"Catch and Release Pros and Cons"

[Vic Tankersley]

Gentlemen, give me your thoughts on ,"Catch and Release"....What is the best for our fisheries. I know what Bill Dance says , "Keep what you can eat and release the rest"..That was for all species, and at the time was a good thing, but I believe the catch and release bit for Large Mouth Bass and spotted bass needs to be looked at a little closer. BASS members look down on us meat eaters thinking that we are hurting their fishery and taking money out of their pockets when we take bass home for food. I say, "HOG WASH MEN". First studies have shown that some species will not live after you have handled them and kept them in a live well for tournaments for long periods of time. The Universities of Auburn and LSU and several more colledges have done extensive studies on actual BASS tournaments and have found that in some Hot weather tournaments around 60% of all fish returned died shortly after releasing. In milder conditions this falls to about 40%. Bluegil and other Sunfishes do real good when returned immediately to their enviorment. I am a firm believer in releasing any fish which cannot be fillet with an electric knife, small bluegill and always cull the bigger bulls to maintain the populations and to save these bigger gills genes for the next generations of fishes. I know of one incident where the BASS fishermen have raised Hell with the out of state fishermen who come down to Guntersville, Al and keep and fillet daily creel limits of 4 to 5 lb bass to take home. This they say is killing Guntersville Lakes fish population. Again I say, "HOG WASH MEN". Those out of state revenues help pay for things like restocking of species in our state, as well as all states fish programs. Any night my family wants a meal of fresh fish I want to make sure they can enjoy one. So my thoughts are as Bill would like to say but couldn't being a BASS member. "Keep what You can eat and Freeze the rest"...LOLRITFL

[harald kronemeyer]

I try to keep the med sized fish. Smaller and larger gills go back. The best tasting fish are around the 7" fish anyway. I am all about being as responsable as possable but my stomach wont let me release all the fish. We love blue gills and follow the rules of the state. There is a lake in Canada that didnt have a limit of gills taken for many years. You were able to catch 10" gills all the time. Now it is very rare to catch anything over 8". Rice Lake used to be great gill fishing now it is very average because guys would take home over 1000 fish in a weeks time. Limits are there for a reason. :)

 

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Vic I would say my  ideas are similar to yours....I have in recent years with the birth of my grandchildren, considered waters with bad BLUEGILL fishing and the responsibility we should feel as citizens to preserve the outdoors........I personally participate in Bluegill tourneys in which members keep the fish they have caught if desired....Don't have a problem with it because just as many members go to the dock and dump their entire catch (balance)......I use to keep and clean every gill, I now prefer the medium gills for consumption and feel good about releasing the big chunks and little gills to grow up.....I also don't have a problem with someone that keeps all the fish they catch within their state's regulations.....I'm more concerned about the quality of our lakes, rivers and streams and these waters sustaining fish for the long term....I'm very close to the research in North Carolina and think we have a very good stocking program including sunfish species (three cheers).........Management has proven to be the key and we can each play a role........I fish over a hundred days a year and don't feel bad about keeping a mess of gills and I also feel good on days that I release all the fish (again Balance).....This is just how I view doing my part........The only thing that I ask of all anglers is to use the fish you take....please don't waste this valuable commodity and continue to educate those willing to learn...I'm proof that an old angler can change and I have........I don't like comparisons to BASS fishing because how many guys you know have made a living on bluegill fishing....not many.....and even the few that have, do it because they love it like we do...that's why we're a relatively small group (2,900) that dearly love this species for the enjoyment of catching and a Sunday dinner with the family........

[Vic Tankersley]

 Jeff, Great post...well done..that makes great sense....

[Leo Nguyen]

All dependent on where you are. Here's my approach for my local waters:

 

* Bill Dance is dead on. Keep what you eat, release the rest, BUT, with conditions:

 

Striped bass: keep all to the limit. Limit is low, and my craving for them is high. Keep all.

 

Large/small mouth bass: keep all limit, if they are meeting limit requirement, and less than 5lbs. This allows the larger ones to thrive for species control and future games.

 

Sunfish: keep all that's within 5.5" to 7" for consumption between the period of outing. Release all smaller ones for predation and larger for reproduction.

