100 fish a day

In the last issue, Flyfishing and Tying Journal (the one edited by Dave Hughes) had a story submitted by a fellow who boasts of catching and releasing 100 fish in a day more than 90 times. Ever since reading it, I have had it stuck in my craw and thought I would throw it out for discussion. Do you find it as offensive as I do or is this type of combat fishing a worthwhile goal we should all aspire to? Should a magazine promote this type of activity?

Howdy Shakes…
I don’t know what to make of it, how to take it or really what my position is on it. I read the article, not sure I even buy it. 100 fish a day 90 times…??? Bugs me too, has ever since I read it…ModocDan

I’ll respond … it is not offensive to me at all. Are you assuming this particular angler aspired to catch 100 fish? If so, what’s wrong with that? I’ve never considered this type of fishing combative. To be honest, where does a person draw the line between “being combative” and catching alot of fish. Less than 40, 30, 20? I really don’t know. Do you stop at 5-6, or do you keep fishing? There’s a river I fish that has some fantastic hatches and the fishing is usually good while the hatch is going on. I have never aspired to catch 100 fish on any given day, but I have had some good days with good numbers, as well as many others who will read this thread. I just returned from a 3 day trip in which I drove 7 hours round trip. The fishing was really good. It never crossed my mind to stop because I was catching too many ( I’m not boasting … with the right fly anyone could have caught them) and I enjoyed each fish I caught, handled them carefully, and promptly released them.

Not sure why the article you read sticks in your craw. I’m sure responses will vary from mine. Looking forward to hearing from others.

I have 100 fish years!! If I’m lucky.

It seems really greedy. Even the person who handles and releases each fish carefully will kill 10% of the fish he releases. 100 fish caught? 10 fish killed. Multiply that by the 90 days = 900 fish killed. What possible excuse is there for that?

Years ago Bub Lilly in West Yellowstone had a little button (which one purchased) which said “Limit Your Kill - Don’t Kill Your Limit.” If it is legal to keep fish, once you have caught the legal limit, it is time to leave. Go somewhere else, do something else.

If the water is absolutely catch and release, pick a reasonable number (like what was the actual catch and keep number elsewhere) and when you’ve caught your ‘limit’ stop. If you absolutely must continue to fish, break the hook off at the bend. If you get a take, the fish won’t be harmed -and you can continue to count your fish numbers if you must.

The fish are not in endless supply. Duh.

i think it really depends on what he was going for. ive had one 100 plus fish day, and it wasnt intentional. i was staying up at my grandparents place thats on a lake. i went out in the morning and caught about 40 gills. came back cleaned them. went out a bit later caught another 40-50 gills, only about half of them of any sizethough, went and cleaned the keepers released the rest. then went out again at night and caught about another 50-60 gills, kept about 30, cleaned em and called it a day. i didnt even realize how many i caught untill i was putting them in freezer bags. i didnt catch 100 keepers, but i caught probably 150 fish. do you consider it a one hundred fish day, if youre only counting good sized fish, or in that one hundred do you count the baby fish as well? that could well shift the “scores”

I stopped counting fish in the '70’s sometime. I didn’t count very well before that. Seemed like a distraction from the action, if you know what I mean. There’s a little bell that rings, at some point, during a particularly good day of fishing, that tells me “that’s enough”. Let 'em rest. I find much more enjoyment in targeting difficult fish, than easy fishing to cookie cutter fish that seem over eager. Not that I’ve had too many of those days lately.

Very very well stated, thank you Lady Fisher!

Steve Molcsan

I like catch and release, I can lie about how many I caught. I do not like guys who keep a little ‘number-clicker’ on their lanyard. That is over the top by ‘my’ standards. Obviously not theirs though.
Oh, just so I can maintain my guru status, I have had 100fish days more than 91 times. So there!
Actually, we gave up using numbers years ago; the first liar didn’t have a chance. Now it’s, "Had a great day! Wonderful time, just hammered them. Lost count. " etc, etc, etc.

Have caught 100 perch in a day

Happy to say that they are all still swimming today!

