Catch and Release Fisherman

[wade]

Reading through this board I'm trying to get a feel for what the mindset is on this. On the main board its obvious most are fishing for the meat. I have the idea that flyfishers as a whole are a C&R subculture of fisherman. Of course hatchery fish don't count. I may be about to get educamacated from you folks, I don't know. I want to know where you all stand on this please.

Not trying to judge, just looking to see what population we have here.

Thanks,

Kevin

[steelhead22]

For trout on rivers like the Deschutes or Crooked I'm strictly a C&R fisherman. For the high mountain lakes I hike into, I catch and keep one to eat that day, then I C&R the rest of the time.

The reason I fly fish is because it's more challenging and I CAN catch and release without harming them too much. I find myself fly fishing for trout much more than any other fish. I don't want to kill my limit of trout in a day though, EVER. I don't like eating them that much. But a fresh brook trout taken from the lake on put on the pan within minutes is pretty good.

Steelhead and Salmon are a different story, if it's a hatchery, I bonk it. Most of the time I don't fly fish for these, unless I'm fishing for silvers. Maybe winter or summer steelhead occasionally.

Pretty much it depends on where I'm fishing, places like the Deschutes or Crooked I think you may get beaten if you take a fish, it's kind of an unsaid rule the you C&R. :shrug:

[greenbuttskunk]

I'm very much a C&R guy too. Not that I don't fish for meat. I love saltwater fishing, catching salmon, etc. I grew up CR for bass and panfish and then trout. It's great to catch fish all day and know they will be there to give you or another some enjoyment in the future.
GBS

[Riverkeeper]

In general, wild trout go back (even semi-wild like browns and brookies). I'm with steelhead22- if backpacking or camping somewhere that doesn't get a lot of pressure, I might keep a trout for immediate cooking over the fire. I would say this happens once every 2-3 years for me. On the other hand, when fishing somewhere like harriett where you catch a lot of planter rainbows while fishing for browns, I might keep a couple of those.

[HappyFishers]

Mostly C&R, way back before I was a fly-fishermam (just over a year ago), I used to cut the line if the hook was too bad. It may not of been the best method, but it was better than killing the fish to get a burried hook out.

Since fly fishing - well, I surely haven't had a fish swallow my fly! I have respect for the fish and want to catch it again (and again and again...you get the point) if I can :smile: .

In lakes, I don't mind pulling out a few stockers for my nephews. And a brookie in the pan is quiet tasty. I don't think I have filled my limit for a real real long time, though.

As for rivers, only if it is a stocked fish and even then rarely.

If I ever can manage to catch the elusive steelhead or salmon, I'd only keep it if it was from a hatchery. Even then, I don't think I'd fill my limit

It's all about feeling the tug and hearing the bizzzz anyway.


HappyFishers :cheers:

[Old Coot]

I like to keep a salmon or two for the freezer each year. My wife really likes the occasional trout, so I may keep a couple of hatchery fish annually for her.

Everything else goes back except warmwater fish illegally planted into salmonid waters.

[FallRiverGuy]

When flyfising I release most trout. I like to eat fish, especially kokanee and will keep every one I catch. THis year I caught a 20+ inch brown kokanee fishing and back it went.

[Bubzilla]

99% catch-and-release. Only exceptions are few salmon and hatchery steelhead each year.

[Pete]

C & R on all trout. The areas I fish where I could keep them I'm either a long way from a refrigerator or there are bears about. Nothing like a sautéd cutthroat to bring dinner guests! Since I don't eat the skin or bones, there would be bear bait left over. It's just easier to avoid the problem; take a picture and put them back.

I use only barbless flies. That experience has spilled over into my other fishing, too. Particularly with larger hooks, I think the barbless ones penetrate deeper, making up for any advantage in hold a barb might produce. Makes it easier to get the wild ones back on their way, too.

[Stew]

I release all trout. As for steelhead I'll bonk at hatchery fish but no way would I ever kill a native steelhead.
I believe these wild fish are a precious and irreplacable resource so it would just sicken me to harm a native fish.
When I fish with gear instead of flies it's the same deal. I will retain salmon where it allowable but am not really much of a meat fisherman at all.

[ 09-06-2003, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: Stew ]

[rpnsteelheadlps]

Jordan and I release 95% of all the fish we catch, hatchery or not. Recently we were on vacation up at Oxbow resivour and hooked around 400 fish in 14 days. We kept 3. It's amazing how many times anglers have gotten mad at us for releasing fish.

[ 09-05-2003, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: David Ulrich ]

[24 on/ 48 off]

I kept a trout this year from the D. It is the first one I have bonked in 15 years. I guess that makes me a 99% C & R guy.

