When, if ever, do you keep some fish?

[hap]

Wild salmon are managed in Alaska for an aggressive harvest, adequate reproduction numbers, and all will die within months anyway. So we eat quite a lot of them. Of course king salmon in much of AK are not doing well over the past decade or so and I layoff them unless they are stocked in one of the "terminal harvest" areas.

I do not remember the last time I killed a rainbow.

We usually kill a lake trout or two on accident out of a big bunch and we eat those. They are eating salmon smolts in huge quantity and the biologist says it is okay to kill a lot more... But I am not buying that!

We kill and smoke a few dollies every year and their unique life style lends itself well to killing some without concentrating the pressure on any one spawning population.

A new law this year in SouthCentral AK says no pike may be returned alive to the water. Cut them up and toss the pieces back... In the Alexander Lake system they netted and killed tremendous trophy pike last year... But they are not worth attempting to eat.
art

[Derik]

A new law this year in SouthCentral AK says no pike may be returned alive to the water. Cut them up and toss the pieces back... In the Alexander Lake system they netted and killed tremendous trophy pike last year... But they are not worth attempting to eat.
art

I'm not a fan of pike in places they shouldn't be (or any fish that has a detrimental effect on a cold water fishery), but I've found them to be quite good table fare, as well as pickerel. The trick is in filleting them without leaving any of the "Y" bones in it.

I'll keep fish if it's legal size and I'm in need of dinner but I certainly release more fish than I keep much to the dismay of some of my family who'd rather I bring something home for them. It also depends on where I'm fishing too, if it's a put and take fishery, that's what it's there for, or if I'm hiking I don't really want to be packing a couple trout around all day. If I'm into the white perch heavy on the hardwater I'll keep them all, they freeze well if you filet them out and put them in a block of ice, will eat good all winter battered and fried.