Catch and Release

[loupepsi]

I know a lot of people go fishing every weekend or a couple times a week. How many people that go a lot keep fish everytime they go? I personally go about 2 to 3 times a week and probably only keep fish every 6th time i go. I ask this because i know a lot of guys that are obsessed with keeping fish even though they don't need them. Theres nothing wrong with catch and release thats what cameras are for.

[Fishn addict]

I fish just about every weekend in the winter, and every 3rd or so in the summer. I keep enough fish for a meal. depending on what type of fish it mabey 10-15 nice perch or 2-3 walleye. I'll ask at work or my aunt and if they will eat them fresh I'll keep a meal clean them and take out all of the bones also. But they can't freeze them. I think fish is best caught cleaned and eaten. I won't let them freeze before I clean them either.

[shadyzr]

I do the catch and release, if I catch a little one or one in the slot, I release. If I was going to go just to catch and release, I would'nt go, I'd stay home and watch some one on TV fish. I know there are some that just do catch and release, thats fine too. How many fish live after released? It depends on how they were hooked, handled, how long out of water, and how released. Go, and be fishers of fish!! Hope I don't get in trouble for miss quoting the Bible!!

[The Donk]

I fish Red 2 times a year, and I keep what I catch. What I pull out of that lake is never going to affect it one way or another.

[Random guy]

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I fish Red 2 times a year, and I keep what I catch. What I pull out of that lake is never going to affect it one way or another.

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Take that times 1,000 poeple per week,you are up to 2,000 walleyes, now take that times a short ice season of 13 weeks you are up to 26,000 walleye. It does affect it one way or the other.

I seldom keep fish. I truly do not like the taste of fish...yuck.

[The Donk]

Soooooo..... what??? You are going to tell me that 26000 walleye are going to affect a lake capable of holding prob 10 million??? Not to say I don't know what you are getting at, but cmon.

[gregh]

donk, pull your head out of the sand.............what do you think causes numbers of fish per acre to decrease when the surveys are done??? Its people that keep everything they catch. I'm not saying I dont keep fish, but it's NOT everytime or every other time. But heck, lets drain the natural resourses we have so that our kids have nothing to fish or hunt when they get older, that attitude is just typical of our self centered society. You do what you want and keep what you want but there will be a price to pay for all of our actions at sometime in the future.

[Random guy]

First off I am not directing this at Donk or anyone but I like this topic. I could be a good discussion.

What I am saying is when you take a massive amount of poeple all saying "It doesn't matter", it really does. In the eighties it didn't matter, "The lake is big and strong we can't hurt it", well we did.

Take a look at what muskie catch and realease has done for muskie angling. Now granted you are talking about a complete oppisite in population, spawn and growth ratios but if one guy does catch/relaese and he gets a buddy to catch/release and then his buddy so on and so forth it makes a huge difference. Don't get me wrong, most of the poeple reading this take what they need or will eat and nothing more, the problem is in the ones that have a hard time seperating need from greed. So as unfair and sad as it is the ones that catch and release are helping to offset the damage from ones that get a little carried away.

[loupepsi]

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But heck, lets drain the natural resourses we have so that our kids have nothing to fish or hunt when they get older

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It will happen sooner than you think. Hunting and fishing as blown up in the last 5 to 10 years. I dont see the population shrinking, so that means more and more people are going to join the hunting and fishing community. Leaving less resources for for everyone else. All the new technology and cool gadgets attracts many people and its only going to attract more. Every fish you take leaves one less for the next person.

[gregh]

EXACTLY!!!some people just DONT use their heads!!!

[shadyzr]

Thats just like saying the DNR Don't know squat about management!!! Why the slot and fish limit. They are, (DNR)

better qualified, than some of the things I've heard of here. Catch and release is like paying $40-$50 for Vikings tickets and sitting in a stadium with an empty field and no teams playing. I mean if people are worryed about the fish population, how many fish that are caught and released die?

Why take the chance on killing a fish, take the Aqua Veiw instead of rods and just watch the fish. I fish, I eat what I catch. Everyone is intitled to do as they wish.

Maybe we should ask the DNR to pass a law, 1 tag for 4 guys deer hunting, or just tell them to save the deer and only take a camera in the woods to shoot deer. If you want to throw fish back and not hunt, thats up to you. But I will be fishing and following the laws and limits that the DNR has set. It's like some hard left winger try to push they're wacked out belief of globel warming.

[LABS4ME]

The only problem with that argument is the statewide limit on walleyes was set around 50 years ago. It will be adjusted in the very near future. That's a fact! My personal desire is, I wish that all the fish limits would be cut in half. 3 walleyes = 6 fillets / nice meal... 5 crappie = 10 fillets / real nice meal... you get the jist. 4 years ago I started saying that I will never freeze fish again. In the interim, I have released way more fish, yet still have a dandy meal each time I go fishing.

I tell my buddies who come up only once a year... "if you want to keep a limit so you can get a couple meals for the year, no problem". If you're planning on coming up more than once, keep what you need for a meal and catch more the next time you come up.

If you are at or under your limit (including your freezer) no one should look down on you or scoff at you, it is your privledge to do so; but if you have 'stockpiled' fish in your freezer and made a conscious decision to bring more home, putting you over your possession limit... in my eyes you are a game hog. You just broke the law and are a POACHER! A sportsman's nemisis. May as well go all the way then and forgo the fishing and shelter license and fish multiple lines. That is my 2 cents...

