Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sheesh. And they aren't even worth eating

Going back probably 15 plus years now, the Wardens stopped a couple guys leaving the north Maine woods with a few hundred small brook trout in their possession. I think they’d only been there two days, three at the most. They’d been fishing some of the smaller brooks and rivers in the area. You know the hurting a couple guys with a can of worms can do to to a small stream full of wild brookies? Takes quite a while to recover from that. Do it long enough to the wrong stream and it may not recover at all.

Yes some regulations seem arbitrary. But if you don’t think you can hurt a fragile eco system by taking too many fish, you might want to read up on the subject. Some guys think of rivers and streams like a magicians hat. You can just take as much as you want and there’s always more where that came from. Doesn’t work like that.

If they caught a couple hundred in two days, chances are those brookies weren't about to go extinct.

Try to keep up. It’s not about “going extinct”. It’s about taking a [bleep] load of fish out of specific bodies of water with limited resources and ability to produce said fish. Unless you figure you or they were entitled to to do it just because?

Roger knows what good fisch tastes lak.

Speckled trout's, crappies, white bass, flounder, sheepshead, bluegill, red snapper, brown snapper, white snapper,....

Grew up fishing the Delaware bay. Over fishing decimated it. Weakfish were first. Then the Stripers went. Then the Drum fish. Next went the founder. Now Omega seafood is targeting the bunker (menhaden) using spotter planes and setting their nets at the mouth of the bay. Amazing fishery has been systematically destroyed because of mismanagement. the comms can net tiny fish that never grow to keeper size for recreational fishermen. Example summer flounder in the bay 14” for comms, 17” for recreational. Typically a flounder doesn’t reach 15” until it’s 3rd summer. Doesn’t take long to wipe out the young ones the recreational guys throwback. there’s plenty of spiney dog fish and Brown sharks to catch but I wouldn’t eat a dogfish and browns are protected. I guess that’s the reason theyre the only thing left in big numbers.

I can remember when there was no limit on Crappie in Tennessee, and the possum cops would tell us not to throw any back, no matter how small they were. The TVA lakes were terribly overpopulated, and they figured the only way to let any of them grow to any size was to thin the herd. Then some idiot got the bright idea to stock ocean stripers in fresh water- - - - -those things are eating machines, and the crappie became their primary food source! Bad move!

If you think bustin somebodys ass over that is ok. You probaly can't fish worth a [bleep] yourself .

So now I'm "entitled." That's funny all I did was make an observation. I've fished plenty of streams where catching a hundred + small fish in a day was no big deal. The thing those streams all had in common was, removing fish didn't hurt the population. One of those streams was in New Mexico and the limit for brown trout was 32, And they were all stunted. It ain't rocket science.

Got it. Fish are an infinite resource and you know better than the wildlife biologists that spend half their lives studying those streams...

Must be different in New England where they are native. Around here, brookies are an invasive species. They are tough on our native dolly varden.

More than a few folk out here have lost their boat and truck after stepping over the line while salmon fishing.

Russians are often busted illegally taking fish with nets etc...

Wagon burners take whatever the fugk they want and nobody can or will touch them.

Yes they are. Difference is they belong up there. Out here they are invasive. I think he may have missed the part where I wrote North Maine Woods...

Our first conservation effort:

As 12 year old kids we bunny hunted with 22LR's in Va at every opportunity mostly kicking them out of hedgerows and trying to hit running rabbits. Rarely scored. One day we decided to use shotguns and got a boatload of rabbits. Next weekend we ran our usual route and there was not a rabbit to be seen. Shotguns were instantly banned, as we discovered it was the hunt not the score that we were after.

No, that's not what I said. But I think you know that. You're a very dramatic kind of fellow, aren't you.

Not trying to be an azzhole, but this is a real pet peeve of mine. I’ve spent a lot of time assisting biologists with stream restoration projects, Populations counts, restocking with an eye towards natural reproduction, etc. only to have some jack hole who thinks game laws only apply to other guys, clean out a stream with nothing more than a can of worms and pack of eagle claws. They’ll snag, net and even shoot at spawning brook trout because they really do think they’re and infinite resource. They’re not.

Sometimes you can achieve your goal without really trying. But I get it now, it's those damn worm dunkers that really get your goat, eh?

But I think there's been a mistake here. You've mistaken me for someone who gives a flying f*ck about your pet peeves and/or the fishing methods you approve of.

And a GFY to you too... obviously reading comprehension is not your strong suit and you seem to read more into everything than what is actually said. Why waste my time, you’re too dense to reason with,..

BTW, dumb ass, I aprove of all fishing methods as long as they’re done responsibly, I partake in them all myself. Just spent the past month worm dunking with my grandsons and had a blast.

Like I said, you’re just too fugging stupid to even understand the point I’m making. Welcome to my ignore list jackass...

As the 'Fire turns....

One poacher's excuse. Uhhh, not everybody is doing it, just me, so it doesn't make any or much difference, duhh.

Where you live at bro.

Round here, everybody doin' it.

Well, not really.

But, you have that idea right. I mean, what's it gonna hurt if I take a few undersized, or a few over the limit, or a big adult over the slot limit?

Sheesh is right, as per the title.