Eating fish

[Mccallister25]

I'm thinking of going to a local park this spring and catching some bream/crappie for frying and baking. My concern is, can the water affect a fish and my health by consumption?

 

Example; I would never eat fish that comes from a golf course because of the chemicals that are more than likely in the water due to spraying the fairways, etc. 

 

can someone shed shed more light on this please? Thanks. 

[riverbasser]

I guess it just depends on the body of water. The only concerns I know of around here is the mercury content. I fish the Chattahoochee river and about 3 hours north of me around Atlanta the people wont eat anything out of it. well I'm just down river and eat fish all the time.

[A-Jay]

Go For It ~

A-Jay

[Darren.]

I personally would not...anymore.

 

I've eaten fish from a local reservoir, but am just not into

it enough to do it again. We're just not a fish eating family,

I guess.

 

Local pond off a soccer field here always has a gas-like
shimmy to it during summer due to field care chemicals.

Who knows what flows in to local reservoirs!

[TnRiver46]

Imagine where the fish you get at the grocery store or restaurants came from.......... I'll take a local river fish over store bought any day 

[IndianaFinesse]

Unless it has had major pollution, your fine.  I eat fish that i catch about once a week, mostly white bass, crappie, and bluegills, and have known people who grew up eating fish four to five times a week and are still in good health.  Most lakes and rivers have less harmful chemicals than the fish hatcheries that raise fish for the market, especially when comparing to Chinese tilapia.  You don't want to know what they're fed.

[N Florida Mike]

I've eaten fish from many waters all my life . I feel great .No side effects that I know of ( twitch twitch )

I just don't eat out of golf course ponds.Tried some once and they didn't taste very good.

I don't eat many bass, they have a higher mercury content.I read somewhere that if you limit even bass to one serving a week it's not harmful.But I don't know anyone that eats that much bass.

I'd rather release bass anyway .If they die on me they will get filleted!?.

[N Florida Mike]

I caught a catfish once in the NC mountains that wasn't very good.Not sure why.The few trout I've eaten up there were delicious.

[tander]

I have ate fish from everybody of water around and I don't see no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects, no ill effects.

[frosty]

My dad and I used to keep a lot of panfish to make for supper. Anymore I don't usually feel like messing with them and I'm the only one that will eat them, so everything I catch gets released. 

[slonezp]

Enjoying a crappie dinner while i read this

[gim]

The quality of the water, the pollution it may or may not have, and the temperature of the water will all play a big role in the taste and quality of the fish, as is the type and size of the fish.  Larger fish are usually older fish and will thus have higher concentrations of pollutants, so intake of them should be limited.  Generally speaking, the colder and deeper the water is, the better the fish will taste too.

[Ratherbfishing]

GENERALLY speaking, I think eating the occasional fish will not cause a great deal of harm.  It is the people who eat a LOT of their fish who have to exercise more caution (with regards to where their fish are coming from).

[FishOnLMB]

When I eat fish, I make sure that there mercury content is not very high, and that the body of water I take it from is clean. Usually, I eat fish out of reservoirs, lakes, and streams. If the water is polluted, or there are pollutants around the body of water ex. a power plant I don't eat the fish. I also say, if I am not willing to swim in the water, I won't eat the fish. 

[RoLo]

On 1/6/2017 at 1:53 PM, riverbasser said:

I guess it just depends on the body of water. The only concerns I know of around here is the mercury content. I fish the Chattahoochee river and about 3 hours north of me around Atlanta the people wont eat anything out of it. well I'm just down river and eat fish all the time.

 

 

When I lived in Rico, Georgia, I ate countless largemouth bass from West Point Lake,

which is an impoundment in the Chattahoochee River. Much to the chagrin of some, I'm still here  

 

Roger

 

 

[Catt]

There's been a consumption warning on Toledo Bend since the late 70s due to mercury poisoning. When you read the tech data it states one must consume 3 lbs of fish filets per person per month to meet the minimum requirements!

[the reel ess]

You should be OK eating smaller fish that don't necessarily relate to bottom. I ate everything I caught for the first 30+ years. Catfish, carp, bowfin and most really big fish will have the most contaminants. Crappie, bluegill and other panfish tend to have the least. I was told by a chemical engineer once that you'd have to eat the mud to get a dose of PCBs large enough to cause cancer and then it would take longer than you'd live to develop. Most of the advisories will be in the major rivers and lakes because that's where all pollution ends up. Upstream you'll be dealing mostly with nitrogen runoff from fertilizers. If your place is first in a stream or spring fed, you should have no known issues whatsoever.

 

I fish a few very clean places now, but I rarely eat any fish I catch. I'm too lazy to put them on a stringer and drag around on my kayak all day. As mentioned above, our polluted waters have healthier fish in them than do sesspools where swai and tilapia are raised. Fish that are farm raised no not have beneficial omega 3's that wild fish have because they are not fed fish or shellfish. And they're captive in their own filth their entire lives. You're eating fish poop when you eat a farm raised fish. Sadly, most governments prefer you eat farm raised because it's sustainable. You won't hurt world fish populations if you eat tilapia. But you also won't if you eat from your local pond.

[2tall79]

My favorite local lake is clear enough you can read a dime in 30 feet of water, yet there is a sign at every launch suggesting you only eat your catch once a week, especially children.

[burrows]

I usually only eat planted trout but I used to eat farm pond bass crappie blue gill all the time but catfish I will eat no matter what unless it comes out the sewer system or something. I don't eat fish more than once a week fish have murcury no matter what body of water they come out of. 

[Bassun]

You can google up local advisories for any major water.  Most that have warnings, are not to "not" eat the fish, but to limit the amount, and usually then it is a pretty fair amount, and fish dependent.  Bottom dwellers like carp and catfish will generally have the most impact from heavy metals like mercury.  If there is any significant risk, they will have the local waters posted heavily.  

 

But like many have mentioned, imported from China (for example) has more significant chance of being "bad for you" vs anything local... minus a few extreme exceptions.  I believe I read the Ohio has now topped the ranks as the most polluted river in the U.S. but I may be mistaken.  Not sure what they based it on, but...

[scaleface]

My dad , uncle and I have ate hundreds of fish from this irrigation ditch which gets all the runoff from farm fields. We all ended up with prostate cancer and we jokingly blame it on all those dam bullheads we ate .

[.ghoti.]

Illinois conservation folks issue recommendations every year, stating which fish, from which locations should not be eaten. Check with your local authorities. They may very well have the info you need to make an informed decision.

[burrows]

On 1/20/2017 at 2:18 AM, scaleface said:

My dad , uncle and I have ate hundreds of fish from this irrigation ditch which gets all the runoff from farm fields. We all ended up with prostate cancer and we jokingly blame it on all those dam bullheads we ate .

I will never eat another farm pond fish again.