The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

In my quest for more fishing info on the internet, I ran accross these websites. Part of this proves Canadians have too much free time on their hands. I may delete the channel from my Direct TV after this.

http://www.../action_catchrelease.htm

http://dsc...&guid=20070720114530

Discovery Channel isn't saying the catch and release angling injures fish, the scientists who conducted the study are saying it. Discovery Channel is just reporting it. Frankly, anyone who thinks that catch and release doesn't cost the fish something is being naive. We are participating in a blood sport; whether or not we catch and release, fish can die by our actions and in the very least, we are causing them to expend energy they would otherwise use for survival. I don't see that the Discovery Channel article is saying that people shouldn't fish, only that they should be aware of what it costs the fish. I agree with that 100%. I don't agree with the conclusions that the Peaceful Parks Coalition draws, but that is something diffent than the Discovery Channel article.

BTW, thanks for the email about that job opening.

Dawn

Of course it injures the fish. Depending on which studies you choose to accept, trout caught and released with barbless hooks suffer somewhere between 5% and 25% mortality.

I just made those number up, because I am too lazy to go find the actual values, but they are decent ball park numbers.

If you play a trout for fifteen minutes, you might as well keep it, because you have likely killed it anyway.

Dawn wrote:
... We are participating in a blood sport; whether or not we catch and release, fish can die by our actions and in the very least, we are causing them to expend energy they would otherwise use for survival. Dawn

the single most convincing reason not to have tournament fly fishing...

Ed Kelleher wrote:
If you play a trout for fifteen minutes, you might as well keep it, because you have likely killed it anyway.

I disagree. Perhaps if you play a 7 or 8 inch trout that long, what you say is true. By all means bring a trout to hand as quickly as possible, but if it takes 15 mins just to be able to land a 24 inch Brown, that fish has plenty of life in him/her. It'd be crazy not to let it go. I am reading a book by Lefty Kreh and he says when you bring a fish to hand, hold it upside down (with it's back in your palm) and the fish won't thrash and the chances of it's survival are increased. Just a thought.

I can't put my fingers on the studies but as I recall, mortality was in the lower end of the range you mentioned, like 5 or 10%. Based on what I've seen in smaller, heavily fished streams like Silver Creek and the Little Truckee, it isn't much. In fact, the agencies' biologists believe it has so little effect on the populations that they recommended additional winter season on parts of both streams. Such regs have been in effect on Silver Creek for some years with no apparent deleterious effects on population.
However, I suspect the mortality numbers are probably higher where bait and/or treble hooks are involved, as has been true in some locales. That might be part of why entities like "Peaceful Parks" made the recommendations they did.
My general "best practices" is single barbless hook, land'em quick, handle 'em as little as possible (don't even take 'em out of the water), and most of them seem to do fine, even in heavily fished waters.

15 minutes is a really long time to land a fish. I think if it takes you that long, you aren't using heavy enough gear or exerting enough pressure on the fish. A 15 minute fight is way too long in my opinion, no matter what the size of the fish (talking freshwater catch and release here). Even if a fish swims away, it doesn't necessarily means it survives.

Dawn

I was lucky enough to pull in a 19inch brown trout while fishing a section of the Stany a month back. I had on a 6X tappered leader line, with no tipit, so i was able to put a lot of pressure on the line to get the fish in. The fight was done in relatively calm water, and it still took me a good 5 minutes to bring it to hand (officially the largest fish and longest fight I've had in my few years fly fishing)

The fish was fine. He was big, strong and healthy, and a long fight like that took more out of me than the fish. Although I was very worried once I realized it was going to take a little while to get him in, that the fish may not survive, once i released him he drafted a rock close by for a little while, then shot off with no problem.

Does that mean he survived after I left the area? Who knows. But for a larger fish I didn't even worry for a second he wouldn't recover

5 minutes is a lot shorter than 15 minutes, and you say that is one of the longest fights you have had. I still say that 15 minutes is a really long time to fight a fish. Even after 5 minutes of fighting, you say that your fish rested behind a rock. What would it have needed with 15 minutes of fighting? I think that 5 minutes or so is reasonable for a larger fish, but if it is taking much longer than that, one should be exerting more pressure on the fish. Just my opinion--maybe someone with more experience can chime in. I know that in my experience, 15 minutes is taking too long to land a fish.

Dawn

Bottom line: Who cares???? I know I'm not going to give up fishing.

Good point.

Why not look at the scientific estimates of mortality?

Idaho cutthroat trout catch and release: 3% https://research.idfg.idaho.gov/Fisheries%20Research%20Reports/Volume%20066_Article%2013.pdf

Ontario all types of fishing methods: 16%
http://www...eview_and_guidelines.pdf

Lets not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Marteen