 

Crappie: keep all within 5" to 9" for consumption between the period of outing. Release anything smaller or larger.

 

Carps and cats: keep all I can eat before next outing.

 

Lochness and unknown monsters: keep all I can eat before next outing.

 

Self-hooked: release all.

[JBplusThuy]

Stripers taste great, but the mercury level is so high in wild stripers (at least in California) that you're better off releasing them all and buying farmed ones. This is also true for LMB in most waters, and even large sunfish and (even more) crappie.

I don't take more than I and my family can eat, and typically, I don't care more than that anyway. As far as bass go, if they are legal size and not too big, I'll eat them, too. The California DFG set the limit at 5 (in most waters; it's higher in a few, and much lower or even 0 in a few) because that is what they believe to be sustainable. Especially in light of the fact that so many bass fishermen practice 100% C&R, a decent-sized BOW can sustain some people harvesting bass.

If BASS believes otherwise and has evidence to back it up, they are welcome to present it to the DFG and see if they can get the limits changed on some or all waters. In the meantime, I regard myself (and others) as having no reason to criticize a person who harvests fish of legal size by legal methods.  If others don't believe in the harvest of game fish, I support their right to believe so and encourage them to do what they think is right. In the meantime, I will practice "Keep what you can eat, release the rest." Bill Dance said it as well as it can be said.

[Jim Gronaw]

Catch and release panfishing, especially in terms of releasing the larger, adult/trophy specimens, is literally the 'final frontier' in catch and release angling, in my opinion.

Historically, fishing for gills, crappie and the like has been an effort for putting food on the table, and there are generations of anglers who utilized the resource for that exact purpose. When I was growing up, if you caught 100 gills, you kept, cleaned and ate 100 gills. Working class people looked at it as a way of life, and at times, life was very good from that perspective.

Over time, and decades, panfish perspectives began to change, and fishing methods improved. As bass and trout fishermen discovered the joy of panfishing and delicious eating, many would convert, if only ocassionally, to the panfishing masses. Nowadays, we have people who charter yellow perch trips in the Great Lakes and many southern venues see guided crappie fishing trips, year round. This was not the case 30-40 years ago. Panfishing is coming of age.

I know for a fact that you can 'fish down' size structure in many bodies of water, but it is harder to fish down numbers. That is...the rare, public lake with high numbers of 10 inch bluegills or 14 inch crappies is likely to suffer from overharvest of the larger adult fish simply because they are the most desirable fish in that system, and their numbers can be reduced, over time, to a point where the top-end gills many one day only measure 8 inches and crappies go 10 or 11 inches, tops.  Even some huge, southern impoundments have seen some decline in top-end panfish species due to untold numbers of big fish being removed. I have witnessed this happen to four regional lakes in my area, over 10 to 30 years. Sadly, the larger size structure of panfish in those waters has NEVER returned to the one-time, glory days of the past. The word got...rape and pillage occured...and they could never again recover from angling pressure. It can, and does, happen.

In my opinion, if you are within the legal limits of the state or lake you are fishing, then I can not question the harvest rate. In Maryland, we are allowed 15 gills a day, same with crappie and 10 yellow perch per day. In PA, you are permitted 50 panfish, of various species, per angler, per day. In some states, there is no harvest limit on panfish...alluding back to the decades old management concept of catch, keep, and eat philosophies.

I tend to limit my harvest to a couple catches a year of mid-sized 7 to 9 inch gills for a few meals with my wife and my son's family. I am not against keeping some overabundant 6 -7 inch gills from a lake that has an overpopulation with them. Hence, if I am fishing a lake that is in a crappie 'boom' year for size structure, then I may keep a dozen 12 to 13 inch class crappies, per year,  if I feel the lake can tolerate it. But this is rare in the Mid-Atlantic, with tidal rivers offering larger sized crappies than most lake venues.

Every lake is different, and we need to use common sense and discretion per body of water. Yes, it is tempting to make an epic haul of giant gills or crappies, but in the long run, it is sure to hurt the overall panfishing, if done on a routine basis strictly for the purpose of stocking the freezer.

I just believe that 10 inch and up bluegills deserve much more respect that that, certainly as much respect as a 10-pound bass. That's why those are the fish I release.

[Leo Nguyen]

x 2.  Agree wholeheartedly.

