how to deal with large catch?

[Mr. NiceGuy]

Originally Posted by FullFlavorPike

Gaff it. Rip the gills. Watch it change color as it dies. Contemplate your mortality.

[Contemplating my mortality for a moment]

I feel good on the days the fish win and live to see another day. I still get invigorating kayak exercise and enjoy the beauty of nature.
Call me a pussy, but I also like the feeling of releasing my bait when I'm done fishing. It's an uplifting moment.

I try to target what I want to eat and I try to avoid collateral damage with minimal carnage.

When the time comes, I prefer to dispatch a fish by cutting the gills in the water. Personally, I don't like clubbing.

Originally Posted by skrilla

Don't forget the primal yell after it hits the deck.

Mongol General: What is best in life?
Conan: Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.

[Beats chest like Tarzan]

[taggermike]

Its a relief to hear I'm not the only one that contemplates their mortality while watching a fellow creature die. Mike

[goldenglory18]

Originally Posted by Mr. NiceGuy

I feel good on the days the fish win and live to see another day. I still get invigorating exercise and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Originally Posted by taggermike

Its a relief to hear I'm not the only one that contemplates their mortality while watching a fellow creature die. Mike

Amen. This is the exact reason why I've never gotten into hunting. At least with fishing you can go through the actions of the "sport" and your target can live to see another day.

I'm not sure I'll ever be completely ok with killing a catch but man I would love to taste a fresh YT...

[Mr. NiceGuy]

Here's a technique for bleeding a halibut that might be useful to consider on a kayak. I fish with a small short-bladed emergency flip knife on an elastic lanyard around my neck that is easily accessible for this purpose.

You can usually see a natural mark or seam in this section that lines up with the pectoral fin behind the gill plate that is easy to punch and follow.

I started this clip at :45 and the point about bleeding stops at 1:25, before going on to filleting technique.

https://youtu.be/yviDaE5FO8Y?t=45s

[bwana]

Isn't fishing a form of hunting? What makes one better morally than the other?

You can always stalk your game and purposely miss the shot or take a photo if that makes you feel more complete.

Then go to the store and buy your meat laying on a maxipad wrapped in cellophane with a date stamp.

As I get older I "feel" for the animal's/fish's lost life. To honor that animal I only take a clean shot, butcher everything myself and don't waste it.

At least a yellowtail doesn't let out a long protracted death moan like a bear does in its final moment. Talk about a sad sound.

You want to talk about contemplating ones mortality... our sport can be dangerous. I have felt relief on mutliple occassions finally
making the harbor when things turned rough or the fog/lightning rolled in quickly and unexpectedly. I'm sure we all have stories
of stupid boaters, sharks, big bull sea lions. Hell I almost got killed by a bonita (my friends all know that story).

I too release my bait at day's end.

[Mr. NiceGuy]

Originally Posted by bwana

Isn't fishing a form of hunting? What makes one better morally than the other?

You can always stalk your game and purposely miss the shot or take a photo if that makes you feel more complete.

Then go to the store and buy your meat laying on a maxipad wrapped in cellophane with a date stamp.

As I get older I "feel" for the animal's/fish's lost life. To honor that animal I only take a clean shot, butcher everything myself and don't waste it.

At least a yellowtail doesn't let out a long protracted death moan like a bear does in its final moment. Talk about a sad sound.

You want to talk about contemplating ones mortality... our sport can be dangerous. I have felt relief on mutliple occassions finally
making the harbor when things turned rough or the fog/lightning rolled in quickly and unexpectedly. I'm sure we all have stories
of stupid boaters, sharks, big bull sea lions. Hell I almost got killed by a bonita (my friends all know that story).

I too release my bait at day's end.

He may have been referring to "catch & release" as not killing. It's a little harder to release a deer after it's shot.

I'm not a catch & release guy. I'm a catch and eat guy. I try to make use of everything I can render from a life I've taken. Yellowtail collars are amazingly delicious, and I try not to worry too much when I see them wasted by others.

If we are going to kill and eat, it's all the same, right? Morally, I think we are designed by nature to be omnivores, right? Nature itself can be ruthlessly brutal and amoral. Morals may be a human societal thing.

Prudent respect and management of natural resources makes sense to me too. Sometimes there's a problem with pests that need to be eliminated. Sometimes people are the pests.

Without morals and natural resource management, it defaults to Darwinism and natural selection. Right? When we paddle out into the ocean on a flimsy piece of plastic, we become part of the food chain.

All that philosophical stuff makes me really thirsty for a cold beer.

[jbl_91762]

Originally Posted by Mr. NiceGuy

Here's a technique for bleeding a halibut that might be useful to consider on a kayak. I fish with a small short-bladed emergency flip knife on an elastic lanyard around my neck that is easily accessible for this purpose.

You can usually see a natural mark or seam in this section that lines up with the pectoral fin behind the gill plate that is easy to punch and follow.

I started this clip at :45 and the point about bleeding stops at 1:25, before going on to filleting technique.

https://youtu.be/yviDaE5FO8Y?t=45s

Pics and vids are worth a thousand words. Thanks for finding the vid for me.

[taggermike]

That's a simple technique for bleeding a halibut. But I don't use knives on a kayak. Not a fan of using my legs as a cutting board.
Ripping a gill always works. Except halibut have sharp gill rakers.

But since I've been using braid I've been bringing scissors. A quick clean safe snip is my go to now. Mike

[taggermike]

Gonna get a bit philosophical.
"Contemplate one's mortality". Not a popular or easy thing to do.
But every thing dies. That is the great unifying trait of all life. The Buddhist "law of impermanence" or the Onion's ironic headline "world's death rate holding steady at 100%".
Its all the same.

I kill. Every step, breath, and bite kills. My immune system is constantly killing. I tilled my garden and ended the lives of billions. Life=death.

I don't believe being mindful of this is morbid. It helps me respect and appreciate life.

I've found 2 bodies while kayaking. 1 in the SD River and 1 in La Jolla. My family thought I should be traumatized. My niece said I could come to her church if I needed help dealing.
But I wasn't and didn't. I called the police and life guards, waited for them to arrive, and returned to fishing.
Actually less fishing and more contemplating mortality and appreciating life. All life.

Don't get me wrong, these were unpleasant experience. But what could I have done. I didn't kill them and couldn't save them.
I helped return them to their families so those that loved them could have closure.

I'm an atheist and don't believe in any life after death or heaven. These 2 people weren't alive for billions of years, they lived a short time, and won't live again.
They inhaled water which caused the chemical reactions that sustained their lives to stop due to lack of oxygen.

OK, let's go fishing.

[fourtogo]

Originally Posted by taggermike

Its a relief to hear I'm not the only one that contemplates their mortality while watching a fellow creature die. Mike

Life long Fisherman 60yrs old . I never learned to like too eat fish . Wife loves fish but only Sword-fish & Salmon and shell fish . I do like shrimp and fish tacos << strange Bahaha . I haven't killed a fish in many years , I do think it's fine to take fish to eat though . Going to chunk down the dollars this week coming , for a Hobie Outback . It will fit In My Van and be with in my weight limits for my bad back .