"We do have to think seriously about conservation now, although it is chilling to realize there are catch and release fishermen alive today who don't know how to clean and cook a fish". John Gierach
Gorge Pool Millers River
Since I've put a halt to my guiding business I've had plenty of time to fish for other species, to some degree of success, and to do a lot of reading. One of my favorite writers (besides John Gierach) is the talented E. Donnell Thomas. He is an accomplished flyfisher who calls Montana and Alaska his home states and a serious student of BOW HUNTING. This means that he (gulp) eats what he kills. But he doesn't limit his harvesting to mammals and birds but will take the occasional salmon or trout to eat at stream side . In one of his best books Whitefish Can't Jump he gives a blow by blow account of besting a 50lb King Salmon on fly tackle and then supplies us with two endings to the story. Ending #1 has the victorious angler gently resuscitating the salmon and watching it swim away and Ending #2 is a backyard barbeque with friends and family and a 50 lb salmon providing the feast. Thomas suggests that one pick their favorite ending. Mine is the feast!!!!
Some how we got caught off the rails over the last 30 years. C&R has become a religion worshiping a questionable god. What are we protecting with C&R? We are protecting mostly hatchery fish which are not really worth anything. Most hatchery fish are long gone one year after we stock them and that's not because they were caught out. They don't have the ability to survive in an environment outside of a hatchery.
And if you don't believe me request that the DFW curtail stocking on C&R rivers for 3 years and then see how many trout are left. The Swifts brookies and monster browns should do well but not rainbows, the majority of stocked fish in that river.
Also remember that destruction of native stocks has much less to do with individual sport fishing than with environmental destruction and in some cases destructive commercial fishing.
August
It may be hard to believe with the temperatures in the 90's but we have lost a lot of sunshine since June 21. What we need on top of that is some good, old soaking storms in August to get the rivers back up.
Pray for Rain
Ken
14 comments:
I think it's funny how bent out shape folks get when they hear of others harvesting fish. I have on occasion eaten Brook trout and salmon that I've caught. I don't do it often and not from certain streams but hey it's part of being human right? I once read somewhere that large portions of stocked fish don't make it past the one month mark. That's why I'm always waiving the squanacook flag because fish do holdover and trout can be taken 365 days a year if you know how to find the seeps and there's a lot of out of the way areas where you don't see other fisherman. Sure most fish are stocked I believe there are occasionally some native square tails in the upper reaches and certainly in the few Brooks that join to make it's headwaters like Willard and trapfall Brooks. The quinine also can holdover fish and I have seen Brookes on reds there in the fall and have heard it spoken that there are some wild browns. One time I was fishing the quinine and and an older lady stopped me to ask if there were still trout in there then she went on to tell me that her father born in 1900 fly fished that stream in his youth she guessed around 1915 is when he used to haunt the runs and pools. That story always stuck with me and often times I imagine what it must have been like fishing our streams in that era.
Anonymous 9:33,
I can remember as a early 20 something of going off to the White Mountains and fishing tiny brooks and beaver ponds where the game was to try and NOT catch them. There were billions of them and taking a half dozen 6 inch brookies back for dinner was a treat and caused no harm. I've even done that on some secret tribs on the Millers.
Ken
Yes, I totally agree that taking fish for consumption. As we all know or should know, it is your right as long as its not from a C&R area and or it is, and you are legal to do it. In my own youth I/we use to do the same thing with brookies but in cental Maine. I use to enjoy a brookie or an occasional bass back in the day. My issue now is I moved to Pittsfield mass, and I wouldn't consume any fish from Berkshire county. Thats why it made total sense to create and make a large stretch of the Housatonic into C&R when they did.
By the way Ken, I'm happy you still are actively creating and entering threads on your blog. It helps to pass these dog days of summer....Phil
You have a point. It is kind of pointless to stock if the trout are not going to survive. That means we catch and release until they croak and then replace them with more non-survivors. We should be able to take a rainbow home on occasion.
GW
Stocking a river with a species that will no survive and making it catch and release for that particular stock is ridiculous. I have always thought so. Catch and release them so they die and feed the bacteria? The bacteria will be just fine if you take your catch home. For species that thrive in the waters but are endangered that is a whole other ballgame and they need to protected.
That being said it should be posted catch and release for endangered species but you may take home the farm raised rainbow.
Thank you for your thoughts, sharing your experience, knowledge and this truthful post.
Warm regards,
Jonathan
Well said Jonathan!
Ken
Ken,
If this historic drought continues into the fall, will Fish and Game still stock the waters that they usually do in the fall? Thank you.
Bruce from Merrimack Valley
Bruce,
The decisions will be made on a river by river basis. About 5 years ago the DFW didn't Fall stock the EB due to low water but other rivers got stocked. A wet September will fix all of this.
Ken
Well Ken I am most definitely a carnivore and if trout tasted like lobster I wouldn’t own a barbless fly. But I personally I don’t care too much for the taste of freshwater fish and putting them back gives me or someone else the chance to catch them again. Here in Mass our native and wild trout tend to be small enough to avoid the dinner plate- probably not a bad thing. But if you enjoy a trout dinner there are plenty of easy to catch stocked trout. No worries, keep as many as the law allows- the state will make more.
Dean F,
It's a funny thing but there are two European countries that don't allow C&R. They call it cruelty to animals.
Ken
Isn't C&R in place to keep bait fishermen from cleaning out all the fish while giving the fly fishers a chance?
Freelon,
No!
C&R is there to keep more trout in the river so more people can fish for them and release them regardless of the angling method. In the C&R rivers most of the trout are caught by fly fishers. Fly fishers outnumber others AND out catch others. That's just a fact.
Ken
When Covid hit a couple years ago,there were a couple of guys in S Royalston hauling in and keeping some nice fish.Quite a few in fact.They cleaned out my favorite spot! I always release them.Rather have a fresh bluefish filet or fluke caught on a fly tho!!
I don't want to eat hatchery trout because they don't taste good. I want to eat wild trout, which taste good, but that hurts natural fisheries. Brookies, stunted from overpopulation in back country are the perfect compromise of ethical and delicious.
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