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Well put Jim.....I was raised in a state with no limits (Louisiana) and that started me in the direction I went.......I first started respecting Largemouth on the Toledo Bend reservoir which was the first slot limit I had ever been exposed to, now a Bass over five gets released on the spot........Then I said to myself, if I'm protecting Bass and I don't target them what can I do to protect the beloved bluegill.......Very hard transition for me but I finally get it.....and the feeling is great to Catch, Photo and Release that hog to continue the strain......This site has been good from the sharing and discussion view points.....What good is a picture if you can't show it to anyone and talk about it with fishermen, better than that, Bluegill fishermen...........Just one man's opinion...........

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

      Gentlemen, The Rules of Bluegill Big Bluegill prohibit me from expressing my true feelings about  Catch and Release, it would step on too many toes,and only cause hard feelings , so therefor I reframe from making any commits on the subject at this time,although I really want to BADLY .    LOFR

[Vic Tankersley]

Lord of the Fly,Rods...we really want honest opions so let me have the truth.."I can Handle the Truth"...We want you on that lake..we need you on that lake .LOL

[Bruce Condello]

BBG rules are strange...by design.

 

Forums, and internet conversations in general, lack the visual cues that most of us are used to when we are speaking with people face to face.  Consequently misunderstandings are frequent.  This subject, of catch and release vs. harvest will never be answered to everybody's satisfaction.

 

Because the members of BBG are way more mature and friendly than 99% of the other forum communities, conversations like this are lively, but rarely disintegrate into arguments and hard feeling.  LOFR is right to be cautious, but I'd really love to hear how you feel. 

 

The "magic" is in expressing how you feel without making it seem like a slam on others.  Go ahead and give it a whirl, buddy. :-)

 

Sorry I'm such a hard-ass on stuff like this, but when passionate folks like us discuss things, sometimes in comes off like bashing.  So far, I think we're OK...if not, then we'll freeze the discussion.  No hard feelings.

[Bruce Condello]

In most ponds, if you want to support a population of trophy bluegill it will require some sort of harvest strategy. While it is true that vast populations of smaller, lower Wr largemouth bass can prop up a quality bluegill fishery, there are things that you as an angler can do to promote the possibility for the bluegill of a lifetime.

Most experienced bluegill anglers have seen high densities of agressive, nest defending males during the springtime. If you sneak up on these fish you will often find the best bluegill fishing of the year, as these protective males hammer any offering in their reach. It would seem intuitive that these bigger fish should be returned to the water. Well, that's correct, but not entirely for the reasons you'd guess.

These biggest, most agressive males are usually in the higher echelon of the size distribution, but these fish are going to spend vast amounts of energy in nest building, nest protecting, gamete formation and fry guarding. During some of the peak growing season these fish are too preoccupied with nesting to be actively pursuing available prey items, and consequently aren't growing as well as they could be. But their size and agressiveness are why they've been able to secure the best spawning sites.

So what happens to all the other males in the pond?

If the big nest guarding fish are quality nine-inch fish, then there is often a grouping of younger males that are 7 to 8 inchers and can't compete for the best nesting sites. Since these smaller, younger fish can't get the best nests, studies suggest that they will skip most of the rigors of spawning and, instead bulk up on available invertebrates so that come next spawning season they can have a chance to compete. By leaving the older, bigger fish on their beds and not harvesting, or overly disturbing them you are setting the table for an entire additional class of big males the following year.

Think of it as an investment.

So what can you do if you love bluegill filets spattering a little grease on the floor next to your stove?

How about harvesting females? If you spend some time learning identification of male vs. female characteristics you can put heavy pressure on female fish for eating. This makes it virtually impossible to harvest over one half of your adult fish, and allows more males to reach their potential.

If you want to get really sophisticated you can even learn to identify fish by their relative weights and harvest fish that aren't thriving as well as others. And this includes males too. If your average Wr (relative weight) in your pond or small lake is 95 for example, you can harvest fish that are below that mark and protect fish that are above. This may (and I stress MAY) improve the overall genetics of your pond by selecting for fish that are better adapted to your particular pond environment.

So make harvest part of your overall management strategy, but do it wisely to give you the best chance of growing huge bluegill.