The Fishing Thread

[Easy 6]

Searched around & only found the video fishing & BassMasters threads, i know their are plenty of outdoorsman here, so i figured it'd be cool to draw upon the Planets vast experience in all things fishing.

I only use spincast reels & fish mostly large/smallmouth bass & cats. My choice of reels is quite the source of derision from many people i know 'duffer gear', but i haul in my share of 6 pound bass & 10-20 pound cats on that gear no problem. With a little know-how you can use just about any technique you want to on 'duffer gear'.

Berkley Powerbaits are a big part of my trick bag, the difference between those & regular stuff is night & day. My best action last summer came on Mister Twister scented white curly tail grubs, on one day fishing from shore to a bridge pier, i caught smallies, bigmouths, perch & even 1 carp believe it or not... great day. But my bread & butter is a texas rigged Berkley worm, it'll wiggle through any kind of cover without getting hung up.

With cats i strictly bottom fish, no bobber & bait is just as basic... but its always in 2's to give'em a real treat... a shrimp/with a nightcrawler, liver/chunk of cheese etc. Cats are mostly for night sport to me, time to kick back a lil...

So thats me style, how do the rest of you guys get your fish on? What do you fish for, what do you use? IIRC Missouri's trout season just kicked off, anyone getting anything?

[Dunit35]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

I don't have a problem with catch and release at all. We do it most of the time we fish. But again, if I want to keep and eat the legal ones, that's what I'm going to do.

I haven't kept a fish in years. Always throw everything back.

I only get upset at the people who keep every fish they catch no matter the size.

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by Dunit35

I haven't kept a fish in years. Always throw everything back.

I only get upset at the people who keep every fish they catch no matter the size.

I really can't stand people who have a total disregard for the effect they have on the planet, the ecosystem or other people. I'm no tree hugger but goddamn people have to understand their behavior has consequences.

[bdj23]

Originally Posted by loochy

I'm not angry at you for keeping fish, and I don't want to do away with keeping fish, especially in particular bodies of water. Limits aren't really a one size fits all thing. For example, slot limits are particularly effective at preserving a healthy, spawning adult population. Barbless and artificial only regulations greatly reduce the kill rate in heavily pressured waters. The rules that should apply vary by situation.

My argument is against this mentality:



There aren't always more where that one came from. It can take 10 to 20 years to grow a fish that big, and that's assuming it has the genes, luck, and food sources to achieve that. Removing that huge fish now only undoes that 20 years it took to grow, but it removes the large fish genes from the pool.

Also, fishing out a body can happen rather rapidly. This may not apply so much to catfish or bass, but trout come to mind. Sure, a hatchery can continuously stock fish so people have something to catch. However, these stocked fish leave much to desire. They are dumb, having been raised in an environment that encourages gorging on any and all food that floats by. They are ugly, often missing fins from rubbing on the concrete raceways. They lack color due to living in a concrete ditch. They taste bad because of the ingredients in the hatchery food. It takes about a year of living away from the hatchery for a fish to become "wild". The wild fish are vastly superior in sporting terms. They are more selective, fight harder, and are prettier.

For example, starting in mid to late March, the family vacation crowd arrives in droves to Beavers Bend State Park in SE Oklahoma. Every mom, pop, and child want to go get their limit every day they are there. This is no problem, as these fresh fish are absolute suckers for Power Bait. A single family of four takes 5 fish each for of the 3 days they are there. That's 60 fish PER FAMILY. How many families are there? Hundreds. THOUSANDS of fish are harvested per week from March until school starts again in late August or September. The fish get harvested, the state plops several thousand back in and at the end of the season the river is full of "rubber" stockers again. By the time spring rolls around and the fish have started to gain a small foothold, the meat harvest starts up again. The population never has a chance to catch on so the whole thing becomes this artificially maintained subpar fishing experience. That's why I concern myself with fish limits.

Now maybe this doesn't happen so much with the warmwater species, but overharvesting of fish can happen remarkably fast and we are left with an inferior situation for enjoying fishing.

The state, which is generally in charge of managing the stocking of public waters, doesn't necessarily care about the quality of a fishery or the experience of fishing. They simply observe raw numbers and concern themselves with revenue generation through tourism and fishing licenses. It's a real battle to try to reason with them in this way for fishery preservation.

