Is fishing in the U.S. going to be a thing of the past?

[Patriot]

Catch and release doesn't work in many cases anyway. For rockfish it's still a death sentence due to their swim bladders. When you reel them in from depth the air in the swim bladders can't get out and expands effectively causing death.
When you catch and relese large fish/sharks in many cases that kills them as well. They weight too much to take out of the water...the internal organs can't handle that unsupported weight.

Certainly, it would be worth consideration to study the impact of catch and release on certain species. If it means certain death to the rockfish then that species should be one of the first on the bag limit list.

brucec
Life or death as a food animal is surely unpleasant, but it's all part of the food chain. Catch and release is not part of that chain and in my opinion, just seems like inflicting needless suffering on animals with no other purpose but our entertainment.

I think that you're assuming that it's "needless" and that it's "suffering" but it seems that for the most part fish pretty robust creatures. Trout and Bass for example are sometimes caught and released dozens of times without harm. Their cartilage is tough and they interface with the world through their mouths like we do our hands. There is a human side to fishing to consider. You've obviously been around the block and done a bit of it, hopefully with friends, and family. Grocery stores have changed the way we eat but it doesn't change the desire for a man to take his son out for a day on the lake while loving and bonding with one another without other distractions. Traditionally it was to provide food but our fish populations would be even more taxed if some weren't practicing catch and release. Kill and eat vs. no fishing at all doesn't seem logical but I'll respect one's choice, as long as it remains a choice.

 

[brucec]

Perhaps my view is slanted because I have lived near the ocean most of my life where it's always easy to find somewhere (the ocean) that you can keep the fish that you catch. I suppose if you live in the central US there might be some places where catch and release is the only option.

It's not to say that I keep everything that I catch, some days I end up catching only inedible (= non-delicious) fish or nothing at all. I'll throw these back from whence they came, but I suspect some of them don't make it due to the injuries of being caught. For example, if a hook gets too far back into a shark's throat, it's really hard to get the hook out and sometimes I have to just cut the line with the hook still somewhere down there. I'm not sure if they survive this. I agree that trout and bass do fare better due to the way they hit and get hooked. And I think fly fisherman use barbless hooks? Still, to me it seems like the best outcome of catch and release is to come back empty-handed with no fish injured. The worst case is to injure or kill some fish which are obviously under conservation (hence the catch and release restriction) and still come back home empty-handed. :shrug:

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Even if a fish that is caught and released dies, it isn't necessarily a bad thing for the remaining fish population (especially in the ocean). The remaining fish end up eating the dead fish. Those fish would have to eat something anyway. It's part of the life cycle, not a waste of life. If the fish hadn't had that catch and release fish to eat, they would most likely be eating other fish. Birds or other animals may pick off that fish as well. Nature has a way of not letting anything go to waste.

 

[HarryN]

Fishing on the west coast is the most complicated, frustrating experience I have ever seen in a recreational activity. Step one is trying to figure out who came up with the exceptionally difficult fishing rules - I am talking a bible thick description for each section of the stream. If it is that complicated, then it is too complicated.

When I first moved from OH in 1982 to OR, I was really stunned by the "stock the rivers or there are no fish that day" approach to fish management. Then again, just off shore were Japanese and Korean trawlers picking up the fish that were suppose to naturally return - but didn't.

Worse yet is CA. They only stock trout and a few bass, which quickly eat up everything else, leaving no pan fish for the kids at all. If you like trout fishing from a stocked spot - great. If not - forget it.

Perhaps fishing would be better, and the waterways more productive, if they only stock pan fish for 10 years. At least that way, there would be plenty for the trout and bass to eat, and the kids could enjoy fishing.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

there will always be fishing here in Oklahoma as they keep creating new lakes and the fish and wildlife folks regulate it such that it doesn't destroy the fishing. About the only thing that would harm the fishing around here is a bad drought, but this year we are over 7 inches above the years average with months to go

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

If they ban fishing, I wonder if anyone would be willing to try this approach to get the fish:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2fLyZfaaZs? :laughing:

 

[Patriot]

It's not to say that I keep everything that I catch, some days I end up catching only inedible (= non-delicious) fish or nothing at all. I'll throw these back from whence they came, but I suspect some of them don't make it due to the injuries of being caught. For example, if a hook gets too far back into a shark's throat, it's really hard to get the hook out and sometimes I have to just cut the line with the hook still somewhere down there. I'm not sure if they survive this. ... And I think fly fisherman use barbless hooks?

It's fairly normal for sport fisherman to cut the line. The high carbon hooks quickly rust away in saltwater. Sharks are swimming garbage cans and many species eat just about anything from human trash to rocks, coral, and shells. I don't think a hook is going to impede them much. Sharks sustain more injury during a quick matting session than when a fisherman tugs on them for a while. Yeah, the barbless hook thing is good too I think.

to me it seems like the best outcome of catch and release is to come back empty-handed with no fish injured.

