Does "Shelter-in-place" mean no going out to ffish?

[tomgamber]

Fly-Swatter wrote:
Speaking of subsistence fishing, there is this: Fish Consumption

I love how they juxtapose "Fish Consumption Advisory Listing for 2020, by River Basin" with "Health Benefits of Eating Fish". :lol:

Fish: Enjoy responsibly.

There are many benefits to fish in your diet. There are also a lot of waters that man has polluted to where minimizing that diet from those specific waters may save your health. Are you suggesting everything has to be either all good or all bad?

Most of those waters with consumption advisories are NOT trout waters.

With that said, its cheaper to hit the store for boxed mac-n-cheese and tuna than to fill your gas tanks in the HOPES of fishing to feed your family. I don't believe anyone s going to starve if they don't eat fish from the crick.

 

[Bamboozle]

But the IS a "no more than one meal per week" advisory for the ENTIRE state, INCLUDING hatchery trout...

 

[Swattie87]

From a taste perspective (not that taste is the most important thing in life/death situations, so be guided accordingly), it's better in my experience to let the fish feed on a natural stream diet for a few weeks before you harvest them. The flesh on fresh Stockies is very mushy...Think like a junky/muddy batch of Blue Crabs. After a month or two it firms up to something similar of a wild fish, and tastes much better.

On the other end of things, you also want to harvest them before they're on the verge of death from either water temps or starvation too...The flesh degrades in those scenarios too.

 

[RLeep2]

I never interpreted the advisories as being contradictory with the dietary benefits of eating fish. But then again, I try to be a glass half full kind of guy. Less wear and tear on my sense of well being.

Anyway, as I recall, the advisories are general guidelines designed to apply more specifically to the potentially vulnerable (children, pregnant women, etc.) than the average healthy adult. More a yellow light than a red one. With the proviso of course that everyone should be aware of the consumption point where danger or harm become more likely depending on who we are.

I have no worthwhile opinion on the mac-n-cheese vs. fish as necessary sustenance question. There are all kinds of people out there and I've simply not met enough of them to have any idea...

 

[tomgamber]

Bamboozle wrote:
But the IS a "no more than one meal per week" advisory for the ENTIRE state, INCLUDING hatchery trout...

ok, maybe i misunderstood. I'll look at that link again.

RLP...the mac&Cheese thing was purely economic. Its cheaper. I tried it in college and it cost me more for gas to fish (fishing gear aside)and gas back then was a dollar a gallon.

 

[tomgamber]

Bamboozle wrote:
But the IS a "no more than one meal per week" advisory for the ENTIRE state, INCLUDING hatchery trout...

Where are you seeing this? His link took me to an advisory to a specific watershed.

Agencies Advise Not to Eat Fish from Shenango River: Shenango Lake Dam to mouth (Mercer & Lawrence Counties, PA)

because of PCBs and then displays a graphic that explains how the levels of PCBs effects the amount they recommend you can eat for any watershed that falls under a PCB advisory. It does not say that the advisory applies to all watersheds in the state. At least not the link he posted. Is there another link somewhere that says the whole state is under an advisory?

 

[RLeep2]

Understood, Tom, and that's makes good sense. It made me think though of the economics of my own situation. I live about 3/4 of a mile from a pretty good warmwater lake and drive a hybrid RAV. The way gas is right now, I could probably get down there and back for less than the price of a box of mac-n-cheese. And when I factor the value of my time in (I'm currently paying myself 26 cents/hour) to clean and bag a mess of gills or perch, I could probably still do it at a competitive price, but probably not lower. It's isn't fair though because I've been at 26 cents for a long time and feel I deserve a raise...

 

[tomgamber]

RLeep2 wrote:
Understood, Tom, and that's makes good sense. It made me think though of the economics of my own situation. I live about 3/4 of a mile from a pretty good warmwater lake and drive a hybrid RAV. The way gas is right now, I could probably get down there and back for less than the price of a box of mac-n-cheese. And when I factor the value of my time in (I'm currently paying myself 26 cents/hour) to clean and bag a mess of gills or perch, I could probably still do it at a competitive price, but probably not lower. It's isn't fair though because I've been at 26 cents for a long time and feel I deserve a raise...

yes, you probably do deserve a raise . And up until a couple weeks ago I'd say your not guaranteed to find or actually acquire any fish if you did go to the lake. However, that could be said for mac&cheese the other week when I went to the store either.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Tom: The consumption advisories I was referring to are in a sub-link on that page. ADVISORY

 

[Mike]

The 1 meal per wk consumption advisory is a blanket advisory for all waters and their associated species for which no more stringent advisory was required based on fish flesh contamination data. Some of the one meal per wk waters and species were tested; others were not.