Once again, the rules are the rules and if you take fish that you are allowed to, then that's that. Just remember that every fish you take out can't reproduce and create more fish and it can't be caught again. There aren't always "more where that came from."

Does that make sense as to why I concern myself with this?

http://lmfrfoundation.org

Agreed.

I started to type out something similar but then backed out hoping you had beat me to it. a lot to type on the cellular

I really don't want to be that guy, but it saddens me evey time some redneck posts photos carving up a 75lb flathead he caught on a limb line on Facebook.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by loochy

I'm not angry at you for keeping fish, and I don't want to do away with keeping fish, especially in particular bodies of water. Limits aren't really a one size fits all thing. For example, slot limits are particularly effective at preserving a healthy, spawning adult population. Barbless and artificial only regulations greatly reduce the kill rate in heavily pressured waters. The rules that should apply vary by situation.

My argument is against this mentality:



There aren't always more where that one came from. It can take 10 to 20 years to grow a fish that big, and that's assuming it has the genes, luck, and food sources to achieve that. Removing that huge fish now only undoes that 20 years it took to grow, but it removes the large fish genes from the pool.

Also, fishing out a body can happen rather rapidly. This may not apply so much to catfish or bass, but trout come to mind. Sure, a hatchery can continuously stock fish so people have something to catch. However, these stocked fish leave much to desire. They are dumb, having been raised in an environment that encourages gorging on any and all food that floats by. They are ugly, often missing fins from rubbing on the concrete raceways. They lack color due to living in a concrete ditch. They taste bad because of the ingredients in the hatchery food. It takes about a year of living away from the hatchery for a fish to become "wild". The wild fish are vastly superior in sporting terms. They are more selective, fight harder, and are prettier.

For example, starting in mid to late March, the family vacation crowd arrives in droves to Beavers Bend State Park in SE Oklahoma. Every mom, pop, and child want to go get their limit every day they are there. This is no problem, as these fresh fish are absolute suckers for Power Bait. A single family of four takes 5 fish each for of the 3 days they are there. That's 60 fish PER FAMILY. How many families are there? Hundreds. THOUSANDS of fish are harvested per week from March until school starts again in late August or September. The fish get harvested, the state plops several thousand back in and at the end of the season the river is full of "rubber" stockers again. By the time spring rolls around and the fish have started to gain a small foothold, the meat harvest starts up again. The population never has a chance to catch on so the whole thing becomes this artificially maintained subpar fishing experience. That's why I concern myself with fish limits.

Now maybe this doesn't happen so much with the warmwater species, but overharvesting of fish can happen remarkably fast and we are left with an inferior situation for enjoying fishing.

The state, which is generally in charge of managing the stocking of public waters, doesn't necessarily care about the quality of a fishery or the experience of fishing. They simply observe raw numbers and concern themselves with revenue generation through tourism and fishing licenses. It's a real battle to try to reason with them in this way for fishery preservation.

Once again, the rules are the rules and if you take fish that you are allowed to, then that's that. Just remember that every fish you take out can't reproduce and create more fish and it can't be caught again. There aren't always "more where that came from."

Does that make sense as to why I concern myself with this?

http://lmfrfoundation.org

I see your point, it does sound like a bit of a different situation with regard to the trout fishing in your area... pulling a bunch of dumb "rubber" trout out of a stream could be a boring, and less tasty, experience

I'm not aware of any trout fishing near me, I'm talking bass and catfish

Honestly, I throw back 80% of what I catch, but there are those days when I'm getting some nice ones and start dreaming about a fish fry... in the past that has included 30 or so pound blues and flatheads

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

I see your point, it does sound like a bit of a different situation with regard to the trout fishing in your area... pulling a bunch of dumb "rubber" trout out of a stream could be a boring, and less tasty, experience

I'm not aware of any trout fishing near me, I'm talking bass and catfish

Honestly, I throw back 80% of what I catch, but there are those days when I'm getting some nice ones and start dreaming about a fish fry... in the past that has included 30 or so pound blues and flatheads

Yeah, the situation is accentuated by the limited waters in which trout can thrive, combined with them being rather fragile fish to begin with.

I do know that there was a time when bass populations suffered from overfishing before catch and release became so popular.

Whenever I go, I always say that I'll bring home a few for dinner and I never do. It's a pain in the ass to carry them around on a stringer all day, it's a pain in the ass to clean them, and I don't really think they taste all that good anyway.

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by loochy

Yeah, the situation is accentuated by the limited waters in which trout can thrive, combined with them being rather fragile fish to begin with.

I do know that there was a time when bass populations suffered from overfishing before catch and release became so popular.

Whenever I go, I always say that I'll bring home a few for dinner and I never do. It's a pain in the ass to carry them around on a stringer all day, it's a pain in the ass to clean them, and I don't really think they taste all that good anyway.

I've never had trout, never even fished for them but I could eat catfish twice a week and never get tired of it.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

I've never had trout, never even fished for them but I could eat catfish twice a week and never get tired of it.

I've never been a fan of catfish either. I always roll my eyes when someone I'm with wants to go to a catfish place.

I do, however, enjoy ocean fare. The best fish I've ever had was some yellowfin that I caught in Hawaii and ate a couple of hours later.

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by loochy

I've never been a fan of catfish either. I always roll my eyes when someone I'm with wants to go to a catfish place.

I do, however, enjoy ocean fare. The best fish I've ever had was some yellowfin that I caught in Hawaii and ate a couple of hours later.

I never could get into eating fish at restaurants, especially fried fish, breaded in some factory and bagged for 6 months. No thanks, I'll just have a greasy burger if I'm going to do something like that.

[loochy]

What about walleye? On my last trip I picked off a few that had washed out from the dam being open. I told some fellow fishermen I ran into that I threw them back. They thought I was nuts and they said walleye were delicious.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

I really can't stand people who have a total disregard for the effect they have on the planet, the ecosystem or other people. I'm no tree hugger but goddamn people have to understand their behavior has consequences.

We fish the **** out of crappie, we only keep legal fish.


But we also are active in keeping them a habitat. It grows every year, my fil had even had divers go down to place stuff

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by loochy

What about walleye? On my last trip I picked off a few that had washed out from the dam being open. I told some fellow fishermen I ran into that I threw them back. They thought I was nuts and they said walleye were delicious.

I really like walleye, but if you are partial to only ocean fare you probably won't.

[Radar Chief]

You're killin me loochy.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

I never could get into eating fish at restaurants, especially fried fish, breaded in some factory and bagged for 6 months. No thanks, I'll just have a greasy burger if I'm going to do something like that.

Most of your restaurant "farm" fish are channel cats, or hybrid channels. They have a fast turn around time from fry to harvestable fish. Channels are ok eating but they have a stripe of fat running down the middle of their fillet that I cut out but most restaurants don't and that's what gives you the nasty, fishy taste.

Once properly cleaned flathead cat is the whitest, flakiest fish meat I've ever had. The thing about them though is you don't waste your time with anything smaller than about 20 lbs. They have pockets of red meat in their flesh that you want to clean out for the same reason I trim the fat off of channel fillets, because that's where the nasty taste is, and by the time you've trimmed away the nasty from a fish that only weighed, say, 15 lbs to begin with you'll be left with maybe uh pound of good fish meat. Had to learn that one the hard way.

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

We fish the **** out of crappie, we only keep legal fish.


But we also are active in keeping them a habitat. It grows every year, my fil had even had divers go down to place stuff

See that to me is responsible. But, I know absolutely nothing about trout or how their spawning cycles go or where and when is best to catch em or anything. To me, if you eat everything you keep, don't kill fish you won't use and try to be responsible in how you go about harvesting from different areas, you're gold.

[beach tribe]

South Florida fishing is amazing.
You guys have seen my pics.

That said we have limits on how many fish you can eat because of high mercury content.
It's something like 2 fish a week.
And maybe it's just me, but if you tell me I can only eat 2 fish a week, I'm not eating any of them.
This is fresh water, of course.

Exact opposite for our lake in TN.
It is so over populated with bass that if we catch one under a pound, Tennessee wildlife told us to either eat it or kill it because they can't get any bigger with the numbers that are in there.

I haven't chimed in here in a while because I am on a serious drought in the SF lake. I don't know WTF is going on.
I know I go through this every year, but damn.
Things have been slow. I don't even see the peacock running around?
Anybody else fish down here?