Jerkbait

First time on here and much obliged for the invite. This is more of a gripe but it really ruffles my fur. My boss and I live in extreme southwest Missouri about 1 minute from Table Rock Lake in the James River arm. I believe I get told 3 times a week I fish to much but not all of us can be right. My gripe is I go down and just walk the bank to get outside and yesterday there was a nice 10-12 inch DEAD Crappie floating on top of the water. I would really like to look that person in the eyes and say seriously. I raised three boys who I taught to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors but I also taught them if you catch a fish and within an hour if it slows down or you don’t catch anymore turn the fish loose. A dead fish does nobody any good. Thanks guys & Gals for the ear. I tell my wife all the time babe give a man a fish he will eat for a day but give a man a new Champion and a $1000 gift card to Bass Pro he will eat like a king forever. Amen 🎣

EasternOZ Loc: Kansas City Metro

True Jb and welcome to the forum.

Charlie H Loc: Greer, Arizona

Welcome! A dead fish does not necessarily mean the cause if death was due to being caught, killed and thrown away.... but it does happen.
Good news is nothing in nature goes to waste.

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

JB, granted there are plenty of people that don’t do as much as they could when releasing fish, bare in mind that the mortality rate regarding releasing fish is always a great deal more than most of us think. Some fish species take to being released better than others and any fish can be fought to its death. I’ve been in the business a long time and have seen people do some rather dumb things like catching a trout on a ‘no kill’ stream when the air temperature was well below freezing, kept the fish out of the water long enough to take a picture. Imagine what that did to that fish’s gills. That’s just one example. We’ve all made mistakes, all we can do is pass on our knowledge.

plumbob Loc: New Windsor Maryland

Nice philosophy you have there with the consumption of fish. But I can imagine its a one side view in regards to the Mrs.

What area in the southwest Missouri are you fishing? There is a user that goes by ( Garry B ) listed as fishing the southwest Missouri.

Jeremy Loc: America

I agree I have seen not so wise fisherman. I never release a fish that bleeds. Most of the places I fish if this same thing happens there are other wildlife that benefit from it but I’m thinking none of us really know exactly why a fish didn’t live another day. At least we fish ethically and taught others to do the same. Birds and others eat fish of this sort in Oregon. Coyotes etc

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

Out on the ocean, I’ve been told, that not a single piece of bait ever goes to waste.

fishunter Loc: Allyn, WA (Kitsap Peninsula)

Well said Big Dog, where you from with that beach in the background of your dog's picture?

Big dog Loc: Bayshore, Long Island, New York

Long Island, N Y.

Jerkbait

Charlie you are right but just hate to see no good use come out of it. Sorry I didn’t mean to sound like it was the only reason but I’ve seen it to many times.

Fred Hardy

In certain cases, not returning fish is good management. Not necessarily in the case you're citing, but crappie do tend to overpopulate and too much biomass can cause stunting.

In my 6-acre pond, I ask visitors not to put anything that they catch back. Even bass. And I think that policy has contributed to a healthy population over the past 50 years since we built the pond. Last year, an 11 pound bass was caught and quite a few in the 6-8 pound range. That's pretty good for Virginia.

BILLBYRD1 Loc: Prattville Al

Welcome JB from Bill