Are You Better Than A Bucket Fisherman?

[Lund Explorer]

How many times have we heard someone state that they have never kept a largemouth bass?

How many times have we heard someone berate the bucket fisherman who kills the fish he catches?

Now read the linked study on the mortality rate of released bass and try to answer the question of who kills more bass. A bucket fisherman may catch his/her five bass limit and goes home. Using the average mortality rates from the study, how many fish can you release before you have possibly killed your five bass limit?

How many bass die when the C&R angler brags of having a 100 fish day? A 50 fish day?

Is it ethical to catch and then release more bass than what the averages say puts you over what the bucket fisherman takes home?

http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/resources/factsheets/catch_release.htm

[zip pow]

I'm not any better than any other angler simply put its a resource for each type of fishermen to enjoy in there own way and it's a sustainable resource. Most states DNR will tell you that a certain amount of kill fishing is good for the fishery. Thats why we have creel limits. I have seen the big 7,8,9 pound fish floating by the weigh in on gville if you went around to all the ramps it would make your heart hurt. So i am no better.At least they use what they kill instead of letting it float and rot away.

[K_Mac]

I am a big supporter of catch and release. I have no illusions that all released fish survive though, and understand that selective harvest of fish is a good thing on many bodies of water. I get tired of the derisive comments about people who keep fish. Fishing is a blood sport, and while I think education regarding catch and release, and enforcement of creel limits is important to maintain healthy fisheries, I accept the reality that some fish die as a result of my catching them. As I said in the other "bucket fisherman" thread, within the limits of the law, "they" have every right to keep their catch. It is the revenue generated by fishermen that supports stocking and management of public waters.

[Crestliner2008]

Regardless of what any study says, if you keep "all" your fish, "all" your fish will die. If you release all your fish, "some" of your fish will die. Common sense. I don't need a "study" to tell me that. I also have nothing against fishermen that keep some fish for food, if they like that. And I'm certainly not suggesting that either case is "better" than the other.

Personally for me, no freshwater fish can hold a candle to just about any saltwater species, when it comes to flavor. Which is the main reason I practice CPR.

[Bob C]

I usually keep 2 or 3 legal bass each time out for catch and fry.

[Nice_Bass]

no.

[grimlin]

I still dream of 50-100 bass days......It hasn't happened yet for me...LOL

I don't feel I'm any better than them. However many of them don't follow the law either....Those are the ones I DO have a problem with.

Michigan has Bass and walleye seasons as you should know....This year DNR is having a big problem because of warm weather more people are already fishing for them out of season. A lot of people are getting caught and ticketed.

[Hi Salenity]

I fish at a lake that has an 18'' limit to keep a fish. I wish it was the other way around anything over 18'' must be put back. $.02

[J Francho]

Regardless of what any study says, if you keep "all" your fish, "all" your fish will die.

Show me a study that shows me that catch and release fishing damages the fishery.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

I don't agree with the study done at all, i've caught many of bass with hooks still in their throats and all i do is cut the barb and gently pull the hook out in a u motion the hook being metal has already detererated and it's much easier, I could see if the bass swallow most of the plastic and the plastic not beig digested, but I don't believe the rate is high on catch and release. On the other hand I do think that if you deep hook a bass in the throat or in the gill the bass decease rate is higher. Also the catch and release method has been provin that it does work and numbers of bass have gone up.

[mschaefer]

^{I can't recall where I read the study, but I believe it has been proven that deep hooked fish with the hook left in have a high rate of death from infection. Good reason for even live bait fishermen to use circle hooks.}

[tomustang]

I would be more inclined to take the article more seriously if it wasn't a private lake and they provided information that matters besides the eye catching "%" figures.

[ww2farmer]

Am I better than a bucket fisherman? No...........sometimes, depending on what I am fishing for, I AM A BUCKET FISHERMAN. I keep a lot of the bluegills, and other panfish I catch through the ice. Never more than a legal limit, but often more than I can use right away. I just fillet them and freeze them for future use. I don't keep bass ever, and I don't keep fish from ice out, till ice up. What I , or anyone else is doing, with in the law, is none of your concern. Bass fisherman take a holier than thou approach to keeping and harvesting fish that is nonsense, and ofen borderline hypocritical. Some people who would see you hanged in the town square for keeping a limit of small keeper bass, are the same idiots who toss used plastics, or cigg butts over board like it's perfectly harmless.

[K_Mac]

I fish at a lake that has an 18'' limit to keep a fish. I wish it was the other way around anything over 18'' must be put back. $.02

My favorite lake has a slot limit that allows anglers to keep 5 fish under 14" and one over 18". It has a very healthy bass population and we catch many fish over 18". I would be OK with not allowing any bigger fish to be kept, but the slot limit seems to be working fine.