--spud-- :smile:

[Slow and Low]

Catch and release. I like to keep Salmon where allowed as well as hatchery steelhead. Keeping native steelies is an unthinkable act. As far as trout go to kill anything over 12 inches or so is unthinkable and so is filling a limit. I personally have no problem with someone keeping a pan fry size trout for dinner. I have had a fly taken too deep for removal. If you know a fish isn't going to make it you should harvest it...it's the right thing to do.

[skein]

Looks like we're pretty much of the same mindset, practicing C&R in almost every case, but killing one now and then for dinner. Besides, by the time they take my fly and spar with me, they're like an old friend, and who wants to kill your buddies? Well, maybe those who outfish you regularly....

I, too, have caught flack for releasing fish, both from the standpoint of letting something go, and from the standpoint of hooking and tiring fish after fish. I try to keep both perspectives in mind, realizing that I have an obligation to the resource on both counts.

BTW, we routinely flyfish for pinks up in Canada, and they are a hoot! Ready biters and good scrap on a 5wt rod - and the runs are in excellent shape for the most part.

Skein

[Mojo]

Catch and release on salmonids except for a few hatchery salmon and steelies. Spiny rays like crappie and bluegills I keep, as well as a few catfish. Bass I generally release, but have kept 4 or 5 this year (only in lakes that have a surplus population).

[C-lice]

I hardly ever keep a winter steelhead regardless of whether it's a hatchery or a nate. I never keep a nate in the summer and wouldn't even if it was legal. I usually keep the hatchery summer fish I catch just because they're good eating and people at work really like smoked fish.

I think it is a mindset kind of thing. I was a teenager just getting decent at catching steelhead when the rules requiring release of natives came into effect on south coast streams. I've never really been in a position to keep natives, so I never have. It is just an alien concept to me.

Some people won't shoot a doe or a cow elk, even if there's a surplus in the population, but will knock a native steelie in the head. I don't get it, but I respect their decision to do so if it's legal to do so. I also find old barren does to be good eating, and a bargain at $14.50 each.

[Navigator]

I seem to avoid hooking the fish altogether ...

[Stew]

It's good to see so many people that care about the resource graemlins/applause.gif

[Rodwavr]

Total catch and release on trout. I'll occasionally whack a hatchery steelhead if I'm not too far from the truck.

[ 09-09-2003, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: Rodwavr ]

[GasJockey]

Interesting how fly fishing changes your outlook on fishing. Until two months ago, I'd keep any fish that it was legal for me to keep. I don't even like eating fish, but I get major brownie points from the in-laws every time I bring a fish home for them.

Then I went fly fishing for the first time and everything changed. I would never have thought that catching a little 10" redside would be any fun. It's not big enough and couldn't really fight like a "real" fish. How wrong could a person be! Just the anticipation of seeing that fly getting slurped up is enough action for me. I actually caught nine fish between 6 and 11"'s the second time I went and missed at least twice that many, but the missed ones were almost as much fun as the released ones. You interact with the fish so much more when your fly fishing that I don't think I could keep a fish I caught.

Now if I'm out side drifting for steelhead or backbouncing for salmon I will for sure bonk the ones I catch. But at the rate I catch fish, there won't be any shortage in the near future.

Later,
Trent

[Steelie28]

Like Steelhead22 said. If it's a hatchery salmon or steelhead, it's going in the freezer. Otherwise, C&R trout fishing for me, except for the occassional one I'll keep where it is legal to do so (this happens maybe once a year).

Steelie28

[Old Coot]

Gas Jockey - put the fly rod down and back slowly away, then run. Take up something less expensive and addicting. Heroin, gambling, and Formula One cars come to mind.

I knew I was ruined when someone asked me whether I would rather go flyfishing or make love and I heard myself automatically respond, "Wet fly or dry?" :shrug:

[lost_sailor]

Hatchery fish must die. Flyfishing is MOSTLY C&R for me, I will sometimes eat one. It depends on where I am. If I'm sure there is a healthy population, I might keep one. If I'm fishing holy water, no question all fish will be released.

I am by no means a fly-fishing purist! Salmon or kokanee fishing is for MEAT - only compliance with regulations will cause me to release one.

[Keta]

I go for a nice "Flush Release" any time. Don't play with my food.

[wade]

Pardon my ignorance Keta but what is a flush release?

Er, I think I get it now. :shocked:
How much flyfishing do you do?