The worst case is to injure or kill some fish which are obviously under conservation (hence the catch and release restriction) and still come back home empty-handed.

No argument to your first point. No injuries are good. Watching the pro's fish it seems like 99% of the fish caught are not injured. They reel them in, take the hook off by hand, toss them back and the fish swims vigorously away. This brings me back to the justification of food vs sport, I'd much rather be a fish subjected to sport than a livestock cow living in industrial atrocity as many do. Not saying I have any answers given the amount of beef the world consumes but from a comparative perspective the catch and release fishy seems like a non-issue to me.

Agreed, catching conservation fish inadvertently isn't good if they get hurt. I guess my point is that very few are hurt and the hurt ones as Hooked on Fenix stated, become food for other fish and birds. I think this is a small price to pay to maintain a free society without "undo" government intrusion. We already endure a lot of restriction and taxes at the present time as HarryN eluded to. Examining how small the impact is of sport fisherman compared to commercial industry, we as sportsman don't need anymore regulatory burdens. Sport fishing, (not commercial) management is already working well on most state levels so I say keep the feds out of it.

 

[brucec]

It's fairly normal for sport fisherman to cut the line. The high carbon hooks quickly rust away in saltwater. Sharks are swimming garbage cans and many species eat just about anything from human trash to rocks, coral, and shells. I don't think a hook is going to impede them much.

I hope it does rust or digest away quickly because, man, there are rows upon rows of sharp gnashing teeth back there! And although we normally end up catching only small sharks, holding onto a thrashing 2 foot hammerhead while extracting a hook can still be rather challenging. They definitely put up a fight both in and out of the water.

 

[blasterman]

There just isn't anything like it to have a big ole' slew shark grabbing your line and hearing your drag zing as your line is pulled out

Here-here.

You guys deep water fishing with tackle big enough to haul up Jonah don't know what fun is. First time I ran into a big pike was when I was 8 years old and late night jitter-bugging for bass with Gramps. That alone was a lot of fun, especially when a 5lb largemouth breaks water on a crystal calm night to take a surface lure.

One way to tell that big pike are lurking around inland lakes is you notice that spring ducklings tend to vanish real fast. Such as this lake.

Anyways, I was reeling in the 'gurgling' jitterbug waiting for a bass hit when a grumpy 14lb northern nailed that thing like a depth charge going off. Nearly scared us out of the boat. I think I had a plastic Zebco 33 reel, and thing went from 0-60 in about half a second as that 14lb lunkhead headed for Canada at mach1, actually spinning our boat around and pulling the rod out of my hands. Gramps grabbed the rod before it went overboard and quickly adjusted the drag, and after about 20minutes of watching that fish dive like a submarine and launch like a posiedian missle we managed to land it. Took a picture - let it go. Reel and rod was destroyed. I didn't sleep for two days.

I've since seen northerns bend hooks the size of your thumb like they were garbage ties, bite through steel leaders, send newb fisherman to emergency because they stuck their hand in that razor armed mouth, wrap lines around motor props to break line, do cartwheels in the air like a gymnast, and other crazy things. Once when I was older and lazily minnow fishing for walleye with a friend an 8pounder took one minnow, headed under our boat, and grabbed the other minnow my friend was bobbing. That left both of us fighting each other trying to land a fish from either side of the boat, and our astonishment when we dragged the pike in and saw both hooks in it's mouth.

I've always wanted to visit one of those tame, trout stocked lakes late at night and drop in a couple 20lb lunkheads just to watch people the next day freak out when they hook them

 

[brucec]

That does sound like fun!

A friend of mine, a real mountain man, goes fishing every year somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Canada. He gets dropped off by plane, which comes back to pick him up in a week or so. He was describing how he speared a pike (I think it was a pike) once with a spear he fashioned out of the planks of an old wooden sled he found near his campsite. When I saw the pictures, I wouldn't have exactly called it a "spear". It was more like he shoved a wooden plank right through the gills of a large fish, nearly decapitating it. Very gruesome, indeed. Probably beat his bare chest and ate it raw on the spot, fileting it with the grizzly paw he keeps hanging around his neck.

 

[Hitthespot]

By itself, the FARMED wasn't bad - but next to the WILD ---> ABSOLUTELY NO comparison at all!! Give me WILD (and preferably FRESH) caught fish ANYTIME & EVERYTIME!!

This has also been my experience. There is no comparison although it's hard to quantify. It almost seems like the Wild Fish have a cleaner more crisp taste.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to catch fish from clean waters where I live. (and there is plenty of fresh water) PCB, Mercury advisories are in every river and lake Erie. The fresh water lakes (open to the public) that get good test scores are over fished and almost impossible to catch anything in on a consistant basis. What a shame!

Bill

 

[Sigman]

I've had some mighty fine tasting bluegill from some of those Ohio farm ponds!!