BUT! doing it 90 times, maybe it was a typo?

chris

Just to stir things up…

This IS a blood sport. NONE of us can claim we don’t kill any fish, except maybe the ones who never catch a fish. I catch a lot of fish in a year, and yes, a certain percentage of those will die. I probably incidentally kill more fish C&R than most people kill and keep in this state. I suspect a lot of the us who fish a lot do, since the catch and eat folks tend to fish a lot less than we do. My bad. If I stopped C&R at the limit of keepers (4 trout in this state in general), I would have a lot of really short fishing days, especially in those waters where you can’t keep ANY.

I don’t eat a single fish, but the ones that die are not “wasted”. All fish die, most of them before they would if they were protected and coddled, and when they do, something ELSE eats them. Nature works that way.

Is there a moral difference between catching 9000 fish in 90 days, or 9000 fish in 900 days? 9000? You will kill the same number. Should we have a YEARLY limit? A lifetime limit? When I have caught 5000 trout in my life should I stop fishing and take up golf? Should I feel bad because I am good at catching fish? Should I NOT fish because I am good at catching fish? Should I not go to the fish-in because I expect to catch fish there?

I have had 100 fish days. Not 90 of them, but several. The older I get, the more BORING a day like that is, and any more I try to liven things up a bit, chase other fish in other places, see what they WON’T hit, and so forth. But then again, the last day I caught several steelhead, I wasn’t about to give up and go home because I was over the average for the day.

My point is, we make our OWN ethical standards. We cannot impose our own standards on others, at least not in a free society. As long as people operate within the law, they can do as they please, and we don’t have a right to make them do otherwise.

But it could be true…I used to keep track…in logs and such. I’ve had 100 trout days (C&R) I’m almost sorry to say. Note almost. I think it’s up to the individual how many and when/where/why and so on.

I read a few things years ago about mortality rates during C&R and I din’t like what I read. Now I’m content with fewer caught, hooked, released, all of it. I do admit that sometimes when with a fishing bud and if I’m doing well, I get caught up. I do things deliberately to keep from catching fish at times though for example, I’m known to use too large a fly for all the reasons at the time which during some of those times keeps me from catching anything at all.

I’ve caught plenty of fish and I’ll likely catch plenty more but no longer do I want a lot of hookups, nice though that may be. What I’m interested in more now is who I’m fishing with, how I’ve caught the fish, how carefully I’ve released it, things like that.

No pics for me anymore mostly though I’ll take pics of others fish. I try not to touch the fish, hence the use of larger flies. #4’s predominently and long shank streamer which helps release and mostly fish are lip hooked, never that deeply hooked as to bleed them.

Once in a while fish will get my fly tangled up in their gills and that’s usually a death sentence but like I mentioned, I don’t need 100 hookups a day anymore. I tell fishing buds that I don’t really care if I catch fish at all. In fact, I’ve considered snipping the hooks off just after the bends so my fly fishing becomes strictly a visual thing. I sight fish as much as I can anyway and believe it or not, I’ve stripped the fly away from many a huge free rising trout over the years.

I could go on but enough from me on this. I like everyone’s comments and hope to see more. I’m fairly passionate about C&R and staying low in hookup numbers too. Everyone else can do as they please of course.

MontanaMoose

Shaky Wadr,
Could you print an excerpt from the story? What kind of fish and where they were caught?
Thanks,
Doug

I think there are too many variables in determining a limit on how many fish someone should allow themselves catch in a day. Catching 100 fish in a small stream could have some bad consequences, but pulling 100 perch out of lake erie is not going to impact the population too much. Another aspect is a long awaited fishing trip to somewhere far away. If someone has been waiting all year for their trip to alaska should they stop fishing after catching their limit even if all the fish were released and if this means their day is done by 9 a.m. and they planned to fish the whole day?

My usual approach to days when the catching is easy is to target the biggest fish or go after a different species if one is available in the same body of water.

