Is 'catch and release' cruelty???

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

I’ve been thinking about this. The recent thread about TV fishing brought it to my mind again.

We all like to fish. Most of us ‘catch and release’ or, as it used to be called, ‘throwback’ most if not all of the fish we catch.

Sometimes you have to pull the blinders and recognize what we are actually doing:

We are enticing a living creature to take into it’s oral cavity something it ‘believes is’ or ‘reacts to as’ food, that really is not food. It’s a fake that contains a sharp steel hook, that, after the fish ‘bites’ it, we pull on to jam it into the flesh of the fish’s mouth. We keep tension on this penetrating instrument so that it won’t, ideally, come out of where it’s lodged until WE decide to take it out.

One end of this hook is tied to a line that the fish can’t be aware of. We pull on one end, and the fish, having no clue or experience with such things, fights for it’s survival against us. The fish struggles not because it wants to give us ‘good sport’ but because to not struggle means to perish. The fish knows not that we will ‘let it go’, it only knows the mind numbing terror of being dragged about by unseen forces beyond it’s control that are surely leading it to it’s demise.

At the conclusion of this struggle, the poor fish is often lifted from it’s natural domaine, where it can’t breath, often for extended periods of time (remember that the fish can’t breath. What seems like a quick dive into the bag for the camera for you can seem like an eternity to a disoriented creature that can’t breath and has just exhausted itself in a life or death struggle). We take proud pictures, hold them up for admiration, and then, feeling somehow merciful and noble, place them back into the water…

Now, mind you, we do this to a creature that many of us profess to hold in high esteem, if not look upon with great love and respect.

Do we take the time to consider what damage that hook point may do? Do we know how it might effect how the fish feeds, how it tastes or deals with it’s food.

Do we take the time to consider how that massive expenditure of energy might damage the fish itself, effect it’s ability to grow, to reproduce, or to even survive? We blindly put it back, feeling good about it, even. But is that fish now too exhausted to avoid a predator? Heal from a wound? Did we stunt it’s growth?

Will the fish even survive? Many don’t. Catch and release is not without it’s mortality rate. In warm water environs, it can reach ten or fifteen percent, but is almost always at least in the three to five percent area. In cold waters it can average less, but most trout are more delicate than most warmwater species and improper handling can cause this rate to skyrocket. AND, you never ‘see’ it, as these fish die slowly and don’t become the ‘floaters’ that many associate with mortality. Many of those fish we released died a slow and painful death.

And, even more troubling, we did this for FUN. Not to feed ourselves, not to take our rightful place in the circle of life, but just for the shear enjoyment of it all. Are we are all enjoying the terrorizing of a lesser creature?

We do pay for the priveledge. It’s our own dollars that support the habitat, stockings, and regulators that keep the fishing reasonable and safe. But, can we justify it?

Is THIS is the argument that damns us in the eyes of those who seek to stop us? How can such a thing be ‘fun’?

It’s certainly something to think about.

Buddy

2

Well Buddy,

Some of the points you’ve made I HAVE thought about in the past. Mostly recently when watching people trout fish. But, the main thing I’ve wondered about lately is people cutting the line and leaving the hook in the fishes mouth or stomache. They say “It’ll rust and be gone in two days”. 2 DAYS??? Is this true? What is in the fishes system that causes it to rust SO fast?

Very good points. Won’t stop me from fishing, and certainly won’t stop me from C&R, since I can’t clean a fish to save my life haha. But, one think I will say Buddy, is the fish certainly have a better chance at surviving being released than not being put back in water:)

Take care,
Shane

3

You make some good points. Some of them I agree with. I see many fly fisherman only, believe that catch and release is THEE only option. If you think that if it is wrong to harm any fish the next logical step is to stop fishing. I kill fish. I kill fish for fun. I enjoy killing fish. I enjoy eating their flesh. It excites me to kill fish. I don’t kill every fish that I catch. I release most of the trout that I catch, but I also realize that there is a mortality rate involved with pure catch and release, so the ones that I release that don’t survive are a pure waste since I did not consume it’s flesh.

I would best describe myslef as a conservationalist. Which means that I respect the resource and I use it wisely. I am not a meat hog, in other words I don’t kill every fish that I catch. I don’t have freezers that big, nor would I want to butcher, cut them up, or remove their flesh from their bones. I’m being blunt on purpose. So many people are so far removed from their food source that many children think that a chicken is something that comes in yellow paper from McDonalds or in the grocery store all wrapped up in plastic.

