Catch & Release Discussion

[dos ballenas]

Originally Posted by blackcloud9

For many different reasons, the commercial guys are extremely silent
about what they catch. They catch it, and it goes to market, and they
make money. The less people that know how or when they caught fish,
the better for them. Go to the fish market, look at the fish - ever wonder
where those big WSB, and halibut come from?

.

BINGO!

These guys are otw for a living. And its not a some kind of secret. The ocean is a big and very dynamic ecosystem.

Anyways, back on the cnr subject...

fwi, most thresher sharks which are tail hooked and played to exhaustion do NOT recover from the battle after being released. Different species have different survivorship rates... fact, not all fish that are released are going to survive. Even fish that swim away apparently okay die sometimes. Once again, there are many reasons why released fish may or may not survive.

And... fish that are of legal size have usually spawned once or twice. Size limits are set to insure that each fish is given a chance to reproduce. I don't think you should feel bad for harvesting a big legal fish ever.

Originally Posted by lamb

I used to be "shoot all that moves" kind of fisherman, D50 club. I'm not as "cruel" nowadays. I now like to release all bass, will let barely legal halibut live, mostly release those one year old summer YT rats.

I occasionally eat them too, it's dictated by the current situation in the fridge/freezer. I never freeze YT.

We eat it while fresh, leftovers we hand out to take care of good friends. I hear over and over how much they loved it.

A lot to be learned from this lamb guy... it aint bad getting free avocados from time to time...

For some people it takes a lot of yellowtail to realize that it don't freeze all that good!

Have fun!