I bet that one tasted good.

[Bazoo]

I fish a lot and I can't help but to talk about it with those I encounter. From church family to strangers in the grocery store. They all imply or assume that I keep and eat the fish I catch.

 

I get comments like "Bet that one tasted good", and "I know who's going to be having fish for supper".

 

I like fish, preferably from Captain D's, but I don't fish for food,  I fish for the sport. It seems this is odd to most everyone.

 

Anyone else get a lot of those comments and attitude?

[Scott F]

My mother, who would have been 100 years old, never understood why I always released all the fish that I caught. My father, who got me started on fishing never threw anything that was legal back in the water. 

[gim]

Same.  My older relatives, even including my own Father at times years ago, couldn't figure out the concept of catch and release.  Many still can't, or refuse to.

 

It was a different generation, they fished for food.  They didn't fish because they enjoyed fishing.

[TnRiver46]

When they ask me if it tasted good , I can often say “it sure did “

[gim]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

When they ask me if it tasted good , I can often say “it sure did “

 

I'm sure you could also say that about road kill raccoon too. 😂

[TnRiver46]

Just now, gimruis said:

 

I'm sure you could also say that about road kill raccoon too. 😂

Never eaten a raccoon….. 

 

captain Ds can keep their overbattered over priced fish 

[ironbjorn]

I've found it depends on the generation. The older generations are more likely to assume you fish for food because that's how it used to be and catch and release bodies of water were scarce. The newer generations don't typically need to fish for food and thanks to technology we have all the information in the world at our fingertips to know how to successfully fish artificials and catch fish for sport. Another thing I've noticed is that the older generations will ask "any luck today?" when passing by and the new generations will ask "catch anything?"

[Functional]

With a lot of people starting to see more and more chemicals in their store bought food and more and more alerts of some disease on them I think we are going to start seeing a swing to more people keeping to eat. You can see it already with home gardens. With the population boom since that last gen I think in the next 5 -10 years we will see a change in creel limits because of it. 

[Bankbeater]

My late father in law was the same way,  He could never understand why I go fishing if I release everything I catch.

[Mobasser]

When I was a kid, my brother and I fished together and kept every single fish but carp. We never knew anything about catch and release.                                             I started releasing bass in my later 20s, and catching crappie or bream to cook. I've been doing that now for a long time.

[Dwight Hottle]

38 minutes ago, Functional said:

With a lot of people starting to see more and more chemicals in their store bought food and more and more alerts of some disease on them I think we are going to start seeing a swing to more people keeping to eat. You can see it already with home gardens. With the population boom since that last gen I think in the next 5 -10 years we will see a change in creel limits because of it. 

I understand your premise with organic food & home gardens not chemical treating everything. But fish caught out of public waters have lots of chemicals absorbed in them because of all the sprayed fertilizers, weed killers & polluted runoffs. Especially in my home state of FL. Even the Great Lakes have fish advisories about fish consumption because of mercury & other contaminants. I don’t think more caught fish will get eaten than the current norm. 

[TnRiver46]

24 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I understand your premise with organic food & home gardens not chemical treating everything. But fish caught out of public waters have lots of chemicals absorbed in them because of all the sprayed fertilizers, weed killers & polluted runoffs. Especially in my home state of FL. Even the Great Lakes have fish advisories about fish consumption because of mercury & other contaminants. I don’t think more caught fish will get eaten than the current norm. 

Where do you think commercial fishermen catch theirs ? 

[Dwight Hottle]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Where do you think commercial fishermen catch theirs ? 

Duh? 

[TnRiver46]

Just saying your store bought fish are coming from the same public water as the ones you catch. And farm raised fish are fed ground up public water fish (fish food) and can have even higher levels of containments than wild caught 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

18 hours ago, Bazoo said:

I fish a lot and I can't help but to talk about it with those I encounter. From church family to strangers in the grocery store. They all imply or assume that I keep and eat the fish I catch.

 

I get comments like "Bet that one tasted good", and "I know who's going to be having fish for supper".

 

I like fish, preferably from Captain D's, but I don't fish for food,  I fish for the sport. It seems this is odd to most everyone.