I think that PETA and groups like that have done a great job in getting some sportsman to agree with their teachings on some level. I think that this type of thought pattern is our worst enemy.

If I look closely at my hands tonight I can still see red blood on them. I killed 18 crappies tonight. I put their living bodies on ice for the ride home. Then I proceeded to cut the white flesh off of their bones. Tomorrow my family will enjoy their flesh.

Maybe I am looking for a little shock effect. I recognize what I do, but I don’t have any issues with it. Now, please go find me one vegetarian fish.

Rick

4

Geez, if thats the way someone feels or thinks when they go fishing they should stop fishing. Ill take all your unwanted fishing tackle of your hands :wink:

5

Clay, you crack me up:) You’re also right!

I’d release everything I catch. Not because I believe that’s the way. But because I fish mostly very warm water, and the thames, which isn’t the greatest water to be eating fish from in the first place. So I’m told. The other reason, is because I can’t fillet a fish to save my life, and in reality, I don’t want to practice on fish to throw them out and kill them for nothing. Otherwise, I wouldn’t release all of them.

I think PETA are crazy people. For the most part anyways.

Shane

6

Catch and Release------I manage two warm water ponds and tell the people to toss (release) the small fish that they catch up on the bank. Sometime you just have too many little ones. I eat fish and give many away. Have a freezer with trout bluegill and bass. Caught a 12 pd carp vesterday and tossed it in the woods for the raccoons to eat Just call me cruel. BILL

7

Buddy,
You’ve asked many questions, some of which you have already answered. I do believe that many fly fishermen contemplate many of the questions you’ve asked. I also believe we’ve done everything we can, short of stopping altogether, to minimize the effects of catch and release fishing. If done correctly, considering the fish, water conditions, where the fish is hooked, hook point, etc, then I feel the chances of fish survival are very good and much better than if we knocked them over the head and put them on a stringer.

I have absolutely nothing against eating one’s catch. Catching and putting them in the freezer, letting them sit for months then tossing them out, however, is a real waste. So, to minimize the affects, I continue to practice catch and release and I’m always on the alert and stay aware of methods and techniques to improve fish survival while still enjoying the sport. I believe the majority of fly fishermen follow the same practice.

Mark

8

Any fish I release, I handle properly and release them quickly.

Any fish I keep, I dispatch them asap with a knock to head. Most times it only takes one hit.

I sleep well at night.

9

Two days??
…not even in four months!

Hooks In or Hooks Out?

10

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=20969

Bob

11

Some of you folks better give up fishing or get a life. You will sleep better.

I grew up hunting and fishing for the table. We butchard beef, hogs and chickens. Other items taken from the wilds were mushrooms, hickory nuts, hazel nuts, wild leaks, bull frogs, snapping turtles, sasafrass root and a host of items too numerous to mention.

I throw all trout back because none are worth a hoot to eat. The only exception is brooktrout that are fresh from the crick to the frying pan for breakfast. Bluegills over 10" get tossed back to keep their genes in the pool and they start to get a little course at that size. Same goes for big crappies.

Life has truely blessed me and my outdoor experiance. Remember what PETA really means. “People Eating Tasty Animals”

fishbum

12

Fishbum I couldnt have said it better. My wife agrees that the best trout are the brookies. Think I"ll have some deer for supper or matbe that rabbit in my back yard thats eating garden plants. BILL

13

Catch & release IS cruel if you think about it but so is:

Riding horses, dogs pulling sleds, birds in a cage and fish in a tank.

They are all activities or hobbies that allow us to enjoy ourselves while for the most part not killing the critters that are part of our fun. Once in awhile like at the recent Kentucky Derby there is a “fish” that doesn’t survive due to improper handling but the sport goes on.

I know the horse and dogs folks will tell you “the animals love it” and the fish & bird people have no issues with cages & tanks so I guess with that same mind set I have to say:

The fish love it!

I know it’s cruel but so is teasing your kid brother and I ain’t stoppin’ that either!

:wink:

14

No. The same people want to stop us from hunting and trapping, neither of which is “catch and release.”

The more extreme among them also want to stop us from keeping farm animals or even having household pets, neither of which is generally considered to be cruelty.

Within the scope of human existence, it wasn’t all that long ago that people who felt the way they do would have staved to death.

