Honest look at oneself - Mississippi River – Bass - Mississippi River – Bass

I’ve been quite for a number of days but I want to respond to 2 great posts. The post on the number of tournaments, and the idea of closing the season in the winter. There are a couple of key comments that hit the nail on the head. If we want to eliminate the tipup harvest and someone proposes a significant change in tournament fishing, how do you think the tipup guy’s will respond? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sickened by any over-harvest but when I look at my own impact on the fishery I have a different view point. Below is a post I did on “Bronzeback.com” when there was a big debate about tournament fishing. I got a lot of favorable comments so I’m leaving it intact. For clarification, the In-Fisherman article was about the impact of moving spawning smallmouth. If you missed it, the result of the study was not favorable.

POST:
There has been a great debate about impact of tournament fishing. The one thing I haven’t seen in these discussions is an honest look at the impact of all sport fishing. I’m a passionate angler, a tournament angler and a died in the wool catch-and-release advocate. As with all of us, catch-and-release gives us that warm fuzzy feeling that we are doing no harm. When I read the In-Fisherman article, I didn’t want to believe it. But, when I take an honest look at myself, I realize that my catch-and-release fishing probably does more unintentional harm than many inexperienced anglers who keep everything they catch do.
I’m fortunate to have a 4-day work week, an understanding wife and family, and spend my weekend’s 10 minutes from one of the best pools on the Mississippi River. I pride myself at being the first guy on, and the last guy off the water every year. Because the Mississippi River between Minnesota and Wisconsin is open year-around for angling, I probably fish 120 days or more a year including about 12 days of tournament fishing. I’m no expert, but I catch my share of fish.

I inadvertently gill hook fish; catch fish on crankbaits that have hooks in their body and gill plates; I foul hook fish in the abdominal cavity; I catch fish from deep water with their eyes bulging or their stomach protruding out of their gullet. I would guess that 1 fish in every 25 that I catch has an eye injury from hooks within the mouth. It’s hard to judge fish mortality from eye injuries, but when I catch one-eyed fish, it’s usually emaciated. I have learned not to move wintering fish, but I have watched others put them in the livewell for a photo session at the end of the day. Overall fish mortality from all angling sources is probably higher than anyone, including myself, wants to admit.
I have witnessed all the tournament atrocities discussed in these posts. I’ve released tournament fish that I hope will survive but in reality know they won’t. However, I personally do more damage to the fishery in my recreational fishing than in tournaments. That’s not to down play the big picture issues of tournament fishing. I spend 10 times the hour’s recreational fishing, and buy simple math that’s when I do the most harm.

Both tournament and non-tournament anglers need to take an honest look at what we are doing. Overtly, we all want the water to ourselves. We look to studies to re-enforce our beliefs and to convince others we are right. Please don’t take this wrong, scientific studies are very important. The bottom line is, blaming the other guy isn’t the answer. We all make an impact on our fisheries and if we are doing excessive harm we need to admit to it and change our ways.

Riverfan,
I applaud your honesty and candor about looking in the mirror to see the problem. We all as avid fishermen do our fair share of damage to the fish populations that we encounter, even if for a short time (CPR). I also feel that we as a species do much more harm to the environment that these splendid animals live in than could possibly be done to them one at a time. The human belief that we are the masters of the earth has led us down a road to oblivion with respect to pollution and impacts to the environment. We also see the world in but a snapshot in time, our lifetime, so the long-term effects of our behavior are not even really manifested during our lifetime.

It is my humble opinion that if we do our part to conserve and preserve our planet in our daily lives, the animals that we hold so dear to our hearts will benefit in the long-term in spite of best attempts to “remedy” a problem that is acute rather than chronic in the big picture.

That being said good luck on the water and continue to CPR, as that acute practice can be beneficial in our short time relationship with this earth, at least that is what I keep telling myself!