Time to start eating more bass and less pickerel?

[fishingisliving]

If forums existed 30 years ago, people would of been arguing about if its really important or not to wear your seat belt in a car. :-)

[Jonny]

I appreciate the more even tone of your second post, Fishnwire.

 

Let me clear up a couple of things. My wife and I eat a lot of fish, and almost all of it is store-bought salmon, cod, tilapia, etc. I would guess that in a typical year my wife and I would catch and keep about a dozen pike, about a dozen pickerel, about 100 perch, maybe half a dozen lake herring, and about a dozen bass, and a few incidentals (white bass, catfish, ling, etc.). We’re as much interested in the summer in picnicking, swimming and beachcombing on nearby islands, either alone or with family, as we are in fishing.

 

The times when we “limit out” are rare, and not particularly sought after.

 

To me, a “feed” is enough for two or maybe three people. I’m lucky when I have several feeds in the freezer. In my freezer right now, and this is probably typical, I have three feeds of smelts, about three feeds of perch, one of pike. I’m hoping to put up a feed or two of pickerel for when my son comes to visit.

 

This despite the fact that we live right on the lake and I can launch either of my boats off my ramp in 10 minutes. And in the winter, our hut is a short 1 ½ mile run out from our home (we can see the hut from our kitchen window).

 

When we lived in Timmins, and used to fish a lot of different lakes (many of them a long drive), we caught more, kept more, froze more, and ate more.

 

I tell you the foregoing to give you some context for my remarks.

 

Most of what we catch and keep is eaten the same day or the next. Yet I have nothing against someone who has a freezer well-stocked with a rotation of game fish, within the catch and possession limits of the regulations. Fish lots and you eat more fish.

 

Predicting fish stocks is an inexact science, but from where I sit it seems to me that the predictions are on the conservative side and the regulations are correspondingly conservative. The independent sport angler, particularly the one who gets out infrequently, is already the one who ‘contributes’ disproportionately to the balance, compared to commercial fisheries and tourism operations. But I accept that.

 

Do I trust government? No, except in the sense that I trust that they will restrict the independent angler to benefit others. I don’t complain about that, but I also think that if they give me the right to take a limit (that they set), I can do so once in a while.

 

And I object when someone tries to lay a guilt trip on me if I don’t release everything I catch. I felt that was the tone of some earlier posts.

[danbouck]

foreign anglers are seen filling their buckets to the top with all kins of fish regardless of the limits or seasons.

 

 

:wallbash:

[Rich]

I'll take a feed of smallies over a feed of walleye anytime. Bass season's too short though.

[Fishnwire]

JPJ...

 

From what your telling me, you are far from being a "fish hog". I would never try to tell you that you should adjust your harvesting practices. (Or anyone else for that matter.) All I was trying to say (dead horse maybe?) was that your and my limited strain on the system, along with every other Tom, Dick and Harry...does have an adverse affect on the waters we fish. When an adult fish is taken, it's not like another one magically replaces it. It may leave room in the ecosystem for another to take it's place, but it doesn't happen overnight, or endlessly. Less people taking their limit frequently = better fishing for everyone. I think every clear thinking person sees that.

 

Once again, I hope you continue to enjoy consuming self-caught fish, harvested legally for the rest of your angling years...I know that I will. However, I'll also always try to remember that when I take a fish for the table, neither you nor I will ever catch that fish or it's future offspring again. I'm fairly certain that you make the same realization...............so tight lines, brother!

 

 

EDIT _ The "foreign anglers" post by whoever was just nasty.

Edited June 2, 2009 by Fishnwire

[Jonny]

Yes, Fishnwire, striking a balance is the key thing. Always in the back of our minds should be the true definition of "conservation" --- "wise use". Not non-use, and not excessive use.

 

The fishing regs give us the guidelines and within them or in addition to them we can use our judgement as to our impact on the resource. If I already have a wall-hanger walleye (which I do, from Little Abitibi Lake, north of Cochrane), I don't need to keep a big breeder, though I'm allowed. A picture or two and back into the lake it goes. But if I happen one day to be able to put four under-slot walleye on my chain, I'll probably keep all of them if I don't have any in the freezer*. If I have a nice pike on the chain then a couple of those walleye will go back into the lake. (I like pike for eating probably better than walleye.)

 

For me this lake (Nipissing) is the only game in town. When I lived in Timmins and trailered the boat to many lakes the whole dynamic was different. Lakes were hammered hard when the fishing was good, then when it tailed off people would go to other lakes and the stocks would eventually recover to a decent level (they never got as good as when they were first accessed). I don't think Nipissing can stand that, so yes, I make some personal choices which reduce my impact to less than what the regulations would allow.

 

Like I was trying to emphasize, I'm not a "fill the freezer" fisherman... but I will almost always "catch and keep" something.

 

Tight lines to you too.

 

----------------------------

 

* Topic for another thread... fresh fish vs frozen. In a blind taste test I don't think I could tell the difference. Maybe my taste buds suck.

Edited June 2, 2009 by Jocko Point Jonny

[fishermccann]

Whitefish on Lake Simcoe is a put and take fishery. Keep your two a day, they will put in another couple of hundred thousand again next year. A hut rental is 30-60 bucks a person . That is 15 to 30 bucks a fish!