Eating Perch...or any other prized species.

[Sharkbyte]

My winter fishing would centre around Cod. Nuff said. It has been screwed by years of commercial overfishing.

 

Before you try and corner me on this romantic idea of a man and his rod taking a couple for the pot, consider that a handful of anglers adopting this policy can do even more damage on a water of a few acres than any trawler can in thousands of square miles of ocean.

 

Since you brought up Bass, check out the Sea Angling Forum and read of the damage currently being done to the stocks off of the Channel Islands. Guess what it's rod anglers doing all the damage.

 

As for risking my pb's welfare that's laughable judged against those that kill their fish outright. It went back fighting fit and ready to make another anglers year.

Edited April 10, 2006 by Sharkbyte

[Steve Coppolo]

I started course fishing 40 years ago. Thankfully I've never met anyone who has taken a course fish, apart from eels, home to eat. My earlier reference to trout and salmon was wrong as they are game fish/migratory fish, so I won't refer to them as course fish from now on.

 

I've been heavily involved in sea angling for over 30 years and have seen the problems facing that discipline of the sport and fish stocks. Until I started reading this course forum I always thought of course angling as purely sportsfishing. Sure, I've heard stories of how people used to eat perch and pike years ago but I never dreamed that it still went on. Reading this forum has been a real eye opener for me.

 

If the level of course fish eating in this country stays as it is, I hanestly don't think it'll have much of an effect on fish stocks. After all, it must be a very small minority of course anglers, (perhaps angler is the wrong word for someone who fishes for food?), that actually eat course fish. But if anyone doubts what can happen when it becomes the norm, have a look at what's happened to most waters in countries like Poland.

 

For the record, I do take the occasional sea fish home to eat. But they taste very nice and are fished for commercially. If I stopped taking sea fish for the table it wouldn't make one bit of difference to the stocks. I have to say that I find the taking of course fish to eat un-necessary and against what I believe the sport should be about. If anyone wants to eat fish that they've caught, why not try sea angling or game fishing. Having said that, I'd prefer to release the resevoir trout that I sometimes catch as they taste like crap! Unfortunately most fisheries insist that you kill them.

[Guest rabbit]

How do you know it is none the worse for it's capture?

 

I dont suppose any captured fish is any the better for the experience health wise, but with correct handling almost ever fish will survive and go on to breed successfully, because thats the issue really, breeding stock, a mature fish is a valuable commodity to the general balance of the fishery. If we were to catch for the pot then naturally it would be the larger fish ie the breeding stock that would be the the target.

 

I have a pre war book in the house and it is some amusement to me that with every coarse fish it describes it also describes its edible value, not many are particulary good to eat. This was an era when welfare of our fish stocks were not an issue, like so many things in life we have moved on and so much wiser, so why are we even suggesting now that eating coarse fish is acceptable?

 

I have had my fair amount of small perch deaths, even then I would not consider taking these fish, by putting them back dead will ensure that a predator will at least have an easy meal.

Edited April 10, 2006 by rabbit

[Steve Walker]

I am amazed that anybody still eats course fish, as Ive been told they tast bad.

 

Some do. Some don't. Perch, as it happens, taste excellent. So do pike and eels. Zander is reckoned to be good but the one time I tried it I was disappointed. It was served in a restaurant with a cream/white wine/chanterelle sauce which overpowered the fish. Of the four species, eels are the only one for which a strong conservation argument can be made against eating them. The other species are extremely common right across the Northern hemisphere. They are all relatively short-lived species which reproduce prolifically and show a strong effect of cannibalism in their population dynamics. They are difficult to eradicate completely even if you mean to do so, and populations left alone will recover.

 

There is, however, a strong argument for not taking large individual specimens of any species based on their value as a sporting trophy fish; they are simply worth massively more alive than dead.

[gozzer]

If you can not see the difference then I dout you ever will.

 

Sorry Sam but I can't see the difference, would you please explain to me, how you justify it to yourself.

[Crackin Clax]

I myself have never eaten a coarse fish in all of my time fishing and do not intend to. I have never considered eating them as i love watch them swim away or 'the big weighup at the end of the session'. How do you each such creatures, you spend all day trying to trick them out with your best equipment and then simply eat them in a few minutes!

I am neither for or against against the eating of coarse fish but surely it is illegal to take a fish for supper?

[sam-cox]

Everything is relative, the sea is a huge area with a huge amount of pressure from commercial fishing.

Fresh water fish from lakes, gravel pits, streams and rivers only have angling pressure of which I expect 98% of the anglers practice catch and release.

If a population of decent size perch are inhabiting say a wier pool for exarple there may only be 25 fish over 2lb. It wouldnt take many anglers taking one for the pot to destroy this small perch fishery.

[Snatcher]

Back in my far distant spotty youth we used to do "boys own" barbies on the riverbanks of the Tyne. Trout/dace/gudgeon/roach/perch were rolled into wet newspapers and chucked into the embers

 

Character building stuff and quite tasty as far as I recall Just take the occasional cod,pollack or bass for the table these days

[gozzer]

Everything is relative, the sea is a huge area with a huge amount of pressure from commercial fishing.

Fresh water fish from lakes, gravel pits, streams and rivers only have angling pressure of which I expect 98% of the anglers practice catch and release.

If a population of decent size perch are inhabiting say a wier pool for exarple there may only be 25 fish over 2lb. It wouldnt take many anglers taking one for the pot to destroy this small perch fishery.

 

As I've said I wouldn't take a specimen sized fish, they are usually old fish, best weight would be 1lbish for perch and grayling, 3-5lb for pike.

There is a lot more than angling pressure on our fresh water fisheries for the fish to contend with. This has been mentioned in earlier posts.

I am still curious how you can decry someone who takes a fish for the pot, and still support using live baits.

I am not against either, but would like to know how anyone can justify one but not the other.

[Sharkbyte]

I am still curious how you can decry someone who takes a fish for the pot, and still support using live baits.

I am not against either, but would like to know how anyone can justify one but not the other.

 

Easy my friend, the livebaits I use are small, mainly upto 3 inches in length. They are lightly lip hooked and gently flicked out with an underarm cast. None are wasted, cared for they will swim around under a chubber all day long. If as has happened lately they are not taken, they can be released no problem, with barely a scale out of place. The trick to successful livebaiting is looking after them, otherwise it may as well be deadbaiting.

 

The small shoal fish often used (roach / rudd) are abundant in large quantities and inevitably natural predation will take a huge toll on their numbers before they reach maturity, for they are the predators natural fodder. They have in no way any sporting value and if per chance they are taken by a predator I am informed that this will undoubtedly save at least one other fishes life whilst the perch / pike goes away and sulks after capture. Any livebaits coming in dead after a take end up back in the water where they will make a meal for something or other, so in effect nothing is being removed from the system. On a good day you may use half a dozen, a 'hearty meal' would surely require far more.

 

The considerate use of livebaits and the removal of fine sporting fish, often of specimen size (honestly, who the hell would bother with a 1lb perch?) is like comparing chalk and cheese.

 

Had someone come on the forum bragging of using 2lb Perch as livebaits they would have gotten slaughtered, no doubt a few critics would have been the very people advertising their 'fine culinary' value today, yet in my eyes they would have been less of a blot on angling (just, mind) than the resident Ray Mears fan club.