Jonny

I remember seeing a video once of workers in a NFLD fish packing plant filleting cod. They were so fast I could hardly believe my eyes! Now, I guess, they only fillet seals.

Pickerel it is, here in the North. You'll just have to learn to live with your frustration. So you'd rather take illegal fish. Nice. Taking a fish that you are allowed by the regulations to take doesn't equal "raping the resource". You'll have to get used to that idea too. Your post is quite a 3 in 1 troll.

For the most part a very civil discussion. I don't see the harm. So, since you presented the topic originally, has it helped you establish your own perspective?

Frame of mind, I guess, and each of us is welcome to our own. (I don't mean this disparagingly, please don't take it that way). I've eaten fillets from a number of 6 to 8 pounders over the years (not all ones that I caught myself) and I tasted nothing but great pickerel. I've never heard complaints from anyone else around the dinner table either. I wonder what people have to say about 10-20 lb salmon? I've eaten those fresh too, from Superior, (though I canned a couple 30-35 lb) and didn't bat an eye. I wonder, is part of the prejudice against keeping and eating large pickerel because they are "natural" whereas the salmon are considered "stocked"?

Around here it's a pickerel. But yeah, up around Timmins/Cochrane/Chapleau a six-pounder wouldn't really raise any eyebrows. You'd just say yeah, nice fish, and keep on fishin'.

I couldn't figure out what you were saying either. I was fishing for a definition of GROSS. 12x12 = 144 = a gross. Boy, I hope I got that right. This is a place where 4x4 seems to = 8.

As in 144?

I'm not sure why you would say that... it's a poll with a plain and simple choice. It's your call to think of it however you like, but it might be interesting to see how the results stack up on a discussion board where there is a large number of pretty dedicated - and informed - fishermen. This is part of the background (in case you missed it in another thread)... I've been straightforward in what I think. And I'm not looking for approval (I don't need it), I'm just looking for a sense of what is prevalent, and I thought others might find it of interest too. So far - 23 release, 16 keep - shows a more even split than I would have thought.

Let's make this very specific... You catch a 6 lb pickerel from a "clean" lake. The fish is legal for you to keep. You have no other pickerel in the boat or at home. You may already have caught and released several 2 to 4 lb. "in the slot" fish. What do you do? Your vote is anonymous if you only place a vote and you don't reply with a message.

None, of course. I never said I disagree with the science. Keep in mind all the things we have in place to protect the breeding population and the population as a whole - closed seasons, fish sactuaries, minimum sizes, slot limits, etc. I focus on pickerel, and Nipissing pickerel to be even more specific. They provide a good example - as the premier sport fish, the most heavily pressured by both sport and non-sport fisheries, on a lake which is very popular for fishermen in both summer and winter. The slot limit for anglers is meant to protect the prime breeders - vigorous fish, fully mature, which have years of protected growth and spawning within the slot. That makes perfect sense. To be able to keep small, under-slot fish, and an occasional fish over the slot, also makes sense. The thing that complicates the whole picture is that there is a non-sport fishery on the lake that takes pickerel of any size, and accounts for 2/3 of the total yearly catch (40,000 kg of an estimated 60,000 kg yearly). Many of the fish which are caught and released by anglers end up in nets, to be processed and sold. If you go to the Chief Commanda I, dry-docked at the North Bay wharf, you will see mounds of pickerel fillets for sale in glass-fronted butcher's coolers. The fillets are large, and it's easy to see that most of them would come from fish that are in the slot. Yet the pickerel population, with the protections it has, is deemed by the MNR to be healthy, though under pressure, and on the rise. If a sport fisherman is lucky enough to occasionally tag a 6 lb pickerel, and he decides to make it table fare, then I say no harm/no foul; he's doing what he's allowed to do, and what the science (upon which the slot limit is based) says is OK. I don't get this idea of trying to make a fisherman, who faithfully follows all the regs, feel guilty for occasionally keeping a larg(er) fish. Chances are he's already released a lot of protected prime breeders within the slot. If I catch a 6 lb pickerel, and I have no other pickerel on the chain or at home, chances are I will keep it. If I already have other pickerel for a nice dinner, I will let it go. My judgement call. That fish has already spawned and passed on its genes many times. And yes, a 6 lb pickerel from Nipissing tastes damned good. Judging from other anglers I have met and have known over the years, my attitude is pretty standard. However on this board (silent majority notwithstanding) I sense a different culture, and to be frank I think a significant portion of it comes from people being reluctant to say that they will occasionally catch and keep larger fish. Well I'm not reluctant to say so. I should start a poll (I might ) just to see what the results are. But I think I already know what they would be.

Not that I can speak from experience as far as largemouth are concerned, but habitat doesn't always equal poor eating. If that were the case, pork wouldn't appear in all the 'smoked food porn' we've seen lately. I would guess that the flavour of the meat in a largemouth bass has more to do with what it eats than the temperature of the water it inhabits. There are other warm-water species that taste great, including many from tropical-temp salt water. The other thing to consider is that what we call swamp water is often very clean, clear and well-filtered because of all the vegetation.

