Are keepnets really so bad, if so why?

[Andy Macfarlane]

Nah. He's quite a clever little chap really, astute for his age. He does go out fishing for fun with me or his sister, but he's just a bit dubious about it. You know what some kids or like, obsessed by fairness and justice. No bad thing, I was like that myself. I never had any problems with any aspect of fishing though. When I used to fish in the Leven I would readily switch from brownies to perch, if the troot were playing hard to get, and vice versa of course.

 

Obviously the slipper was a joke. I'm sure you're proud of the fact you have a thinking, considerate youngster. There's alot of little turds about these days.

[Steve Walker]

I have thought about this. If you are catching fish, they must be feeding. During this time the water must be full of stressed fish caused by other fish trying to feed on them. The angler probably has the least effect on a water at any given time the fish are active. If you put a stressed fish back I think it will have little or no effect on your swims success.

 

I'm not sure that's really the case. Most fish are not severely stressed most of the time; if they were, they would exhibit depressed immune systems and loss of condition. We have relatively few obligatorily predatory fish relative to the numbers of prey fish, they don't all feed at the same time, and for the alarm substance to be a useful evolutionary adaptation it needs to be localised enough an effect that the signal is not lost in the noise. It seems that alarm substance is a mechanism of shoaling species, which would suggest to me that the likely scope of effect is the shoal, not the general population.

 

I don't think, as it happens, that the effect of alarm substance on fishing is necessarily very strong, but nor do I think it's infeasible that it may cause a released fish rejoining the shoal to alter the shoal's behaviour, possibly to the angler's disadvantage.

[corydoras]

Obviously the slipper was a joke. I'm sure you're proud of the fact you have a thinking, considerate youngster. There's alot of little turds about these days.

Yea I know Andy, I took it as a joke too. I'm proud if both my kids, I guess that I shouldn't call the kids any more since one is 13 and the other is 18. Mind you the eldest says that she does not mind when I call her a 'kid' because when use the word kid there is no implied condescension.

 

True what you say though, there are a lot of little turds around these days. I am not sure why this is, bringing up kids to be considerate is not difficult or at least my ex and myself never found it to be difficult.

[Emma two]

Emma

You are a game fisher, you would not keep all your days trout in a keep net to select the best fish for the pan would you, why treat perch differently?

You know the score, you take a chance and knock one on the head.

 

Sorry I didn't respond to that earlier, I missed seeing it when you first posted it. It's true I havn't used a keepnet to keep trout (or salmon) in. The style of fishing for them is wholly different, as when game fishing I am constantly on the move working down the river, I would have to lift up the keepnet every step. Have a bankstick six feet long to keep the entrance clear of the water. The net would get dragged downstream anyway, ours are spate rivers. In any case I am disinclined to kill trout, It has been years since I did, I might consider taking the odd brownie, but sea trout and salmon certainly not. We perch fish in the lakes, our river dont support perch. (the river closest to me has no course fish at all). I can take or leave eatin trout and consider perch a superior table fish. (depending upon the water from which they come) I fish for perch in the lakes, mostly that is mobile fishing too, either walking the bank casting lures to cover ground, or from the boat. The times I use keepnet is when I go for a sitting down session at one of a couple of favourite spots fish and worm or minnow for 'em. That's when I sort out the bag at the end of the session and take what I want to eat. On mobile days suitably sized fish are killed straight away. By suitable size I mean 12oz to about 1lb. As someone pointed out in an earlier thread one needs a few that size to make a decent meal. So it works like this, if there are only a couple in the eatin range then the lot go back. If the session has been good, then half a dozen 'eaters' are killed the rest go back. These sessions are always evenings in summer running into last light, and last no longer than 2 hours, typically a shorter duration than most matches, and most of the fish come in the last hour.

Slightly off topic, but related, I hear lots of talk about autumn being the 'perch season', well all I can think is that waters must differ widely, perhaps in smaller stillwaters and slow moving rivers with fathomable depths then the colder months are productive, on the big lakes I ahve trouble finding the buggers after september.

Edited September 29, 2008 by Emma two

[lutra]

Three years ago i took a non angling friend perch fishing, the spot was likley to produce stripeys in numbers if not great individual size, almost as an afterthought I took a deadbait set up with us. 10 minutes after putting it out I found myself playing a large pike. I landed the fish, looked and thought, 'thats a 20', but had no way of knowing for sure, no scales and no camera! I placed in in the keepnet which was staked out in a deep oxygenated channel of a feeder stream. The depth varied by only a few feet from that which it had been caught in, the notion of 'gassing up' did occur to me. I left it there in the care of my by now quite excited companion and drove the 15 minute journey to town, rushed into the tackle shop for scales and to Boots for a disposable camera. It weighed just over 22lbs and as I had suspected was my personal best. It was weighed in an improvised sling fashioned from a soaked lightweight waterproof jacket before being returned. It swam strongly away. I don't believe that I harmed that fish, but perhaps someone will tell me that I did? and that I am a wicked angler. Now I alwys take a digital camera with me and scales capable accurately measuring fish larger then I am ever likely to catch.

I had this surprise capture a couple of years ago out of a Lancashire water.

 

It went straight back after bottoming out my 30lb scales. Ive got a pic and the memory that will have to do for me. Any experienced cat anglers fancy a guess at its weight?

 

Better pic here post 6.

Edited September 30, 2008 by lutra