If this is a topic that concerns you, then you owe it to yourself to read thoroughly all of the introductory and instructional material regarding the topic in the rear of your summary booklet including the information on preparing your catch.

 

[tomgamber]

Fly-Swatter wrote:
Tom: The consumption advisories I was referring to are in a sub-link on that page. ADVISORY

yes, those have always been there. These are all area and species specific. I still see nowhere where it says the entire state is under a consumption advisory.

Now let me go read what mike wrote...

 

[tomgamber]

ok,

This is what you are referring to. I had never seen that before.

Mike, I am not concerned by it. Stocked trout taste like crap anyway until late in the season after their diet has improved.

anyway, thanks for pointing this out. I never saw anything but the spreadsheet of waters until now.

 

[troutbert]

tomgamber wrote:
ok,

This is what you are referring to. I had never seen that before.

Mike, I am not concerned by it. Stocked trout taste like crap anyway until late in the season after their diet has improved.

anyway, thanks for pointing this out. I never saw anything but the spreadsheet of waters until now.

Yeah. The consumption advisory says ONE fish per WEEK.

But the limit is FIVE fish per DAY.

That seems like a bit of a paradox, yah?

 

[tomgamber]

troutbert wrote:

tomgamber wrote:
ok,

This is what you are referring to. I had never seen that before.

Mike, I am not concerned by it. Stocked trout taste like crap anyway until late in the season after their diet has improved.

anyway, thanks for pointing this out. I never saw anything but the spreadsheet of waters until now.

Yeah. The consumption advisory says ONE fish per WEEK.

But the limit is FIVE fish per DAY.

That seems like a bit of a paradox, yah?

actually it says one MEAL per week. Apparently you haven't seen some of these guys eat.

 

[Mike]

The one meal per wk is based on a 150 lb person and the meal size for a person of that weight is specified in ounces of fish flesh. See the summary booklet. Also in the summary booklet you’ll find that The advisory pertains to a specific groups. Troutbert, there are plenty of us to whom it technically may not apply, but we may opt to follow it.

My wife and I usually eat 1.5 to 2 standard stocked hatchery trout per meal. She is beyond child bearing age. We remove the skins after cooking; the belly flaps are cut off as I clean the fish; and if I spot any fat along the dorsal fin as I remove that fin during cleaning. That fat is discarded.

An 11 inch freshly stocked trout weighs about .5-.6 lbs, so once the cleaning is done the weight is considerably less.

No paradox. Since when does one need to eat all five fish in a limit in one week? In fact, I tend to freeze a limit or two and then not harvest more until those frozen ones have been or have nearly been consumed.

Also recall from stocked trout and wild trout creel surveys that few people harvest a limit of trout. It happens, but it is not as common as C&R anglers seem to think. The vast majority of harvested fish are taken by anglers who have one or two trout in their creels.

 

[troutbert]

What is going to be done regarding Opening Day, and trout season overall?

Has a decision been made on this one way or the other? Or are they still thinking about it? Opening Day is not very far away.

Opening Day always results in crowding. And if they have a "regular" opening day, it will result in crowding this year also.

I think everyone knows that. Simply saying "stay 6 feet away" would not eliminate the opening day crowding.

 

[Bamboozle]

They'll have masks on, it will be fine... :roll:

 

[Mike]

Everybody is going to fish wild trout streams in order to avoid crowding. Due to the hoarding of limited seafood supplies in supermarkets, harvest of five wild trout per trip will be encouraged.

As for me, I plan to fish for the finless, witless, wonders. There are a number of lightly fished streams and stream stretches, even in SE Pa, plus one does not have to be on the stream at 8 AM to have a good day. Most morning anglers quit between 10-11 AM. In northcentral Pa there are even such lightly fished stocked streams that some see no anglers at 8 AM. Angler counts are zero!

 

[Bamboozle]

Make it eight like the old days and no minimum size and I'll be there with a frying pan...!!

 

[mute]

My assumptions are the following.....

1. Opening day \ Mentor day will be announced as not happening in the coming days.
a. People ARE \ will fish anyway as i see it every week. I'm sure its a mixture of the ignorant\criminal mindset along with the everyone's going to die we must quickly hoard as much frozen fish as possible mindset.

2. Everything will follow through as still being on and people will fish per normal, on top of each other in the limited holes with grouped up fish. I can forsee fist fights.

3. Perhaps the decision is made to strictly enforce shelter in place orders and fishing is deemed no exception. The majority of the trout end up becoming waste and deing in the low hot streams. Most likely not the case because of 1.a