Everyone keeping a limit everytime up does and will affect the lake. The # of fisherman is just to great for it not to happen.

Good Luck!

Ken

[LaVoi]

I could just about bet that those people that try to keep their limit every time out will be the first people to start complaining when the walleyes disappear, and all you can catch is hammer handle northerns and stunted panfish in their favorite lake.

[brady_d]

i don't think it's very likely that the walleye are going to dissapear the way the DNR is handling the lake. We personally keep what we catch and give a lot of it away to friends and family that don't get to go up and fish 4-5 times a winter.

[LaVoi]

I am just generalizing, not talking about URL specifically. I agree that walleyes shouldn't disappear from URL again BECAUSE of the way the DNR is handling it with the special regulations. My comment was directed to all the Minnesota lakes without any special regs that are exposed to a 6 walleye limit.

[brady_d]

Oh..got ya. The other lakes do get much less fishing pressure though. But i do agree with you.

[The Donk]

WOW... Last night b4 I put my head on the pillow, I thought to myself, I said, "self" how many people will explode at that comment? Too funny. This forum is filled with people who love to jump at stuff like that. FIRST of all, I said MYSELF, keeps 2 walleyes and about 4-5 crappies. To eat. 1-2 times per year. SECOND, we are not the ones who caused the lake to collapse, and don't try to tell me we are. 18% of the lake? Cmon

[loupepsi]

The DNR is able to regulate walleyes on URL because of the crappies. As long as there is a good crappie bite that will still attract anglers its not going to hurt the money flow the lake is bringing in. As soon as we fish out the crappies the walleye limit will go up then the walleyes will be fished out. Do you think the dnr is going to shut down both speices in order to repopulate the lake. The resorts will go out of business, the dnr will lose money because people wont buy licences, the fishing pressure on other lakes will go up. Take a look at LOW the walleye limit is decreaseing almost every year it seems. Most people fish LOW for the walleyes, do you think the DNR is going to decrease the limit even more, or shut down the lake. Once again money loss. Its all about money

[loupepsi]

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Maybe we should ask the DNR to pass a law, 1 tag for 4 guys deer hunting, or just tell them to save the deer and only take a camera in the woods to shoot deer. It's like some hard left winger try to push they're wacked out belief of globel warming.

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I do believe you have everything backwards. Deer are over populated and fish are being fished out. Global warming is not a religion, you cant decide to belief in it or not. Its either happening or it isn't. And if you don't think that everything we do has a consquence then i believe you need to go back to school. You can't tell me that the deer are over populated because we turned over half on Minnesota into farm land. Or that all the CO2 we are releasing into the atmosphere is only going to have positive results. Do you think that if the DNR didnt give buck tags out for a couple of years that might help the deer problem. They wont because they will lose a considerable amount of hunters buying licences, Which will hurt the deer even more. Soon the deer will be like the moose. gone.

[Willy]

I am with you. A lake the size of Red with the fish growing capabilities it has and a 2 fish limit will never be fished out. It is a walleye factory and the reason it was fished out before was because of commercial fishing, not angling.

There are lots of fish in there and the DNR does know what they are doing most of the time.

Look at Mille Lacs. Think that lake gets fished pulled from it? Probably 20 times as many as Red does. How good a fishery is Mille Lacs?

Catch and release is important, I am not saying that and practice it myself, but to say the lake will be fished out because people are keeping their 2 fish limit is foolish.

[DancesWithWaves]

The whole state should be reduced to two fish a day until the resource recovers. The Canadiens figured out fish management 20 years ago and should be followed as a model. Some people fish their whole lives and never realize its not the fish ye'r after.

[Pikester]

I wouldn't go as far as calling it foolish. Maybe conservative, but not foolish. Major events happened that caused the lake to collapse and a large number of people, like myself, don't want to see it happen again. But if a large number of people get the idea in their head that Red has soooooo many fish in it that we can just throw C&R out the window, then we are in trouble, again. Just my 2 cents.

[Pikester]

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Some people fish their whole lives and never realize its not the fish ye'r after.

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That is the best statement I have heard in a long while.

[eyepatrol]

Sometimes it's frustrating to see, but then sometimes it's almost comical to see how many "biologists" come out of the woodworks on discussions about C&R.

Time and time again my opinion has been that the decisions on a lake's welfare should be left to the experts. Those experts would include the DNR and longtime local folks such as the Petrowske's who have been there for what, some 3 or 4 generations? The biologists have the data and the local people know the history.

I see very similar things happen in the field I'm in. Engineer a project, present it to the public and suddenly the person sweeping floors at McD's is an expert telling you water runs uphill without pumps or pressure head.

[Mike L]

an ol' RCM hand?

[eyepatrol]

Not too old, yet.

But former now, since about 2000.

[loupepsi]

It doesnt take a genius to figure out the world is run by money and simple people need to take some control and start disscusions like this and try solve some problems that other wise gets sloved in the wrong way, by money. So you leave it to the experts to decide what to do(Bush).

[eyepatrol]

Me? Bush? Now that's what makes these reads comical!

[The Donk]

SEH is a great company to work for, I actually will have a year under the belt there soon. I don't know about all them RCM er's hanging around tho

[eyepatrol]