Stop the Dead Fish Pictures

[saxatilis]

Hey the 53 # bass on the home page is nice, but reel-time pleas you gotta stop putting pictures up of dead fish.

IMHO, it doesn't present the right image for this web site. BTW, anyone want to quess how many eggs were just lost next year because he kept the fish (which BTW is his right)? Not judging his rights, but we gotta shift the image back to more and more release. With high bass mortatitly those huge fish are so important. It would be the hardest thing in the world to let that fish go, but I don't think you would ever regret it.

Rick

[haguebrook]

C'mon Scott. As the killer of the mother fish, it was your responsibility to get those eggs fertized, hatched and then raise the fry as your own! ;)

[Mark Cahill]

I get grief for asking that we put stuff in the right forums. Now I'm an #$%hole for posting pics of dead fish.

Newsflash: A good portion of the fish that are "C&Red" die too...it's a part of fishing.

As a whole, people are getting way too uptight around here. Lighten up!

[saxatilis]

Mark:

I regret the post already. From the tone of your reply, it's clear my comments upset you. Not my intention. Sorry.

I am all for taking fish for comsumption! I just believe strongly that posting pics of clearly dead fish helps shift peoples opinions that the practice of the common place removal of larger breeder like Scott's.

Like you I am also all for protecting the resource so my kids and thier kids will be able fish for them.


Scott:

1st Congratulations on a magnificent catch.

I in no way meant to suggest of you that taking that marvelous fish was the wrong thing to do. Sh*t happens. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Rick

[saxatilis]

Agree. As a rec. angler, I think just like you- I generally need a reason to keep a fish, it dies, a friend as asked for some, or it's a species I generally love to eat (mahi, yellowfin, bluefin, or red snapper). Of course, none of them are up here (except bft)and then only what can be comsumed with a reasonable amount of time is kept. To me what you practice is called "responsible management" which I hope is widely practiced. We all know that what NMFS calls "sustainable" is usually not the case.

Thanks

[Mark Cahill]

Fridays are a bad day for me...up before 5am updating this site. I spend many many hours on this stuff. Doesn't help when I just wrote a 1200 check for a new rearend in the truck!

Prescription for the weekend: fish, then post a report.

[DAQ]

Mark,

You are lucky, the last time I put a new rear end in my truck I ended up marrying her and buying a house with her, so $1200 is pretty cheap.

D

[Jim Miller]

Nice Catch Scott!
A fish of a life time.....good for you. :)
Will you have a skin or plastic mount made?

[danny]

Rick what did you propose that I do, give the fish CPR? I took less than 5 minutes I think to bring it in, and it was dead at the side of the boat. It never once kicked or flapped on the deck, or even after it was in the locker. The water temps were near 70, I challenge you to revive any fish over 30 pounds in those conditions.

This is exactly the first fish I've kept in just over a year I believe. Like you said, that's my right. I'm sure there are days you kill fish, but in this case it wasn't a decision, the fish was dead and no amount of reviving made any difference.

In terms of eggs, probably about 4 million. Tack that on to the 50-100 million worth of fish I release each year safely that many either hurt, or eat. It happens and unless we stop fishing for them, there will always be by-catch/fatalities.

There was never a choice with this fish, we really think it had a heart attack.

i don't kill fish. i don't believe in it. i have had this argument many times with many different fisherman. i have never seen anyone respond with as much tact and logic and respect. i'm sorry the fish died, i'm glad i got to read this post. thanks for keeping your head and being so even tempered and responding like a true gentleman. it's refreshing.