Catch and Release Hurts our Quality of Life

On Wed, 5 Mar 2008 14:06:21 -0800 (PST), Halfordian Golfer
wrote:

Prove me wrong Dave. Write a letter to TU saying the reservoir
pollution making it unsafe for pregnant women and children to eat fish
is something they need to focus on. Show me the response that says
they'll get 'right on it'.

There is nothing TU or anyone else can do about it. The fish (bass,
pickeral, white perch, laketrout, bullheads, etc) have been
contaminated for years. Yet, fishing is still allowed and most people
still eat their catch. It is not a place where c & r types would go
(generally), but is a meat gatherer's heaven.

Catch and release *works*, Tim, as I have illustrated with the Rapid
River example. Without c & r, the river would be dead, or worse,
stocked with cee-ment pond mutant rainbows, brookies, browns.

There are many put and take ponds/streams in this area. Ya wanna eat
some Purina fish, have a go at 'em, but leave the native fish alone.
Man has ****ed up just about everything he has touched, and without c
& r in the Rapid, that too will find its way on the effed up list.

BTW, I have taken *many* wild fish, the first person to catch them as
witnessed by their reaction, in Russia, Canada, and Alaska. And I
released them for someone else to enjoy.

Tell me something, Tim: When you go fishing, do you catch a fish, put
it in your creel, and continue to fish (assuming it is a 1 fish/day
limit)? Or do you release it and wait for a really big one? I saw an
old geezer do just that on the Rapid one time a few years ago with a
landlocked salmon. He put a skinny 14 incher in his creel and
continued to fish. When he caught a 16 incher he was about to "trade
in" the dead fish for the "better" one when I told him I would report
him to the local warden. The man reluctantly released the 16 incher
and moved on to another spot. I followed him for awhile, but I know
that when I left him he threw the 14 incher back and kept a better
fish. I'm not saying you do the same, Tim, but when you catch a fish
and keep it, shouldn't you stop fishing altogether (again, assuming it
is a one fish limit). If you continue to fish, are you a hypocrite?

Dave