"Reginal P. Smithers III" wrote in message
. ..
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
Stumbled into something on Saturday and tried 'em out last night.

WHOO HOO!!!

http://tinyurl.com/f3hpy

In Pearl/Gray, they are very attractive to stripers - big stripers. I
was totally surprised.

Boated and released a ton of blue too.

Good times.

Those things are delicious with dijon mustard.

Somewhat related: I'm reading more and more info lately (and not from
anyone even remotely involved with PETA) that catch & release does not
work. The mortality rate may be MUCH higher than we've thought for many
years. It has no relationship, either, to whether you use barbless hooks.
It seems the stress of the fight is too much for the fish. I have seen
many more dead fish floating around the lake in the past few years,
especially in the coves, as catch and release has become more popular. I
have actually seen a "catch and release" fish kill a fish that was not
caught. a 12" large mouth bass tried to eat a 24" large mouth that had
died (my assumption was caught and released) and the smaller fish died
because his eyes were bigger than his stomach.

As the popularity of fishing with light weight tackle increases, the
mortality rate among the catch and release increases substantially. It
seems if you can pull them in very quickly they stand a greater chance of
surviving, but who wants to catch a 5 lb fish with 50 lb tackle. Fisherman
need to start fishing with a chum line and then snapping photos of their
"catch".

I try to stay out of the "hunting" and "fishing" debate, but the Shark
tournament TV show makes me sick.

Frankly, I don't see the attraction of light tackle for big fish. I mean, I
unexpectedly caught a huge pike on 4 lb test once. What did that prove? It
certainly was not a personal achievment of MINE. It illustrated only two
things:
-Berkley makes great 4 lb line (which I had nothing to do with)
-The line didn't get near any sharp fish parts and get cut, which is a
matter of chance. You could say "You did a great job of keeping it away from
the gill covers", but the water was muddy. I couldn't see the fish at all.

So, why risk having the line break, leaving a fish with a treble hook in its
throat? And that bull**** about "The hooks will rust away - the fish will be
fine" - it's a crock. Yeah, the hooks will rust eventually, but meanwhile,
that fish won't be able to eat with a 6" Rapala and two sets of treble hooks
in its face.

I've reached the point where I won't fish for anything that I have no
intention of eating. And, if I catch enough, I stop and read a book. If I
had a live well and could make sure the fish were recovered enough to move
(so enough water will pass through their gills), I might do things
differently.