The thoughts of a fish fry activist

My son and I were talking about the subject of catching a certain species of fish when thier more readily available then in the dog days of Late July and August. Mainly about the fish frys we have and the people we give them too so they can have thiers, and too save some through the winter months, instead of buying store bought poor excuse for, a tasteful fish and getting the better tasteing fish when you can.

I brought up my son fishing and hunting, we used to shoot alot of trap and loaded our own shells because we shot so many rounds and never went out with less then 300 reloads, the best I’ve ever done is 123 sets of doubles with out a miss and our favorite hunting was fast and furious rabbit hunting, anyway back to fish fry activism.

At 30 years old hes fairly knowledgeable about what the local bites are around here, and also at certain times of the year, especially during the pre-spawn bite for catfish and the dog days of summer. During the dog days here at certain times you couldn’t buy a bite, even when fishing all night long, the fish just don’t bite that well.

He said after the water starts too cool back down and gains more oxygen they start to bite again and made the comment thank goodness they bite so well during May and early June so we have enough to eat during the dog days, and I said maybe the good man up above made it that way buddy, who knows, but it works out that way doesn’t it.

He then made the comment that its too bad you can’t get them through through ice during winter. I said you can and the guys up in Minnesota get them through the ice all winter long, not like the spring catches around here but they seem to put a few on thier stringers and he said I bet they taste good coming from cold water, I said I bet they do too.

WE talked about a few other topics and he then said,,,Dad I guess were just,,,fish fry activists,,,instead of the lesser, fish activists, imiagine that someone who thinks were not supposed to eat fish, or cows, or hogs, or chickens or,,, Any of you guys ever try that store bought pond raised catfish? I did once and it was the last time, I wouldn’t use that stuff for bait compared to naturally fed clean river and lake fed catfish. Theres few things better then being a fish fry activist, hey?.

If you are taking care of others God love yah!

Unfortunately, having people ripping hundreds of fish out of our public waters in order to fill their personal freezers is unsustainable. While you might see it as an act of charity to give wild game away to others, you have to keep in mind that every fish you put on the stringer is one more fish that will never breed and will never be caught by another angler.

Don’t be fooled. Here in MN one of the major contributing factors to improving fishing in some areas is introducing lower limits and slot sizes to end the massive over-harvesting that was going on. The DNR was (and to some extent continues to be) way too slow in reacting to stop lakes and rivers from being trawled out by freezer fillers.

There are simply too many people using methods that are too effective and therefore the potential of over-harvest is far too high. The days of using nature as a grocery store are over. By all means, enjoy the occasional fish fry. But if you need to fill your freezer and the freezer of others, it’s time to look beyond our public rivers and lakes and get used to commercial fish that are reared or that are harvested from waters with an over-abundance of the species. I can name 3 or 4 lakes in western MN that could supply Iowa’s bullhead needs for about a decade without making a dent in the overall population.

Grouse

I would suggest another major factor in the improving fisheries here in MN is the ” CPR mentality” and the ” catch only a meal at a time mentality”.

Filling the freezer is not something a lot of us support.

I think that the problem or concern here would be how some people would seem to push a little over the top leaving all things scathed for anyone to take notice.

Generally, it would be a problem and a choice of which time you are going out to make the most out of the fishing techniques that you are going to do.

You should really let the water and the oxygen play just right, and that would ensure you of great catches that will benefit you in any possible way.

500 hundred guys could take 500 fish a night for 500 nights in a row from Dans stretch of the Cedar river and not make a dent in the channel cat population.
Keep on doing what your doing Dan and have fun at it.
May your ditty poles bounce all summer for ya!
(I grew up in Washburn )

If it is legal, have at it… if somebody looks down it, they are just a snob fisherman They are worse for our sport than anything else.

I agree with both Famous and Stuart. Conceptually, we can’t keep harvesting at the rate we are now. Simple math tells us that.
But, Stuart is probably right that specific populations in specific locations will sustain reasonable harvest on an on-going basis.
But, that’s not going to be able to go on in a broad scale fashion for a long time.

