No answer for anglers on fishing season

Rob Morash started sportfishing at the age of five with his father and brother and — pardon the pun — he was hooked.

The Shelburne County man, who is 44 now, is just one of tens of thousands of Nova Scotians who have been anxiously awaiting word from the province about when they can fish.

The province announced on March 27 that the sportfishing fishing season that was to have started on April 1 was “on hold until at least May 1” because of the COVID-19 situation. Late afternoon on Thursday — some five weeks later — there was still no official word from the province on the status of the season.

Asked if the season was a go or still postponed, Bruce Nunn, spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, said via email around 3 p.m., “I have no word as yet. I don't see a reply coming until a decision is announced and that has yet to happen.”

The lack of firm direction from the province has left everyone in the same boat: confused. A sampling of the comments on the Trout Fishing Nova Scotia Facebook group included:

“Postponed until May 1. Unless I hear it is postponed to a later date I'm fishing!” “Friday is a go.” “Waiting to hear ... do I hook up my boat?”

“Not one word about it so that just means it's a noooo.”

“I look at it the opposite way. They have already said May 1. So unless they say different it's May 1.”

“Not opening, I heard from a pretty good source.”

But everyone seems to want to fish. On the Facebook group, they are all on the same page.

Like countless others, Morash finds sportfishing to be a relaxing outdoor activity he looks forward to every year. But the family connection and tradition is also deeply meaningful to him.

Growing up, his family lived about five minutes away from a river at his Shelburne County home and fishing was something they often did together.

“Me and my twin brother — he died in '95 in a house fire — we used to go fishing all the time. So now I just go fishing and think about him and stuff,” Morash said, adding that it's almost like therapy.

When it announced the delay to the start of the season, the province cited the need for social distancing and staying at home.

“Nova Scotians love to fish, however, this delay is consistent with closure of parks, beaches and other activities where people gather,” Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell said at the time. “Some Nova Scotians have already purchased 2020 sportfishing licences and I want them to know those licences will be valid once the season opens.”

But following this, the word was no word.

According to the the province, about 65,000 resident and non-resident anglers took part in sportfishing in 2019, which generated more than $66 million annually.

“As an angler myself, I am committed to seeing this industry grow to reach its full potential,” Colwell states in a message included in the 2020 Angler's Handbook. During NON-COVID times, in addition to Nova Scotians, the department says it has been continuing efforts to attract anglers from other parts of Canada.

“We are working with fishing guides, accommodations providers and tourism associations to create fishing packages and a new website that will showcase the fantastic fishing and outdoor activities we have to offer the world,” Colwell says.

But here at home, people just want to fish. Sportfishing is a healthy, relaxing, inexpensive outdoor activity.

“April 1 is my birthday. I usually get my licence for a birthday present and go trout fishing on my birthday,” Morash says.

As of Thursday, he still didn't have a licence but was among the thousands of Nova Scotians eager for the goahead to fish.

Morash says he somewhat understands the province's reasoning behind having postponed the season as there may have been instances when people would get together in numbers larger than the limit of five people that the province set in its state of emergency.

But he also says fishing is traditionally always about social distancing.

“You're away in the woods away from everybody,” he says. “A rod is usually six foot or more long anyway, so in order to cast the rod you have to be six feet apart anyway.”