Conservation, one reason the fishing is so good

Many years ago, anglers at Bow Narrows Camp decided to ensure the trophy northern pike and walleye fishery on Red Lake, Ontario, would be enjoyed by future generations. They began practicing smart conservation fishing techniques and the result has been spectacular! Each year the average and largest fish size increases and so do the total numbers. What are we doing? 
Mostly it comes down to three things:
1. We voluntarily keep fewer fish to take home.
2. We don’t keep big fish except to mount and
3. We’re careful not to harm the fish we release.

All of the big fish on this entire website, with the exception of the historic black and white photo on the Who We Are Page, were released unharmed, released to spread their genes for large size and fast growth, released so that you or your son or daughter can catch them again, only next time they’ll be even larger.

Bow Narrows Camp provides free Conservation Fishing Licenses to all our guests. These entitle you to two northern pike and two walleye a day and in possession instead of the four pike and four walleye of the regular license. (You can also keep 6 whitefish on the conservation license and 12 on the regular license.) We don’t force you to use the conservation licenses. We sell the regular ones at camp as well. But about two-thirds of our guests prefer the conservation method now and the number grows annually.

We also catch very large lake trout but they must all be released as the trout fishery is catch-and-release only here.

Ultimately, we have a choice when it comes to our fishing experience. We can be thrilled by the kind of fishing most people only dream about or we can take home full coolers of fish for awhile and then complain for the rest of our lives how good the fishing used to be.

Bow Narrows Camp camp owner Dan Baughman was given the 2004 Conservationist of the Year Award by Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario..

See the difference conservation makes
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