Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Catch and release?

Don't fish tournaments. I release any fish, probably better than 95%, that's not gill or gut hooked and i can't get the hook out clean. If I keep it it's a meal.

Muskie guy here.

C&R for me.

You muskie guys have a lot of patience. Being a longtime snook guy, I can respect that.

Just persistence. Knowing that the next cast it could happen.

Depends on the situation.

If I'm not eating it, I don't keep it.
The exception is a private bass pond that we fish. It is so over populated that we have a rule that any caught fish don't go back in the pond.
Throw them in the bushes if you want but not back in the pond. Pigs and Yotes will eat them.

Fish torture, unless wrong species, out of season, size, culling per Ram7, etc.

Doesn't mean I don't do it on rare occasion, I just try to be honest about what I'm doing.

When we fished Canada, there wasn't a slot size and we all took a limit the largest fish home to eat. Basically we and everyone else was ruining the future fishing there. Then the slot size restrictions took effect and we complained at first. Well, what a difference now! We catch more and bigger fish than ever before. When you are flying into a fishing camp where catching 50-100 walleyes a day is normal, you catch and release and eat the little better tasting ones

There you go. That's the attitude.

I’ll usually keep any white fish. Trout/steelheads always release. Disgusting creatures to eat.

I freeze some Salmon due to it being seasonal, any other species gets release unless it's going to be eaten within 48 hours.

I just prefer fresh fish over previously frozen.

For me here in Oz it depends. Fishing from the beach I'll keep and eat good-eating fish like whiting and our flathead, if they are legal size. I'll enjoy catching tailor (I think you call them bluefish) and Australian salmon (no relation), but I won't keep them, because I don't think they are much good to eat. Out on a boat much the same applies: I keep those that are good to eat and legal (size/slot and bag limit), and throw back those that aren't. I won't bring sharks or rays into the boat either, so those will usually get brought alongside and cut off.

In the fresh I won't throw back carp or redfin (English perch). I might keep a couple of bigger redfin to eat, but the rest get disposed of without going back in the water. They are introduced pest species, so I have no compunction about throwing them up on the bank.

Trout I'll keep one or two to eat, and then catch and release. I also go after native Murray cod and Australian bass - both are great fun to catch, especially on surface lures - but I let them go to fight another day.

I love fishing, but I'm not much of a fish eater, so pretty much everything goes back in the drink unless it's gill or gut hooked badly.

I do keep a batch of panfish or two in the winter to bring to the old man since he likes them, but is too crippled up to come out on the ice anymore.

In NM we have designated waters that are catch and release only but normally I like catching trout more than eating them. There are some lakes I eat a few though.