Lets do a little math.
First we’ll define “day” as it applies to hours of sunlight. The average is 12 hours. Shorter in the winter longer in the summer … but the average is 12 hours in a “day”. This assumes the fisher arrived at the fishin hole at the crack of dawn and walked out in the dark.
If you fished for 12 hours to reach 100 fish you would have to catch 8 fish per hour or 1 fish every 7 1/2 minutes without stopping to eat, relieve ones self or sit on the shore having a smoke.

So lets allow a bit of goof off time…you know untangling leaders, retrieving flys from the bushes and digging a candy bar or a bologna sammy out of the pack and munching a bit.
And we have to allow for playing, landing and releasing the fish. Lets allow an hour of actual non fishing (an hour is being generous)

Now we have a 11 fish per hour catch rate or a fish every 5 1/2 minutes. And the question always comes up “was that number 67 or 68?” or “who’s counting?” These folks prolly carry a click counter on a zinger. And does the fisher stop at 100? Why is 100 always the number and not 98 or 102…???

I’m not saying it can’t be done or that no ones ever done it. I just find it most remarkable.

I read that story, and one of the things that kind of bothered me is the author recommends targeting small streams in summer when " the streams are at summer levels and temperatures" in central Pa. I guess I envision fish holed up or nearly “trapped” in the few places where they either seek shelter or temperature relief.

Glenn

LF’s suggestion that there is a 10% mortality rate even when one handles and releases fish with much care struck me as on the high side of what I have heard previously.

Googled the subject and read several articles and studies, which covered quite a few species in different circumstances. The 10% is in the ballpark for some species but very high for some species in the most favorable conditions.

There seemed to be a concensus in the articles / studies that I read that there are four major factors in C & R mortality.

(1) Deep hooking. All other things being equal, fish that are lightly hooked, near the edge or top of the mouth, have a very high survival rate, in the high 90’s%.

(2) Physiological stress. The longer and harder the fish is played, the more likely it will die from the stress. Fish landed quickly sustain minimal physiological stress and will more likely survive.

(3) Handling stress. The less time and the better the handling technique after landing, the better the fish’s chances of survival. Leaving it in the water improves the odds, as does taking time to revive a fish that has been stressed, indicated by rolling over and / or not being able to swim easily in a moderate current.

(4) Water temperature. This one kind of surprised me, but it got attention in all the articles / studies and was considered a major factor, although there wasn’t much discussion of the “why.” My impression was that it has to do with the oxygenation of the water and the overall fitness of the fish before being hooked ??

Some of the literature suggests that larger fish are more vulnerable to deep hooking, but when lightly hooked, they are less susceptible to the other causes of C & R mortality. Smaller fish are less likely to be deeply hooked, but are more susceptible to mortality from the other causes.

In the best conditions, i.e. a healthy fishery with ideal water temps, a large fish lightly hooked, landed quickly, handled gently and revived suitably, will almost certainly ( 98% plus ?? ) survive. ( Maybe it is easy for me to “see” that in the literature because it has been what I’ve thought for some time now. )

In the worst conditions, i.e. a struggling fishery with extreme water temps, a deeply hooked small fish played hard and handled roughly hardly has a chance.

One way or another, once hooked the fish’s survival is in your hands. Whether you catch 100 in a day or 10, you are the one in the best position to enhance it’s chance of survival.

As to catching 100 fish in a day - been there once and that was enough. Didn’t plan or intend it, it just happened because I had decided to fish six hours that day, although I cut it a bit short after I landed 100.

As to others catching 100 fish in a day, to my way of thinking, that is a very personal thing and should be respected as long as the person is within the law and follows good C & R practices.

The C & R mortality thing really interests me - so if anyone has references or links to material on the subject, please let me know. Thanks.

What species of fish are we talking about here???

Duck -

To the extent that your question is directed to me ( ?? ), the articles and studies I read covered mostly freshwater species, both cold and warm water.

The four major factors in C & R mortality seemed to apply to all species, although some species seem to have higher mortality than others even given the best of conditions across all four factors.

Trout seem to do very well when all four factors fall in their favor ( of course, not getting hooked would be even more in their favor !! ).

John

John, it wasn’t directed at you.

I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that there is a differnce in survival of the various species as to how they are handled and no one has defined what is being talked about.