15

I catch and release cause I don’t care for the taste of trout. I like orange roughy, though. Since I’m in the Rocky’s that comes from the grocery store.
I do know that I’d much rather have a sore lip than be dead.:stuck_out_tongue:

16

I try to make sure the fish I release have a good chance of making it, but here are my reasons for continuing to fish -

1 - To be blunt, we are the top of the food chain. When a chicken can eat me, then I’ll start worrying.

2 - When PETA, or anyone else can prove to me that plant life has no feelings, then I’ll become a strict vegetarian.

17

I keep domestic fish called koi, it’s a Japanese colorful carp and have done so since '95. Their lives are very pampered. I have a bird dog, a GSP (German Shorthaired Pointer) he sleeps on a Seally Posturepedic baby mattress in the house and is 15 years old. I remember a friend trying to get a hunting dog from the American Humane Society. They wouldn’t adopt a dog to him that would be used for hunting since it is cruel. I haven’t given a dime to this organization and stopped doing business with people that donate to the cause which I consider to be in direct conflict with my way of life.

Many of us should vote with our dollars. We should keep in mind that any sportsman, a bait chucker, a high end fly fisherman is closer to our way of thinking and lifestyle than any anti-hunting, anti animal use, radical animal rights organization member is ever going to be.

Now, to the original question again. Proper catch and release can minimize mortallity. For those interested here is a nice short piece on proper techniques used to minimize mortality. But remember, the word is mimimize. If we fish, we kill fish, whether we let them all go or take some home. The key is to use the resource wisely. I often say, that I don’t bow down to the alter of the trout. It’s a fish, not a god (with a very small “g” indeed) that I refuse to worship. It’s our responsibility to use the resource wisely.

Here’s the link that I spoke of earlier: http://www.wisconsintu.org/cpr.htm

Rick

18

Whether or not we kill and eat the fish isn’t what I getting at here. Wasteing fish and game is criminal, and should be. That anyone would admit to doing so astounds me, but the internet is mostly anonymous and there is little fear here.

I can understand the purity of the catch and clean kill. Part of the whole circle of life thing. It makes perfect sense, and done legally it is never an issue as far as I can see.

What I’ve been taken aback by is the atmosphere of superiority that pervades those that believe that catch and release is somehow noble or makes them a more ethical angler than the the guy who uses bait to catch and kill a limit to feed his family.

The catching, killing, and eating makes some kind of sense. It’s the justifying of playing with the life of a creature that you have no intention of killing that I’m interested in discussing.

Other than the pure fun of it, and I’m not discounting that, what’s the point?

Buddy

19

Does there have to be a point beyond the sport of it?
Reminds me of Jock Cousteau calling sport fishing a perversion…way back when.

20

The countless times this topic comes up is pretty amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking you Buddy–I think it’s healthy to have a little discussion about such things in a mature manner (as has been the case so far). My views come down to what is best for the fishery as a whole. Generally I C&R here in Ohio because I’m honestly scared to eat fish from these waters. Most of the water here is questionable at best and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued warnings to curb the amount of fish one eats on a weekly basis from Ohio waters.
When I lived in Utah I used to fish the Lower Provo river a couple times a week. Most fish would go back except the ‘snaky’ ones (those with big heads and little bodies due to improper nutrition). The Provo has so much acquatic life it can sustain millions of trout very well; however, due to the popularity of C&R it has become overpopulated and the fishery as a whole has suffered. According to the UDWR there are about 3000 fish per sq. mile on the Provo, but according to one website some areas are closed to 7500 fish per sq. mile!! This means that fish are generally smaller than they used to be because there are more fish eating the same amount of food. On my trips to the Lower Provo I would keep 2 browns each time. I’m sure that wasn’t much but it might have helped some to allow the fish get a little bigger.

Buddy, I may be reading this incorrectly but I think you may be giving the fish too much credit. Fish do not have the mental capacity to experience “mind numbing terror.” It is reacting by instinct only. Kind of like when someone jumps out and scares you. Your instict is to “jump” and your body automatically moves into “fight or flight.” You don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it. It seems as though you may be viewing the fish as experiencing some kind of pyscho-trauma. Again, fish do not have that mental capacity. I highly doubt that a fish that is returned to the water by a fisherman swims under cover and stay there because he’s afraid that something bad might happen. It goes there, again, because it is instinct. A knee jerk reaction only. That is the extent of what every fish does. They don’t analyze their food, they don’t weigh the risks of going here or there. There is a switch in their brain that says yes or no and that is it.

Sorry for the extremely long post, I’m bored out of my mind at work and thought I might elaborate a little bit. :oops: