It is the total weight of whatever you're casting. Like a Texas rig worm consist of the plastic worm, the hook, the weight, and a plastic bead if you use one of those. It's the total weight of everything tied onto the end of your line.
I've frozen the fish alive in my freezer, thawed them out and ate them for years. Never gotten sick. I figure it can't be any more risky than eating ground beef provided it's cooked properly.
As for the mercury, maybe that's why my nose turns red when I drink too much Jack Daniels. By the way, the lake I fish is a reservoir for cooling water for a coal fired power plant.
Another lake I fish is an impoundment that is fed by three small rivers. As you go upstream on one of them there is a sign across the river that advises you not to eat the fish caught upstream of this sign. Now do you think the contaminated fish really stay upstream of that sign?
I guess everyone has to make their own decision as to how to clean and eat the fish they catch if they decide to eat them. Or rely on store bought fish that you have no idea as to where they were caught or how they were processed.
BTW: I only do this with bass.
Yes, I put the fish in a plastic bag and freeze them alive. When I get ready to eat them I skin them like you would a catfish. The skin with the scales cones right off. The guts come out in one chunk as they're still frozen.
Forsyth, fishing Lake Sinclair.
We don't have that many weeds in the reservoirs here. And I avoid the bright water by fishing at night.
Seems every year this happens. I can't buy a bite. I fish for largemouth in Central Georgia. The water surface temp is 90°. Due to the blistering sun and heat I switch to fishing at night. The last three times I've gone out this month I haven't had a single hit.
I fish mostly Texas rigged plastic worms but occasionally throw a spinnerbait or a crankbait. I've tried a wide range of colors but mostly black and Junebug in the worms. Black spinnerbaits, shad and bluegill crankbaits. I've fished water from four feet deep to over thirty feet deep. Lighted docks, dark docks, points. Anybody got any suggestions?
I do that all the time. I freeze the whole fish. When I get ready to clean it I use a sharp knife or razor blade to cut the skin behind the gills and along the top and bottom of the fish. Then I skin the fish just like you would a catfish. If you freeze the fish while ot's still alive it tastes like it's fresh caught.
Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. Read up on it. Hydrocortisone cream for the itching. DEET on the lower half of the body to prevent the bites.
Ticks were not a problem when I was a young boy here in Georgia. You could walk through the woods all day and not pick up a single tick. But back then we didn't have very many deer. The state game and fish commission started importing Virginia deer into Georgia to reestablish the herd. Evidently they failed to take the precaution of killing the parasites that were on the deer when they brought them in because we now have more ticks than deer. You can walk in the woods today and not see a single deer but you'll be totally infested with ticks unless you take precautions. Permanome spray works well if you can find the stuff. For some reason it has vanished from store shelves. Some people say they drink small amounts of vinegar each day for a couple of days before going into the woods and this keeps the ticks from biting you even if they get on you. Wonder if that practice works or would it just make you smell like a pickle?
Adams puppy spray used to have Dursban as the active ingredient. You could smell it when you put it on your dog. The dog died before he was three years old but he never had any ticks on him.
I fished all last night and only caught two small bass. After about midnight I couldn't buy a strike. Threw everything I had at 'em at all my favorite spots.
Dang! A "junk on the bunk" display of tackle. I'd say that you're pretty well armed. Now go get 'em.
Good Luck!