What is with catch and release?

[choc dogs]

Catch and release is what I practiced before I got married.

 

[JohnCushman]

Catch and release is what I practiced before I got married.

Barracks parties with the girls from the local college :hump:

 

[bobbydean]

I honestly do no understand. If you want to eat the fish clean them and eat them.

If you do not intend to eat them, release them with care. If injured, clean and eat.

I hate cleaning catfish. I love eating catfish. Depends on the day.

 

[Southwind]

My last fishing post brought in a dynamic I did not understand. What is the idea of catching fish and not eating? Don't get me wrong in Louisiana some bass fisherman practice this, but it's only to gain advantage when fishing a tournament. Yes I understand the "if you let them go you can catch them another day" idea. Just seams weird that through my research on the forums, that keeping fish has some how started to be looked down on. Is the fisheries in the west that bad off or is this just another case like in the East where it's frowned upon for shooting a small deer?

I am fine if one wants to catch and release or catch and keep. I do both myself. What I think is moronic and bordering on snob-est elitism is this catch and keep shaming some are obsessed with.

 

[JohnCushman]

I think we should have a HT fishing trip

 

[devon deer]

I think we should have a HT fishing trip

That is a great idea!
Cheers
Richard

 

[Southwind]

I think we should have a HT fishing trip

I'll be in Creede the week of Labor day, come by and whip the water.

 

[mevertsen]

My wife likes to fish. She does not like eating fish. I like to fish and don't mind eating them depending on the water and species. If we can release fish unharmed we do. If not it gets eaten, either by me or someone else that wants it.

I remember as a kid when we would go fishing and every fish was kept. I also remember my parents cleaning the freezer out every year and that included lots of fish that were caught the previous summer. I think it had more to do with not having a lot of money and groceries were tight sometimes?

Either way, I don't keep many fish any more and I make it a point to eat the ones we do keep ASAP.

 

[HUNTNNW]

I catch and release steelhead all the time and the only ones I keep are for eggs for salmon season. I release 100+ steelhead a year..I am not eating that crap and I am there to hook and fight fish that's the fun. Hell if I kept my 2 fish for the day Id be done before sun up! Our sturgeon fishery is a catch and release too! all about the tug!

 

[Fire_9]

I catch and release steelhead all the time and the only ones I keep are for eggs for salmon season. I release 100+ steelhead a year..I am not eating that crap and I am there to hook and fight fish that's the fun. Hell if I kept my 2 fish for the day Id be done before sun up! Our sturgeon fishery is a catch and release too! all about the tug!

Please tell me you're in Alaska if you're releasing 100+ steelhead a year...

 

[VAspeedgoat]

In the east, a native stream can dang neat be decimated by a couple kids and a box of worms. Good luck letting a 5 inch brookie swim when he swallowed the hook to his @$$. And no not all streams are regulated to sustain these populations and some streams aren't even "known" to have trout. If you want to keep every stocker fine, if you want to let hem go fine. Wild trout deserve a little more thought. Kids being along takes some thought too. My kids would eat everything they hooked if I let them and I think that its important to do so when its feasible. Bottom line it comes down to using your head or the state will step in and make up your mind for you.

For what its worth I rarely let a stocked fish go and I rarely keep a wild one. My fishing style and techniques reflect that attitude on that particular stretch of water. Most of the wild fish I keep went belly up right after I tried to release. Just my.preference. I find catch and release snobs to be as deplorable as the "keep em all" mentality.

 

[starvingoutdoorsman]

I think a big thing at least in Montana is that the rivers are not stocked typically and the fish will spawn in them where as lakes a lot of the time are stocked. But I mean come on... A camp fire cooked trout is a delicacy not easily matched by many things. Aside from anything straight from the elk (looking at you tenderloins). Like hunting. If you do it legally, ill support it even if I do it a little different than others.

 

[Big Sky]

I can't believe I'm missed this thread. Each year I get out fishing around a 100 days or more. Needless to say it results in a lot of fish being caught. The main reason I go is because I really enjoy it. What I don't enjoy is eating most fish with a few exceptions. I like walleye, ling, and perch. Even with those exceptions I release the majority of what I catch. It's not for ethical reasons it's simply because I don't enjoy eating most fish and I really don't enjoy cleaning them. The only time I get annoyed with people that keep fish is when I see people party fishing on some our locals lakes. If a person wants to catch their own limit fine, but I don't like it when a group gets together and fills each other's limit. It happens way too often on Holter, Hauser, and Canyon Ferry lakes.

 

[2ski]

First, if there is a HT fishing trip, make it spring on Flathead Lake for Spring Mack days. A hundred lake trout a day limit would fill some freezer space for everyone. Or donate the haul to the local food bank. And have the opportunity to earn a little coin as well. Once you catch 20 fish, that's $35 and it goes up the more you catch. You just have to release everything between 30 and 36 inches. My average is probably about 22 inches and I've never caught anything under 18, so they have good size to them. I don't know any of you personally, but I would bring a boat and some barrel aged beers. Or just whenever. Summer is good too. Go out and fish Flathead during the day and keep what you catch, and then go to the Garden Bar in Big Fork in the evening and practice the catch and release part.

I like to fish and I don't keep a ton. I stock up on lakers on Flathead or pike on Seeley. I will not release a pike on Seeley and I caught a little 8 incher this summer. But when I catch pike, part of me goes, "Shoot, I have to clean this now, and then clean my knife and cutting board". I'll keep spawners on Canyon Ferry because they are just pretending to spawn since they are stocked fish. Other than that, if I want fresh trout for dinner I will keep one, but that's not frequently. I release all brown trout, because it seems like the ones I catch in the past have had a metallic taste to them.

I actually plan on going camping this weekend. By myself. Someplace quiet with water near by. I'll bring real basic things for meals, say some hamburger for dinner for backup, but I'm going to take my flyrod and .22 pistol also. And I hope I can get a few fish on, or shoot a squirrel or rabbit. And that's what I'd really like for dinner. I'm so stoked for it. Simple.

 

[RobG]

When I was a TU chair it always annoyed me how many people were pushing for C&R instead of improving habitat. If you do the latter, most streams can handle some harvest. If anything C&R was just putting a spotlight on streams that were otherwise fine and turning fishermen against us "elitist fly fishermen." The added pressure probably did more damage than the harvest. If harvest is less than natural mortality it really doesn't hurt the population. I don't normally keep wild trout, but when I do I don't feel guilty.