 

Anyone else get a lot of those comments and attitude?

 

Yup. When people ask me if I ate it I usually say "I don't eat a football when I score a touchdown".  I personally can't stand the taste of fish.

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Where do you think commercial fishermen catch theirs ? 

 

Once food gets placed on a supermarket shelf, all of those harmful impurities are magically removed.

[A-Jay]

Trout, walleye and bluegill are all eligible for my fillet it program.

But I just don't have it in me

to take a knife to a big bass.

btw, the waters I do take a few eaters from, are pretty clean.

A-Jay

 

[Dwight Hottle]

16 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Just saying your store bought fish are coming from the same public water as the ones you catch. And farm raised fish are fed ground up public water fish (fish food) and can have even higher levels of containments than wild caught 

 I totally agree with you. And my feeling is that is that farm raised fish are even more contaminated than fresh wild caught unless they have a way to constantly change the water source by flushing dirty water with clean. I also know you eat a lot of fish that you catch. I have no problem with that. I eat fish probably two or three times a week but I'm selective with my choices. 

My original comment was regarding a change in behavior. I don't think the percentage of people eating fish will change much from present. That differs with more people leaning towards eliminating chemicals in their food purchased from the grocery store. And I don't think creel limits will be raised because of it. Just my opinion. 

[gim]

You'd be hard pressed to find a wild self reproducing population of fish out there that doesn't have PCBs or forever PFAS chemicals in them.  That has been well-documented with record lawsuits against companies like DuPont and 3M.  They've polluted groundwater and environmental surface waters for decades now with PFAS forever chemicals that will not be going away in our lifetime, or the next.  They've been allowed to contaminate our waters for far too long with the thought that profits were more important than public health.

 

And then the fresh fish that's generally healthy is rolled in batter or breading, fried in oil or grease, and dipped in tartar sauce.  Oh, the irony.

[WRB]

Farm raised salmon are raised in cold water ocean pins and the only farm raised fish to consider eating. We always have fresh line caught salmon available it cost more but I prefer fresh line caught fish especially the fish I caught.

I grew up eating trout and  crappie we caught and grilled not deep fried, that is how I prepare fish today.

The commercial fish we eat is fresh, never frozen Pacific Halibut.

Avoid farm raised Talopia!

Tom

 

[Bazoo]

Interesting discussion, thanks all for sharing.

 

chuckle@ I don't eat a football after a touchdown.

 

I don't eat a lot of fish. I only fish for bass, and I don't like the taste of the one I ate last year. If I routinely caught walleye, which I hear is the best eating fish there is, I'd likely eat a few.

[TnRiver46]

 @Pumpkinseed Lizard
 

Never scored a touchdown but I’ll eat pig skin any day 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

21 hours ago, gimruis said:

You'd be hard pressed to find a wild self reproducing population of fish out there that doesn't have PCBs or forever PFAS chemicals in them.  That has been well-documented with record lawsuits against companies like DuPont and 3M.  They've polluted groundwater and environmental surface waters for decades now with PFAS forever chemicals that will not be going away in our lifetime, or the next.  They've been allowed to contaminate our waters for far too long with the thought that profits were more important than public health.

 

And then the fresh fish that's generally healthy is rolled in batter or breading, fried in oil or grease, and dipped in tartar sauce.  Oh, the irony.

 

You could probably go into the Rockies, catch as many non native brook trout as you want and eat 100% safe. 

 

I don't see how people can eat things like catfish with all of the industrial and ag runoff. 

[J Francho]

I tell people that if I kept what I caught, there'd be no fish left.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Pumpkinseed Lizard said:

 

You could probably go into the Rockies, catch as many non native brook trout as you want and eat 100% safe. 

 

I don't see how people can eat things like catfish with all of the industrial and ag runoff. 

I mean, you eat the ag causing the runoff…..

[Standard]

I'll keep the occasional Walleye if I happen to catch one, especially while camping.  If I'm ice fishing a stocked trout lake, I'll keep my limit.  I should keep some pike, but I don't really feel like dealing with the slimers.  Not sure I'll ever keep a smallmouth, and a lot of the waters I fish have special regs anyways.