Would you fish if you had to release all fish?

[texwest44]

Where I live, it’s barbless single hooks. They claim a 1-5% mortality rate, higher when water temps are higher. Some might call me nitpicking, but there are 3 major guide services that put a chit load of people on the water mid June-September. A lot of vulnerable cutthroat are floating belly up down that river system.

I got no love for trout fishing outfitters in MT. I'm sure they're nice people or whatever but they're hell on public fishing.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Every time I come home from a fishing trip with buddies and don’t bring home any fish…

 

[Birdbander]

I spear pike in the winter. There's no catch & release but a person can choose not to throw. If it were mandatory to look & release, I'd be done.
The only other fish I pursue is crappie. It's an abomination before God in my opinion to not eat crappie.

 

[BuzzH]

I'm sort of 50-50. I like to kill a bunch of saltwater fish every year. Freshwater, it all depends on time of year, how busy I am, etc. whether or not I keep them.

I like to smoke and can a few trout every year and don't mind a few walleye filets. But, I turn loose a majority of the freshwater fish I catch.

That said, I would still fish if I had to release them all.

 

[rjthehunter]

I kill a lot of fish every year. I'm addicted though, so I'd fish whether or not i could keep them. It's nice having fish 1-2 time a week... I also give 100s of fish away a year and guide a bunch too.

A beautiful summer day fish fry is pretty high up on my list.

 

[longbow51]

If you play them quickly, and keep them in the water, I think mortality is, as studies show, very low. We saw very few dead fish on a river where only about 10 people fished.

 

[rustneversleeps]

Sitting on the boat and watching a pod of trout rise, while drinking a cold Modelo and contemplating life, is like church to me.

Fishing to me is way more than keeping fish and the food aspect. It would suck not having any perch/walleye in the freezer though…

 

[Hem]

I kill one pike a year to eat.
Usually I thank a fish for being there and enjoy watching them swim away.

 

[howl]

What are the situations in which always c&r is possible? Tarpon is the only one I have engaged very often..

 

[rjthehunter]

I kill one pike a year to eat.
Usually I thank a fish for being there and enjoy watching them swim away.

Thank them and turn them into a turd!

 

[D4570]

I would some but not as much. I have read that as many as 50% die after being released.
I know all the fish I keep die, but then I have to stop when I get my limit.
In my mind, a release area is very detrimental to the fish population. With a 1 or a two fish limit, that's all that would be killed, whereas with catch and release only, I can fish all day and kill a LOT of fish.

 

[WildWill]

Ok so quick question for you guy's discussing mortality rates. Are these rates and studies being referred to talking about trout fishing exclusively? I'm assuming so as I've never experienced a high mortality rate catching perch, bass, crappie, catfish, and various other warm water species besides the occasional swallowed hook.

 

[Fire_9]

I'm sort of 50-50. I like to kill a bunch of saltwater fish every year. Freshwater, it all depends on time of year, how busy I am, etc. whether or not I keep them.

I like to smoke and can a few trout every year and don't mind a few walleye filets. But, I turn loose a majority of the freshwater fish I catch.

That said, I would still fish if I had to release them all.

This is almost exactly where I'm at. The last few years I've put as much fish in the freezer as I have wild game but am also strictly catch and release on the small stream by my house.

 

[INMT]

Ok so quick question for you guy's discussing mortality rates. Are these rates and studies being referred to talking about trout fishing exclusively? I'm assuming so as I've never experienced a high mortality rate catching perch, bass, crappie, catfish, and various other warm water species besides the occasional swallowed hook.

I am only referring to trout.

 

[Ben Lamb]

The tug is the drug.

Caught & released this last Monday, with @Brauee20.

 

[noharleyyet]

Catfish, crappie, cornmeal, & peanut oil are essences...

 

[BAKPAKR]

I would definitely keep fishing. I hate cleaning fish anyway.

 

[nrpate05]

I would, but as I get older I have become more uneasy with strictly C&R. I live very close to some of the finest trout streams in the west and the culture is very much focused on catch and release. I am less interested in those 30 fish days and more focused on catching a couple of good ones. And, I've been more focused on checking out more remote areas in cool places.

 

[CRJR45]

Ok so quick question for you guy's discussing mortality rates. Are these rates and studies being referred to talking about trout fishing exclusively? I'm assuming so as I've never experienced a high mortality rate catching perch, bass, crappie, catfish, and various other warm water species besides the occasional swallowed hook.

My experience with fish dying after being released is from tournament bass fishing . 200 hundred boat T and all the bass get released. If the bass are floating belly up , the T director fizzes them to release the gas bladder . A lot die instantly but more die days later from infection, from being fizzed . Fizzing is sticking a hypo into the gas bladder to release built up gas .

 

[Birdbander]

This may get me in hot water but regardless, I'm of the opinion that sticking the air bladder to release pressure so a fish can swim away is the good public answer when it's real purpose is to sink the fish so folks don't see the dead ones.