of the province.
"Once VHS gets into Saskatchewan waters, it is unlikely that we could ever get rid of it.
The amendments will also provide additional protection to species at risk including sturgeon and mountain sucker and increase consistency with other provincial and federal regulations.
"Currently the Water Security Agency (formerly the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority) is assessing the lake sturgeon population in the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River, North Saskatchewan River and the Saskatchewan River to determine the status of the population, the extent of their movements within the watershed, and their habitat use," Matichuk explained in his email response.
"Their assessments are not yet complete so it is too early to say how seriously threatened the population is.
"Changes to their habitat and overfishing during the past century have negatively impacted numbers.
"It is important for anglers to know that they are not allowed to retain any sturgeon. Should they catch one, they must release it immediately."
The Minister said the province's recreational fish sector is an important one.
"In 2010, 224,000 anglers spent more than $300 million on sport fishing in the province," Cheveldayoff said in the release. "This represents a 13 per cent increase in the number of anglers and a 38 per cent increase in spending from 2005. In addition, there are approximately 500 commercial fishers and 390 outfitters who rely on the fishery for economic and social benefits. Our results-based, regulatory model helps us protect these resources now and into the future."
"Recreational fishing has always been an important activity in Saskatchewan," Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation Fisheries Project Co-ordinator Adam Matichuk said in the same release. "With increasing pressures on our aquatic ecosystems, we are pleased that the government is taking steps to improve the protection of our fisheries resource for future generations."
In the kitchen
So it's New Year's Day, there's still a few perch in the freezer, and I've already ate too much turkey over the holidays so it's time to go back into the kitchen, this time to make Coconut Perch with all the fixings' as they say.
Let's start with the add-ons.
French fries go with deep fried fish, so that was easy, but hey I like to mix up my scratch created meals, so I went with sweet potato fries.
A good coleslaw is a nice side dish too.
In mine I went with slivered jicama and carrots in a simple oil and vinegar dressing and a sprinkle of salt. It was the first thing made for the meal, and set in the refrigerator to marinate.
For those unfamiliar with jicama, it is also known as Mexican yam. To me it has a taste somewhere between an apple and a potato. It is great raw and when cooking with jicama it maintains its crispness very well. As the heart of this slaw it was great.
I also wanted a salsa for the soon to be cooked perch, which would also work with the sweet potato fries.
I decided to drop a couple of ripe fresh tomatoes in the food processor, followed by a couple of chunks of red pepper and about half of a fresh pineapple. To the mixture I added salt, chili powder and a few dashes of hot sauce.
And now to the perch. When preparing perch to freeze it's a quick process. Cut off the head, grab the edge of the skin at the head end and pull off toward the tail. Then it's a quick innards cleaning and they are ready to freeze, tail on, so they look good on a plate.
To get the fillets ready for the fryer I mixed buckwheat pancake mix with a dash of salt, some cayenne pepper and chili powder.
The fillets wet from a post freezer wash were dredged in the flour mix, then dipped into a beaten egg and water mixture. Once well coated with the egg they were rolled in sweet flaked coconut and off to the deep fryer until the batter was a nice crispy brown.
Once cooked the coconut perch went on the plate with some of the salsa, a pile of sweet potato fries and the jicama slaw. It's a little update on fish and fries and slaw which turned out to be very tasty. My son doesn't like coconut and wants the recipe, so I guess that says a lot, although he is still not a jicama fan, but I remain one.
Try folks and enjoy.