[Hooligan]

No, I am not. I do not live in their shoes. They bleed red just like I do.

I'm proud of who and where I am, but I'm not so conceited to see that there's little difference between us in the end. So long as they are legal in their pursuits, I have no issue. I have more issue with someone that breaks a state record with no valid license, kills a great fish over it, and it will not be recognized.

Edit: For the record, brown fish are some of the very best eating for shore lunch. BWCA meals consist of many fillets of smallmouth and walleyesaurus-rex. And I'm not too proud to admit it.

[Bassn Blvd]

Show me a study that shows me that catch and release fishing damages the fishery.

I think the link to the study is in the original post.

[J Francho]

Do you release your bass into a cage kept at 20 FOW for 72 hours? You don't think that's a little unnatural? The study is bunk.

[Catt]

Yes I'm better because I practice selevtive harvesting, belonhg to every lake association I fish, attend Wildlife & Fisheries meetings associated with the lakes I fish, and actively teach my childern & students to participate.

[Lund Explorer]

It's interesting to read all of the responses here. I expected to see some members respond such as K_Mac did. Open minded as always, understanding that there are many ways different fishermen partake and enjoy the sport.

I also expected that some members would disagree with the point I was trying to make and/or the results of the study. It didn't surprise me at all that nobody offered links to show that this study was wrong. Perhaps it is because there are a number of other studies that show the same basic results of the one I offered.

I chose to provide the study I did because it was written in a little more "user friendly" format. It covered a wide variety of fishing methods from live bait to artificials, as well as looking into mortality based on where the fish was hooked. I was somewhat surprised that plastic worms were the number one reason (above live bait) for throat hooked fish.

I think the study shows that the truth of the matter is that catch and release fishing does lead to a certain amount of delayed mortality. These are fish that have been removed from the resource just the same as if they were released into hot grease. The percentage of fish that die due to being caught may change from location to location, or season by season, but the bottom line is the same. So my other questions remain relevant.

If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?

On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!

[tugsandpulls]

when i use the term bucket fishermen i mean the ones that take every fish they catch big small and lots of them way over the legal limit so yes im way bettter then them and half of them dont even have a fishing license so they are illegal and a pain in my side to be nice no never mind being nice i simply hate them

[BassfisherMass]

i keep one fish a year to fry up other than that they all go back for another day

[NBR]

As long as the "Bucket Fisherman" obeys the rules he is at least as good as I am, maybe better. I started selective harvest (thanks In-Fisherman for the terminology) long before Ray Scott started B.A.S.S. and also before CR was popularized. If I hook a fish deep and I think it is likely to die I might bring it home for a meal but I am sure it will die if I fillet it.

No doubt some released fish will die but then so will some fish that were never hooked. That is why we have state and provencial fisheries managment to protect the resource from over kill. If I see a bucket or any fisherman violate the rules my cell phone is going to be used.

[grimlin]

It's interesting to read all of the responses here. I expected to see some members respond such as K_Mac did. Open minded as always, understanding that there are many ways different fishermen partake and enjoy the sport.

I also expected that some members would disagree with the point I was trying to make and/or the results of the study. It didn't surprise me at all that nobody offered links to show that this study was wrong. Perhaps it is because there are a number of other studies that show the same basic results of the one I offered.

I chose to provide the study I did because it was written in a little more "user friendly" format. It covered a wide variety of fishing methods from live bait to artificials, as well as looking into mortality based on where the fish was hooked. I was somewhat surprised that plastic worms were the number one reason (above live bait) for throat hooked fish.

I think the study shows that the truth of the matter is that catch and release fishing does lead to a certain amount of delayed mortality. These are fish that have been removed from the resource just the same as if they were released into hot grease. The percentage of fish that die due to being caught may change from location to location, or season by season, but the bottom line is the same. So my other questions remain relevant.

If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?

On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!

I can see the article's point. But like J Francho said it's a little bit of unethical study. A caged up wild animal is prone to stress which could have something to do with a higher mortally rate that they documented. No doubt we could be killing a fish here and there specially if deep hooked. Any angler worth his salt usually knows if a fish will survive.I only deep hooked 2 fish last year I kept.It is a blood sport I'm well aware of it. They also know how to safely release the fish with minimal harm for higher chances of success of survival.

I look at it this way,even if they do die it's balancing out the weak fish which becomes some other animal's meal down the line. It's harvesting in it's own sense.

Look how many times Dottie was caught and released only to be caught again. Yes it did die....but look how long it lived also.

[Crestliner2008]

If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?

On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!

[Crestliner2008]

You're kidding, right? Again - if you keep everything, you kill everything. If you C&R everything you kill ONLY some of what you release. My goodness, is that hard to understand?