These are not gigged bass

[mjk86]

54 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

Starting to sound like PETA, no one I know tortures fish mercilessly. We might take a pic or two before we throw it back. But it's still more humane than killing 

I bet you wouldn't  do to a dog what you do to a fish.  Or what if someone pushed you into a pool on your way to work?  Just to snap a pic and chuckle.  It's torture no doubt about it.  Hurting an animal for nothing more than fun...at least if you eat it you can justify the pain you caused it.  Why catch it at all?

I think as sportsmen we need to let go of that fact that fishing is somehow in some way humane.  It's not....it's cruel, everything from baiting a hook to holding the fish.  Be as gentle as you wanna be...sing it songs, massage it's back...it still would rather you have left it alone.

Obviously I'm not a peta person.....you can ask the fellas at the table rock forum about that.  also I throw fish back all the time too.  Ones that taste gross or when I don't feel like cleaning em....but I won't pretend that it's somehow not cruel just cuz I tossed em back in the water.

[fishinwrench]

If there is any cruelty involved it would be the tournament guys, throwing them in a box, then a bag, then a basket, then throwing them back in an area totally unfamiliar to them.   They are tired, lost, have no idea where the cover and food is.     It would be like plucking your dog off of your porch, hauling him to a field 2 counties away and kicking him out.    If by chance he does find his way home he'll be sore, sad, skinny, exhausted, and have some scars.  

[Smallieguy87]

8 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

If there is any cruelty involved it would be the tournament guys, throwing them in a box, then a bag, then a basket, then throwing them back in an area totally unfamiliar to them.   They are tired, lost, have no idea where the cover and food is.     It would be like plucking your dog off of your porch, hauling him to a field 2 counties away and kicking him out.    If by chance he does find his way home he'll be sore, sad, skinny, exhausted, and have some scars.  

Agreed 100%! Don't some of the circuits fine the anglers for dead fish?

[Haris122]

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Speaking of proper catch and release...there's several people on this forum who can give a lot of good tips on this as far as how to hold the fish(if you have to) different methods of removing hooks, proven live well treatments etc.....I encourage anyone who doesn't want to keep what they catch to take the time and look up all the good info floating around places like OAF.

I wish there was some kind of sticky topic (maybe in conservation section at that) that basically goes over all that. Including studies that reinforce the most important points. I know they say especially after a prolonged fight, keeping the fish out of water for as little as 20-25 seconds can seriously cut the chance of it surviving (wonder how dipping it in for a few seconds and then continuing the hook removal affects that, cause hopefully it's that many seconds continuously, instead of total regardless of time intermittently put back in water).

 

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I bet you wouldn't  do to a dog what you do to a fish.

Yeah, fish are just that hardcore. But yeah, no doubt, you're basically getting high off of the frantic life and death struggle of something. I try to justify it as educating them, for further survival. Ultimately they'd rather get caught and released by me, then either be caught for good from not knowing not to bite a lure, or be "released" by someone who cares even less about taking the necessary precautions to ensure it survives afterwards.

[Jerry Rapp]

4 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

If there is any cruelty involved it would be the tournament guys, throwing them in a box, then a bag, then a basket, then throwing them back in an area totally unfamiliar to them.   They are tired, lost, have no idea where the cover and food is.     It would be like plucking your dog off of your porch, hauling him to a field 2 counties away and kicking him out.    If by chance he does find his way home he'll be sore, sad, skinny, exhausted, and have some scars.  

stuff your wife and dog into the trunk of your car for a couple of hours, and then open it and see who is happy to see you!  And I really feel sorry for the little minnows in the tank at the bait shop.  A fisherman walks in and says I want 4 dozen.  The minnows go wacko when the net hits the water, swimming around in circles.  There is probably a thousand of minnows in the tank, but they don't want to be the 48.  Cruel. This country is going wacko if B & H is all the Democrats have to offer up.

[fishinwrench]

What you see in the debates is the best this country has to offer, Jerry.   

All the honest, decent folks with good morals and intentions are too busy fishing and talking BS on OAF to take on things like running the country.  

[Al Agnew]

Catch and release can be an uncomfortable topic.  As has been pointed out, you are putting the fish through, at best, a very uncomfortable experience for your own pleasure.  When you stop and think about that, you start to feel a bit uneasy, or at least I do.

There's been a debate going on for a long time about whether fish feel pain as we do.  It's doubtful that they do, in my opinion, so I don't worry much about sticking a hook in them.  But the panic they must feel when hooked and pulled in directions they don't want to go is probably real.  

Still, fish have a tiny brain that is probably incapable of real thought.  The difference in humans and fish (or most if not all other critters) is that we have an imagination.  We can imagine that we're gonna die, or that we'll suffer horribly, or that some predator is going to tear us limb from limb and eat us alive.  Fish are all about conditioned responses.  They flop when they are lifted from the water because, if they found themselves beached after chasing prey up onto the bank, flopping usually led them downhill and back into the water.  If they are pulled one way, they resist by trying to swim away from the pull.  Some leap when hooked probably because if they accidentally tried to swallow something that got stuck in their mouth, they could leap out of the water and get more violent leverage in the air to force it out, but they don't think about it, it's a conditioned response developed over eons of evolution.

The best we can do is to treat them with care, so that the experience we put them through doesn't do them lasting damage.  And instead of thinking about the "feelings" of individual fish, think about fish populations and their ecological situation, and what we should do to insure the populations continue to do well.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Their mouth is their fingers. It has thousands of nerve endings. 

We are just lucky they don't have a voice box. 

[bfishn]

Two things that stuck with me ever since I was a skinny Missouri farmboy;

1. Houses are for people, barns are for critters,

2. You don't mess with critters of any type that you don't intend to eat. (With the lone exception of when they are a threat to you or what you intend to eat).

For a long time, I didn't have to worry about overkill... I wasn't that good. But I enjoyed it so much I got better. Now I just fish for a mess and call it a day. When I catch something I don't want to eat (like a bass or gar) I let 'em go, It ain't about the fight, or proving I'm smarter than a fish. It's dinner.

[Hog Wally]

Ummmmm........   What happened to this forum ?  It got hijacked ?  Who are these people and what's wrong with them ? God help us all if some of these folks are in a authoritive position. Especially if they are training the next generation to such ludicrousness. Sorry.