I thoroughly enjoyed your report. Thanks for taking the time to post such an extensive "travelogue" complete with some great pictures. And congratulations on your engagement.

Well we're kind of flying on conjecture here, aren't we. Just because he's supposedly fishing every day doesn't mean he's bringing fish home every day. I wouldn't read too much into the original post and get outraged about it because there's too little information and there's also the possibility of exaggeration. If 'Singingdog' was outraged by what he saw, I'm sure he could have already called the "Report-a-Poacher" hotline. Or is he just relaying an impression? Anyway, like I said, there's a lot of conjecture here that can't get us very far.

I guess it depends what "all the time" means. Half a dozen times a summer? It doesn't say he has a stringer every day, and "all the time" is one of those nebulous expressions, like "a couple". It also depends how often he eats fish, and how often he provides fish for friends and/or relatives. Lacking specifics, I have to think that he's not dumb enough to walk down the street with his catches and still go over the possession limit. Funny how we (including myself, yes) tend to think the worst when a guy has some success.

Nice one! You posted a while back about places you could drive to with a canoe? Looks like you had an opportunity to get out on the big lake and you took good advantage of it! Good for you. Somebody's going to ask you if you threw it back.

I'm gonna have to borrow that one some time. Nice evening catch, and the one "parking lot" picture only shows that you didn't have the time and inclination for pictures when they were biting, which is the "old-style" pre-internet way to do it! I'm sure somebody will figure out soon how to send real-time "tweets" (with pictures) from their boat!

What I imagine from your description is some old-timer whose main outings are for fishing (from the shore?). He provides for himself and probably a few old girls who don't fish but love to eat fish, and a few old friends who can't fish for themselves any more. And he obviously knows how to fish. Good for him. He isn't going to impact the fishery all by himself, and he's doing what he's allowed to do, so I wouldn't be too hard on him. -- Now you're going to come back and tell me that he's a young good-for-nothing on welfare and sells his fish under the table, but I wouldn't know that from your description.

Nicely done, Fang. Love the "outhouse" motif! I always pre-soak the wood chips in water before using them. I would stay away from any adhesive-backed tape or any synthetics inside the smoker - just untreated wood, aluminum foil, steel or iron racks or spacers, etc. Nothing painted either. --- The "Sidekick" looks like a good option too. There's a decent recipe book on the site... http://www.smokinsidekick.com/pdf/recipe_book.pdf If you want to bump up the smoke flavour, or you can't smoke for as long as you'd like, a little brushing with "Liquid Smoke" is good. You can get it in some grocery stores.

For people who enjoy eating fish, that doesn't happen. Both these scenarios break the regulations. You must not let wild fish or game spoil. You can be charged for doing so. It doesn't matter if you changed your mind about eating them or you let them spoil in your feezer, or you simply want to throw them out; you are breaking the law if you do so. Anyone for whom fish is regular table fare doesn't have fish in the freezer for very long.

That applies to Zone 11, yes, but not to Nipissing. This is from the exceptions for Zone 11:

200 snide comments:1 fish caught. Not very good huh? What you're referring to are muskie and pike regulations, I think. They are not actually slot limits but mimimum size limits. In Northern Ontario the limits that are by far and away most important in everyone's mind are pickerel limits, and those are slot limits, with a minimum and a maximum set in the middle range of fish caught. The middle range is where the most numerous and prolific breeders are, as you say. The large fish are not a concern. You can have a great day on Nipissing, for example, and catch (and keep, if you wish) four pickerel over the slot, which is your maximum daily catch. So you could keep 4 large pickerel and call it a banner day. Trust me, for the vast majority of fishermen, that seldom happens. Whether some people realize it or not (and not you specifically, Rick), the Northern Ontario mentality is to catch fish because you like to eat fish. For every person that posts on this board about pure catch-and-release there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Northern Ontarians who fish so that they can enjoy fish on the dinner table. As long as they abide by the fishing regulations (seasons, sanctuaries, limits, etc.) they're fine. Those who want to throw back everything they catch are welcome to do so.

You quoted behearsum's lead-off post but the reply seems more directed to me. Regardless, I think someone with your post count, on a forum that is virtually flame-free, ought to know better than to throw snide remarks around, as you so frequently seem to do. Personally, I'm not impressed.

Catching up on some posts after being on a trip to Kingston and keyed in on this topic. Congratulations! I've hardly ever caught a largemouth, let alone anyting approaching that size! That's a beautiful, healthy-looking specimen!

Actually, to be more specific in the context of this topic, the science behind (pickerel) slot limits is that small fish and large fish can be kept. The slot is set so that the prime breeding population falls within the slot. The slot is not meant to protect large fish. I like to eat fish, and so does my entire family. I keep fish below the slot, and I also keep the occasional fish over the slot. If I obey the slot (and I do) then I am doing what the experts have decided is best for the fishery. If cut into same-size pieces, fillets from large fish are virtually indistinguishable from fillets of smaller fish when eaten, IMO.

I'm afraid that's what they'll do to more and more of the beautiful islands on Nipissing as well. The MNR, however, can not or will not recognize the problem. There is no bird that I know of that degrades the (above water) environment like cormorants. Not to think of what they do to fish stocks.