I did the unthinkable!

[salmonoid]

JeffK wrote:
I eat a few fish a year, and unfortunately wild trout taste much better than stockies. For smaller trout I break the neck, but for lakers and larger trout from lakes I bleed them out. In general, I like to be prepared to keep fish on ice if I plan to keep a fish and only keep a fish if I cook it that day. I don't bother with the ice in winter. If you are eating anything it is only right to keep them in good shape. After all, as a fisherman I can get fish fresher than any store.

As an alternate to the C&R religion, one NYS guide, who kept the occasional fish, remarked that if a wild trout population was so stressed taking a few fish would harm it we probably shouldn't be fishing at all.

Why is it unfortunate that wild trout taste much better?

Agree 100% that if a wild fish population is so delicate that keeping a fish or two will cause it to spiral out of control and be extirpated, we shouldn't be fishing for them. It has often been said to keep the stockers - the state will just make more. Well, I wouldn't advocate harvesting every wild catch one catches, but guess what? Nature makes more of the wild ones too!

 

[Cornholio]

"Nature makes more of the wild ones too!"

You make a good point, I may have to club a few more wild browns over the head.

 

[FarmerDave]

salmonoid wrote:
It has often been said to keep the stockers - the state will just make more. Well, I wouldn't advocate harvesting every wild catch one catches, but guess what? Nature makes more of the wild ones too!

True. But if you are catching stocked trout in a stream that has natural reproduction, I think it is better to remove the stocked, versus wild.;-)

I have no problem with legal harvest of wild trout.

 

[krayfish2]

Every since I got my brown belt in JuJitsu, the rear naked choke has been my preferred method of dispatching fish I plan to eat. They are slippery so a body triangle is preferred to try to 'get the hooks in'

 

[streamerguy]

A paralyzer to the chode usually knocks 'em out pretty easily.

 

[Chaz]

Nature makes more wild fish, but if you take only fish over a certain size you will cull the gene pool.