Kevin

[ 09-11-2003, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: wade ]

[Keta]

From 12 to 22 I only fished with flys. From 22 to 50 I fished a veriety of methods inclding bait. I do C&R, but feel that if a fish is not going to live it's a sin to not retain it for consumption. When I was in Alaska we got ALL of our eating fish with a subsistance gill net and we let most of our troll caught king and coho go. I also wouldn't kill large halibut and tried to not catch red snapper.
I don't like the idea of mandatory C&R, it's a waste of fish when those doing it aren't 100% behind it.

I WILL NOT release a tuna :grin:

[wade]

"I don't like the idea of mandatory C&R, it's a waste of fish when those doing it aren't 100% behind it." (I couldn't figure out how to do the quote in box thing).

That's interesting, I've never looked at it that way before. There's nothing more aggravating than watching someone overplay a fish then rip the hook out of its gullet, fling it out into the middle of the river, then throw another line out. I once picked up a fresh dead native coho out of the river and took it home even though it was illegal because I thought the risk was worth not letting it go to waste (I was new to the bigfish thang). Since then I've decided that fish die every day from one cause or another and something will get the dead ones- an osprey, eagle, gull, otter, varmint, buzzard, or the microbes. Nothing goes to waste, its the undue suffering and disregard that bothers me most. We all have our way of deciding what is right so that we can do what we enjoy, and live with it. I've come to worry more about what I do to the fish and simply try and educate the dips that don't know to respect the resource.

Kevin

[Keta]

Human caused death is waste. Natural mortality is...natural? You're right about something using the fish if it's released and dies in the water. To do C&R right you HAVE to be committed to it and have the option of retaining a dead fish.

[Stew]

Thanks for your input Keta :cheers: Good insight on your part.
I agree that you can't go half-way about C&R and public education is important. I've seen many fish mishandled then release....some kind of floated away :depressed: If they die then what was the point? I do my best to pratice good C&R because that's doing my part and hopefully I can teach others.

[Keta]

You got my point Stew. I'm not against C&R.

[TillamookChinook]

I nearly always release trout. I will keep a legal salmon or steelhead (hatchery) on the rare ocassions that I catch one.

A major advantage of using barbless hooks is how much easier it is to remove the hook from your own ear.

[Riverkeeper]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

But seriously-you're right.

[garyk]

Wade (who said) - "On the main board its obvious most are fishing for the meat."

I'd tend to disagree with that over-generalization. Just because you keep a salmon doesn't make the 'meat' the primary motivation - if so it would be a heckuva lot easier (and cheaper) to visit the grocer's meat case. On the main board and here, I think most are out on the water for the total experience.

For my part, I'm totally C&R on wild, native trout and strictly flyfishing for them.

Steelhead, I fish flies, hardware and bait; and keep only hatchery fish, although I sometimes release them too.

Salmon, anymore is strictly hardware and bait. I won't partake now of the Trask-River-Tractor-Pull-flyfishing-snagfest. Same for the Miami and Kilchis chum - I won't fish (harass) them until the numbers are back to what they were in the 1980's or better. We keep only quality salmon and release wild, hatchery, and unknown origin fish depending on the circumstances. I'm getting increasingly opposed to fishing for salmon far above tidewater, where they're approaching their natal grounds and should be allowed to spawn.

In all of the fishing we do, and all the methods we use, foremost, we try to respect fish.

[wade]

You're right about the overgeneralization garyk, I should have worded that differently. But, I still wonder how many fisherman would find something else to do if they couldn't keep anything.

Kevin

[happybrew]

When I was a kid, I'd keep one only if I was fishing a stream, and a limit if I was fishing a lake (hatchery fish are meant to be taken). I pretty much only flyfished except in the ocean until I was much older. On this one stream near my home, I'd go every Tuesday morning, and catch and release until afternoon. Some fish I'd catch over and over again. There was one with a hooked upper jaw that I caught every time I went. Same spot, same fly, every week. It got where it wasn't fun to catch that one anymore, so I finally kept him and turned him into lunch.

The first time I went steelhead fishing, I went with a flyrod. Nobody told me that was the hard way. I hooked a beatiful native hen on a small stream that I lost after about 30 seconds or so, but I saw the whole take, which happened three feet from me. The fish very slowly came up from under a root ball and engulfed my fly. It's dorsal fin, tail, and top of its head came out of the water during the take. It got about thirty yards from me, then turned back and swam straight at me faster than I could get the slack in. I have never seen such a beautiful fish, nor do I expect to again unless I go to that small creek. I felt so privileged to have seen the fish and felt its power that it meant nothing to me that it threw the hook. I can't imagine taking a native steelhead. But as Lost Sailor says, hatchery fish must die. It's what they're for.

happybrew