Fish for Supper

[Paul Arden]

Hi guys,

something I hear quite often is that if a fish is badly hooked and bleeding we should respect it by eating it. Isn't this a bit weird? I mean what if it's really ugly, under-sized or a bat?

Cheers, Paul

[Marc LaMouche]

fuck that. i've bled liters and i'm still around.

[_Ré]

It is better if you do something useful with the fish if it is likely to die then let it rot in the water. Just a couple of days ago we found a badly released zander on the Danube. It was struggling on the surface, gills were damaged and the fish was bleeding. Interestingly there was no fisherman in sight so it must have been floating on the surface for quite a long time. It would have been a much better solution the kill that fish and eat it then let it struggle for hours.

[Paul Arden]

If the fish is mortally wounded of course I think it should be killed, that's called humane. But I don't think eating it makes a difference. If anything it would be better if the fish goes back dead to be recycled. If you choose to eat it, that's fine, but I don't think you should feel that you have to eat it to excuse the accident, because it doesn't!

Cheers, Paul

[fishingthefly]

Interesting, my experience at my brown trout stocked fishery, which is 100% totally catch & release ..... is that they all survive, bleeding or not.

Equally interesting is that before Haddo was totally catch & release ..... I often found dead fish. This was I think down to folk dropping a smaller kept fish over the side of the boat when they caught a bigger one that they wanted to keep

Also interesting, the largest salmon that I know of to be caught on our local River Don in recent years was kept by the angler concerned "due to seal damage that would make it unlikely to survive to spawn" ....... yet a photo of this fish appeared in Trout & Salmon Magazine not long afterwards and there were no signs of any seal damage in the photo!

And another thing ...... Considering that all the stocked fisheries in our area stipulate in their rules that barbless hooks are to be used for C&R once your bag limit has been reached ..... why do the anglers looking for advice on fly choice at my fishery not have any previously de-barbed or barbless flies in their boxes? Have they never caught more than their two fish limit before?

No, I'm not moaning :p

I'm just pointing out that the folk that say these things ..... don't always mean what they say!

Best wishes
Mike

[Bernd]

Hi guys,

something I hear quite often is that if a fish is badly hooked and bleeding we should respect it by eating it. Isn't this a bit weird? I mean what if it's really ugly, under-sized or a bat?

Cheers, Paul

Hi mate,
at least you didn't find that exactly on my last fp . Instead I wrote:

"If I don't feel a fair chance to survive for the fish..."

This doesn't mean I would kill every fish which is badly hooked and bleeding. It always depends on how it is bleeding and on which species of fish it is. From my experinece I sometimes can tell pretty good that a fish most probably will die. And I don't like seeing fish dying slowly and with unnecessary pain.
So I kill it and then eat it if possible.

A dead fish is a dead fish, yes. But eating a Sea trout of 43cm (here we are officially allowed to keep them when reaching 45cm, no smaller ones) can safe a life of a bigger one if we were to take one for dinner.
Too often I have seen anglers throwing a Sea trout back in the water and then it died after a while (coming up the surface) while taking another one (maybe better conditions or maybe bigger) for eating.
Up to everyone to make his/her decision, but am having a hard time seeing such things happen.

Clearly over 90% of my fish are for release.
But I do understand anglers who want to take a fish for eating. For me this is a very natural thing and depending on the stock/water I don't see a problem here.

Also I do understand those who think "playing a fish to always release it is a form of perversion, but playing it and then eating it means a natural thing and is not comparable with just fishing to always only play the fish".

Personally it means a great feeling for me when I can see a fish swimming back.
But I must say it doesn't make me feel as good when I hear that a carp was caught 89 times and already has a name. I would not cast to that fish.

Greets
Bernd

p.s.: A bat indeed gives a perfect sushi, never tried it?! :p

[Aitor]

p.s.: A bat indeed gives a perfect sushi, never tried it?! :p

Of course! :p

[Michal Duzynski]

No crispy-spicy wings? Ooooooo to bad! :-):-):-)

[Aitor]

The wings were sold separately!

[stockiebasher]

How do you Know it's going to die? You don't. The fish will be recycled by all the beasties in the water if it dies. I'd rather give it a chance. If you eat the fish you should probably take a shit in the river just to be ecologically correct!

[Harps]

...If you eat the fish you should probably take a shit in the river just to be ecologically correct!

Where do you think most sewage goes?
:p



If the regs say no keeping- then let it go, dead or not. There is a chance that the fish might survive and if it doesn't at least it does go back to the system.

If you are allowed to keep the fish and you are within your rights then do so, but don't use blood as an excuse.
On the otherhand, if it is belly up suffering and you eat fish, don't waste it and don't feel guilty.
If you don't think that the fishery can sustain the harvest- call the local biologist and complain!