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Lucky First 2 Casts!


AlderneyBassman

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I have to agree with JRT, why kill 2 fish. One of those fish would have been plenty to feed a family.

I know its up to the angler to decde what he does with his own fish, but i can not see the point in killing 2 great looking fish.

Again someone is going to say its to eat them but its sad to see fish like that killed. Maybe one day when most of the bigger bass are gone, a lot of you angler will start to think like myself and JRT .

 

Steve Butler

Edited by Steve B
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Hey. Cut the guy some slack! :angry:

 

Maybe he has a big family? maybe he wanted to feed his children and his parents? maybe he had guests visiting?........etc

 

Who are you guys to judge him if you dont know the facts??

 

Its to easy to jump on people when typing online. Im all for free speech but dont bag people without thinking.

 

Nice work alderneybassman!! (can you send some over to guernsey as i havent caught a single bass this year!!! not that ive worked very hard at it!)

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Cheers Island991

 

They are certainly not going to waste. The largest will make a great main course for a dinner party in a couple of days time :D And the smaller is in my smoker as we speak(?).

To be honest, bass of this size are by no means uncommon here and catches of many more fish are a regular occurance.

I was just chuffed to get 2 in the first 2 casts ( yes CT on the almighty chugbug).

I do limit myself to only keeping fish for immediate use, if its gonna end up in the freezer then it goes back.

I also make a point of releasing any whiting I catch as they, unlike bass, are extremely rare here

;)

Edited by AlderneyBassman
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The way I see it is Bass anglers will always be split into 2 groups - those that like to kill a fish to provide a meal and those that think to kill such a creature after trying so hard to catch it is the very last thing they'd want to do.

 

I happen to be a member of the 2nd group - I aint particularly proud or sad that I am, its just my choice, but I do pity the angler that doesnt feel what I feel at watching a nice bass he's hooked, fought, landed, admired and then released, swim away to breed more bass and hopefully swim my way another day. Perhaps the pride or kudos the provider/angler feels at presenting his friends/ family with such a nice (yeah I caught that) meal will always outweigh any pleasure he could feel at having encountered such a superb wild fish and then gladly let it go. On the rare occasion where a fish I catch is too badly injured to put back, I will reluctantly kill it but it really does take the shine of the session to the point where I wish I'd blanked.

 

I'm not quoting anyone on this thread here but one thing I get sick of hearing is anglers tyring to convince themselves that killing prime breeding stock fish is justified cos its cost em this much to get there/ its cost this much in fuel/ the boat cost me this much etc etc. I find that pathetic.

Someone who thinks its OK to enjoy the sport a good fish provides then remove it from the breeding pool to turn it into a piece of dead meat is not of my mindset and in my experience takes some considerable persuasion to change his ways. They always think that "just these 2 fish wont make such a big dent in the stocks" but what they dont appreciate is that if we all had that same philosophy, it WOULD make a dent in the stocks.

How big a dent makes no difference. A dent is a dent and thats that. You're either happy with that or youre not. Only when theres no decent bass left will these people think well maybe me killing "just a couple of 6/8lb'ers a year" every year, for 10 years say, might not really have been such a good idea.

 

The "It'll probably swim into a net anyway" opinion cuts no ice either, I often wonder how many of the bass I have caught and released have been clobbered by the next angler thats caught them - that grates on me a bit I must admit, but hey its bound to happen isnt it, and if that fish has had a chance to breed some more before meeting its end then thats down to me and how I think. Lets face it if we all practiced 100% catch and release, there would be more bass about for us all to catch and thats a fact.

The real shame is that so many anglers just can not see that...

 

I think its a black verses white thing and those that take a couple and are happy about it are set in their ways, and the only way they'll stop is when theres no bass left. You either feel one way or another and thats that.

 

BUT...although being someone who likes to provide the odd couple of fish for his family might not be someone who I'd like to go fishing with, its a much better way to be than that other group who will catch as many bass as they can and kill every one no matter how big or how small....and then sell them. They're the real problem.

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There is a third group; people like me who stick a great big hook through its heed and live bait it for something BIG :rolleyes::P So we have passed that joke then, have we? :rolleyes: Ill (try) not to mention that again...

 

On a more serious note...

 

Rapala,

I so happen to be similar in opinion to you, for how I go about my fishing. Return as much as possible, and feel slightly guilty if ive killed. The main reason is because i dont eat that much fish, although i have tried new types on occasion.

 

Death is a part of fishing, there are no two ways about it... If we where to quibble over everything then we really should look into golf! I dont think twice about accidental deaths. Many of us use bait to catch fish. Im guessing that doesent apply to you if you chuck lumps of plastic about.

 

Just because the fish in queestion are two bass of breeding size, does that make it any better or worse than say, a cod in double figures? Which people kill all the time!

 

The man obviously enjoys eating fish, and bass are a lovelly tasting fish in many peoples opinion, would you rather someone go out and line the pockets of those who are raping our seas by buying the fish from the fishmonger. If people are going to eat fish, i cant think of a better way than self caught. Fresh, knowing exactly where its came from and cheaper.

 

Lets think about it and not go downing fellow anglers.

Edited by Spur-Hound

Tight Lines

Shaun

 

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Spurhound,

You have contradicted yourself there I'm afraid "feeling slightly guilty" about fish you have to kill does not sit comfortably with "not thinking twice about accidental deaths" Uhhh?...ah well...there you go.

 

Livebaiting - yeah very contentious issue and summit I'm not altogether happy about from an ethical point of view. However, you guessed me wrong, I HAVE done it and DO fish with bait. So yeah I take your point about death being part of it etc but I hate golf, and although you say you are in it (like I am) for the sport, you choose to stick up for someone who kills bass which I find slightly puzzling.

 

I mean in AB's reply he said he was "just chuffed to get 2 in the first 2 chucks" so does that mean if we get "chuffed" about catching 2 in 2 casts, that means we keep em both? The 1st was obviously not going back otherwise it woulda gone back before the 2nd cast went out. But like I said - thats his choice.

 

You either want to C&R or you dont, its up to the angler, its his choice. I'm not knocking em or downing em as you say cos they do it or they dont and thats that. I am merely trying to point out some long-term issues and explain as best I can the reasons behind why I think its better for us all to put the healthy fish back. If that makes just one angler think twice about killing the next bass he catches then thats a good thing you for one should agree.

 

If theres so many bass of that size swimming round AB's boat then the law of averages says he'll catch a fair few of em, some of which may be badly hooked - now theyre the ones I'd take, (if I had to), even if it meant puttin em in the freezer. In my opinion the frozen bass I have eaten still taste good. Incidentally large bass like the ones in question dont taste as good as the smaller ones, but with all due respect you probably wouldnt know that. Theories behind what sized bass are best to keep from a conservation point of view are many, but if the purpose is to eat the fish then common sense says keep a smaller one because they taste better.

I dont know how big some peoples ovens are but a "whole baked 8lb'er" sounds a bit extreme....

 

I agree 100% with you saying killing your own fish as against buying it from the middle men is much much better but to be fair that aint the point I was making, if I was that desperate to eat fish, I'd certainly keep many of the ones I catch, but I don't fish to eat. Making a comparison to all the cod that get walloped is very valid; just look no further than the state of the cod fishing!

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ABM, dont let the knockers get you down. Great catch :)

 

Wish these knockers would stick to the political threads, there are

plenty of them on this forum (too many for my liking). We sport

fishing types can then ignore them and they can talk to them selves and

the commercials like wurzal and binatone :D

Edited by n4lly
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