Huge Smallie -- Not Really a Fishing Report

[Josh Smith]

This evening I was able to get out to the river between storms to do some fishing.

When I pulled up, I found someone in my spot.  That was OK; he was a crappie fisherman I'd talked to before; nice guy.  Knows what he's doing with crappie and tells me about 'em, how to catch 'em.  I'll have to get out and try it sometime.

He held up a stringer of some really big crappie; he's not a bucket fisherman.  They were all the size you'd expect a responsible fisherman to keep.

I looked over and saw a dead bass on the rocks.  I mentioned it.  He said, "Yeah, I saw that too.  Who would do something like that?"  His wife -- she was there -- said that there were more in the river's slack water near the bank.  I check that out and ID'd those as drum.  Three of 'em.  Yeah, they were "only" drum.  Still...

That bass would have gone 2-3lbs easy.  Around it were Bud Light cans and evidence of night fishing.  I don't get it.  So, what, a bass (it was very light in color; it had been deep) ate someone's bait and they killed it?  The drum, too?

Never in my life have I done that crap.  Hell, I throw carp back unless they're Asian carp, of course.  Those we're required by law to kill. 

I personally don't like common carp, anything about them.  They're ugly, and they're a general pain in my butt.  Still, there are those who like to fish for 'em, and they serve the environment.  They're naturalized.  For these reasons I release them.

Then folks come along catfishing and kill a bass because they were too lazy to throw it back.

To be fair, it would have died and washed up.  Its eyes were gone, unlike the drum.  But how it got so far up the bank is a mystery in that case.  The river looked like it had been up that high, but not in several days and not since I'd been there last.

I'm pretty angry.

Josh

[papajoe222]

I'm not defending anyone's actions, but it seems to me that you're assuming quite a bit. If the night fishermen that may have been drinking actually caught the fish, there is the possibility that it was gut hooked and died as a result. If they were fishing for crappie, they had no interest in it or the drum. The missing eyes are likely from scavenger birds that could have pulled it up the bank some.  If I were bass fishing and gut hooked a crappie, chances are I'd toss it ashore rather than back in the water.  I'm sure crappie fishermen would frown on that. What about the anglers that catch and keep bass?

The bottom line is; The only actions you can control are your own and the best you can hope for is that those actions will influence others to follow your lead.  Be upset. You have a right to be, but even if all your assumptions are correct, what others do with their catch is beyond our control.

 

[Josh Smith]

There's still the matter of the beer cans left behind.

[nascar2428]

5 minutes ago, Josh Smith said:

There's still the matter of the beer cans left behind.

I pick up anglers litter every time I fish from the bank(fours times a week, weather permitting) I have plastic bags in my back pack. I'm in shock when I don't find litter, plus here in Michigan beer cans are worth ten cents. Talk about a bonus!!

[d-camarena]

Wow, 10 cents a can. Id be rich...

[Bluebasser86]

A raccoon or crow could have easily drug the fish up the bank and been about to eat it when someone spooked it off. 

I used to fish a public pond by my house that had a bunch of dinks and one pond matriarch that I'd caught a couple times that had a distinct scar on her back. It was mostly catfishermen and bucket fishermen that frequented the pond, got a lot of sideways glances when I'd show up fishing for bass. One day I noticed a lot of flies buzzing around the trash. That big bass was in the trashcan with a stick jammed through her gills on one side and out the other. Didn't fillet it, just killed it to kill something I guess. I haven't been back there since. 

[Last_Cast]

I see it all the time.
People throwing their garbage by the lake.
Keeping/hurting fish they shouldn't.

One day i'll get angry enough and the garbage will end up in their mouths. =p
 

[scaleface]

9 hours ago, d-camarena said:

Wow, 10 cents a can. Id be rich...

think we could  take cans up there and get a dime each for them ? 

[d-camarena]

If thats possible i think i have a new job

2 minutes ago, scaleface said:

think we could  take cans up there and get a dime each for them ? 

 

[blckshirt98]

Could that spot be a bend in the river where dead fish from upstream just end up on the rocks from the way the current runs?  Maybe dead fish end up there on those rocks all the time except this time the birds/mammals didn't get to scavenge them by the time you or the other guy showed up.