"Cornmuse" wrote in message
...

"Chas Wade" wrote in message
news:PKKRb.173865$na.285095@attbi_s04...
I think it's chock full of good stuff, but I'm
not fond of his C&R philosophy. I think C&R is like putting out a bird
feeder. If you want a good look at them, you have to trick them. I'm
sure the positives outweigh the negatives. I'm just as sure that
McPhee chose to include the data that met with his opinion and ignored
some other stuff.

Agreed. I can't see how C&R can be a bad thing, though I have to respect
the throrough and coherent manner in which he stated his argument. It
made
me stop and think, but certainly not change my mind. I need to run some
errands, but when I get back I will put together a summary of JM's points
for discussion on this board.

Joe C.


Okay, I'm back. In his book "The Founding Fish" McPhee goes to great
lengths to quote quite a few resources regarding their opinions on catch and
release. McPhee is quite firmly in the camp of catch and kill for food, and
though I certainly don't want to put words in his mouth, it seems this comes
from a belief that C&R is torturous to the fish. McPhee quotes from PETA,
though also makes efforts to expose the rather ridiculous excesses of their
philosophy. The book is excellently researched and a magnificent read for
its historical placement of this important game fish. The most telling part
regarding his C&R philosophy that I can quote is this:

"To go a shade further than Bryant, catch-and-release fishing may be cruelty
masqerading as political correctness. You can't help wondering what sorts
of things people are doing today that seemed clearly right and good, yet
will one day seem wrong and bad. If I were strolling through the annals of
incorrectness - up past the invertible heroism of General Custer and on
through the safaris of Dennis Finch-Hatton - I would expect to discern, out
in the future, catch-and-release fishing. At its best it is what Thomas
McGuane calls "the thrill of the release, of a trout darting from your
opening hands or resting its weight very slightly in your palms underwater,
then easing off." At its worst it is dire - an unintended failure. In the
words of a shad biologist who works for a firm in Pennsylvania called
Ecology III Environmental Services, "A lot of good Samaritans are killing
fish." You watch a guy in Connecticut catch a shad in a boat. He stickes a
finger in past a gill cover and it comes out the mouth. He lifts the shad
to show its size and beauty, then lowers the shad into the water and removes
his finger. Roughing gills is what biologists call "a pure death sign."
Gill membranes are sensitive, elaborate, and easily broken. Whan they are
damaged, a fish loses its ablity to extract oxygen from water. In a video
called "Fishing for the American Shad," instructor John Punola reaches for a
roe shad, saying, "Shad are very fragile. I can pick him up easily by the
gills." Even the most adroit underwater release can turn loose a fish sick
with stress, destined not to recover. And the more the catch-and-release
angler fumbles - the more he manhandles fish up in air, twisting and yanking
to disgorge the hook- the lower the chance of survival. Boyd Kynard: "That
air-handling time, it's the worst, it's the hardest thing on them."