right or wrong

[codonly]

had a walk down shields pier yesterday a local club were fishing a match. one of them caught a dogfish about a pound and half rather than kill it for the sake of the weight he asked if the fish could be weighed and returned,the answer was kill it or chuck it back.
the lad put the fish back alive without it being weighed thus costing him victory in the comp.
think i know what (who) would have been chucked in.
your opinions please

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

Wrong...

...but only because the end result was that the fish would have been discarded.

The next dogfish I catch, I intend to eat - just to try it - but would ordinarily chuck the little guy back

 

[Lowrider]

I have said for a while that catch and release will be the way to go,by choice or forced on us.
Good on the lad for returning the fish

 

[RossW]

I would have thought catch and release would be easy enough from the pier. Good on him for chucking it back.
Are there many Dogfish around these days?

 

[flatheed]

it doesnt take a lot of brain power to sort this one out stevie, unfortunately what it does take is a bit of trust and honesty. we all know one or two that you wouldnt trust as far as you could chuck them. you know the way we run our matches. match cards points for fish etc marked by a fellow competitor. rocket science it aint!! the length to weight measures are available if you run heaviest bag matches. sorted.

 

[codonly]

the really annoying thing about this is there was about 8 members of the club on the end of the pier,so no trust needed. it was witnessed but there must be some very insecure people in that club

 

[mick dunn]

What a shame. Why kill the little fella. We ran a catch and release on our compo and it works very well. It is rare i keep more than a couple of fish. In fact off steetly yesterday i would have put them all back but i gave a couple of Big whity to a young lad to take home.

 

[paulthespark]

wich part of steetly do you fish mick, i like the platforms mainly the north platform, but some idiots have pulled a load of boards up making it a bit dangerous.

 

[john/r]

hi, please dont take this the wrong way, as i do agree with what has been said and i think catch and release is a very good sensible idea but even when i used to go boat fishing putting fish back i often wundered how many fished lived after returning and obviously putting fish back off piers is awkward on account of the hieght, i once heard it said so and so caught x amount of fish of newbiggen cliffs someone else said but there was loads of small stuff then someone else said well if he had put them back off there they would,nt of survived.
what do you do or what would you do.
another scenario i fish off beaches mostly catch a small fish put it back i do this all the time and the same thing happens all the time the fish floats on top of water and then you get plauged with seagulls. think i might start using my 7/0 aberdeens again

 

[YoursTruly]

hi, please dont take this the wrong way, as i do agree with what has been said and i think catch and release is a very good sensible idea but even when i used to go boat fishing putting fish back i often wundered how many fished lived after returning and obviously putting fish back off piers is awkward on account of the hieght, i once heard it said so and so caught x amount of fish of newbiggen cliffs someone else said but there was loads of small stuff then someone else said well if he had put them back off there they would,nt of survived.
what do you do or what would you do.
another scenario i fish off beaches mostly catch a small fish put it back i do this all the time and the same thing happens all the time the fish floats on top of water and then you get plauged with seagulls. think i might start using my 7/0 aberdeens again

John, at the end of south shields pier it is easier than a lot of place to put fish back as you can go down the steps and get close to waters edge in safety, its nowt like throwing them back from the top.
And when all is said and done because it was returned to the water it has at least a good chance of survival rather than none.
Small fish do have a tendancy to go belly up after being caught and would agree with you on what seems to be a very low survival rate but i think thats because the smaller fish are more fragile.

 

[blackrat]

All for catch n release..have known a few lads at Seaham catch size Thorneys in comps, but all went back in, rather than the lads win a few bob. These new length measures even estimate the weight for you now so whats the problem.All clubs should look at this system..Nice one Stevie..:thumbup:

 

[rod-the-cod]

i didnt hear wat the crack was about nigels fish but good on him i wouldnt of had a prob with it being weighed and released all that had to be done is use same scales for rest of fish not that much was caught

 

[john/r]

hi terry, yes i agree with what you are saying john

 

[RONVIK]

Releasing fish.

Releasing fish.

a few months back i read about releasing fish after being caught by anglers,
i cant remember exact details but what stuck i my mind was, it depends on:

1.where in the mouth the hook had hold.(back of throat and gill area= death)
2. if it caused bleeding.(If there is alot of blood you may as well kill it.)
3.swollowed hooks (cut off the trace) gives it a day to live, max 1 week.
throwing fish from a height cant be good either unless it is in good condition and hits the water head first.(oxygenating the gills)

so its all up to the angler to judge the fishes chances of survival.

 

[Lowrider]

Point is though that a priest over the head,chances of living nil.
Other options and some care,odds of living are a little better and if they do die they are in the food chain.

 

[RONVIK]

Im not religious, but it is a sin to kill something you dont eat!


which reminds me, i better get the mother-in-law out of the freezer before she goes off!

 

[mick dunn]

Steetly-STRAIGHT OFF THE END-OR CONCRETE PILLER AGAIN STRAIGHT OUT.

 

[bigh]

I have fished from piers for most of my life and to release an unwanted fish we just hang it by the gill cover (being careful not to damage the gills) from the wires on the lead and lower the fish down into the water where it floats off. They still don't always survive but they do have a fighting chance.

 

[ron thompson11]

Point is though that a priest over the head,chances of living nil.
Other options and some care,odds of living are a little better and if they do die they are in the food chain.

agree with lowrider there, at least if you put a fishback you have tried to do the right thing, even if it goes belly-up it is still in the food chain.

However must say that some people's oppinoins regarding killing fish a bit annoying ,if you have a moral, or any other problem with the killing or possibly injuring of anyfish, then sea-angling just aint the sport for you.

noticed Alot of threads on this site re the conservation of fish , but most of us try our best, (often in terrible conditions) to tempt those same fish to swallow a beautifully presented bait, mounted on a super sharp hook so we can drag them 60 yards through kelp & rocks, so we can then smack them over the head with a blunt heavy instrument or snap there necks, gut,fillet usually freeze & then eventually eat them! not very fishy friendly but that is fishing!

as for the lad returning the dog fish, that was entirely up to him, presume he would have already have known his club rules before fishing the comp. but he did what he thought was right, even though dogfish aren't exactly a reveered species.

my own opinion is that catch & release has got to be the way forward, keeping anything in size that you want for the table. Just need to be able to trust your fellow anglers........

 

[willywetegg]

As Paul (lowrider) says,

"Point is though that a priest over the head,chances of living nil.
Other options and some care,odds of living are a little better and if they do die they are in the food chain".

At least we are giving them a chance and if they do die then they will soon be taken care of by something else in the sea.

I have heard a lot of people using this excuse for taking small fish home. "Well they would have died anyway". Maybe they are convincing themselves but I doubt it.

My most worrying thing about this whole thing is this.

"my own opinion is that catch & release has got to be the way forward, keeping anything in size that you want for the table. Just need to be able to trust your fellow anglers"........

Not sure that this will ever happen though, not after spending my last 30 years fishing this coast and witnessing some of the things that go on.

Jim.