What’s the population of Iowa? About 74? And they can’t all fish. I am sure their fisheries can take it.

I’m not specifically concerned aobut Iowa. I’m sure the fish can withstand the pressure of all 74 residents…

However, not the case of most fisheries. I’m not a particularly accomplished angler, but if even 30% of the population were as good as me and started fishing for subsistence, the populations would disappear.

For the preppers, those who think they will live off of the land are sadly misguided. The populations will be gone in months, maybe days…

No doubt I am no biologist, but I think our fisheries are probably better now than they were…say in the 70’s and 80’s Now panfish, I personally believe they are down & I believe it is because the other species (walleye, northern, bass, musky) are doing so well… Who says fishing is on a decline and cannot continue to be sustained at the current levels ???

Stu, I was just needling the Iowegians.

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Now panfish, I personally believe they are down & I believe it is because the other species (walleye, northern, bass, musky) are doing so well…

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I fear that in many areas (mostly metro/high population areas) the bluegill genes are completely ruined. Take a fish that has been fished heavily for 100 years. Then allow extremely liberal limits on those fish. Make them relatively easy to catch. Make them small, so that most people selectively harvest just the big ones to eat. Take a relatively short life span so that, compared to other fish, many more generations have been exploited. What you end up with fish that do not grow as big, because genes that made bigger fish have been taken out of the pool.

Belive me guys theres not the population here that is up where you guys live. Heres a few factors that I know of why it won’t be over fished, as it can be in other areas. Theres alot of back waters where catfish go to spawn by the hundreds every year, and we only fish it for about 3 weeks. Theres alot of days on the water when you get out of town about 3 miles that you may see a few boats here and there and most of them aren’t fishermen, thier pleasure craft or jet skis because the waters just too shallow in alot of the river with alot of semi submerged logs that tear lower units off. The way we catch them every year you’d see a lesser catch year after year and we catch the same amount for those 3 weeks every year and have never seen a reduction in the catch size. There are litterly miles of unfished river, by that I mean an occasional couple pole fishermen from a boat. Theres dozens of log jams in a few mile stretch of river and hardly anyone fishes them because of the population here in my area. Theres the every year river rats that fish every year but theres just not the big population to harvest too many. Thats it in a nutshell guys and theres 10’s of thousands of channel and flathead catfish in the rivers here.

Commercial guys could over fish it in probably 3 years but theres no commercialing allow. All the lakes here have channel catfish in them to trim the lakes so they don’t overpopulate with bluegills etc. Thier are alot of channel catfish here. After the spawns over its pole fishing or ditty poles once in awhile and believe it or not I’m not stocking the freezer, just taking my limit as possession only and not stocking anyone elses freezer, just a few for the folks I give them too for a few meals. If everybody did it then yes, we’ed see a reduction in the population but theres isn’t alot of guys that fish like we do, you’ve got almost the whole river bottom to yourself if you have a boat, no need to worry because we’ed have to eat fish, and so would the others for every meal to make a serious dent in the channel population here. Theres alot of flatheads too around those dozens of logjams too and some real pole and line breakers too boot. I understand the concern but alot of the river here is virtually unfished, because most of the river fishermen here don’t have a boat, just a few. You rarely see two jonboats fishing the same body of water, im saying within a 2 mile stretch and thats no kidding. So most of the river here is almost untouched from a boat.

I remember the first time I went through Minnesota and Wisconsin seeing the scenery when I was young. It seemed like everybody had a boat, eigther in thier driveway or garage or in the front yard, I had never seen that many boats befor. Its just the opposite down here. Theres 3 marinas within 10 miles of me and they keep halfway busy but mostly repairing pleasurecraft. The pleasurecraft have about 2 too 3 miles of river to have fun on because the water gets shallower up river and is full of logjams, so most pleasurecraft stay within that 3 miles. South of town theres two main shallow rock ledges that go all the way across the river and if you go through there at normal levels you’ll leave your lower unit with the rocks. The navagatable water is go left next too the bank and then make an immediate right too the other bank, then its safe from there down too Palasades Park and dam. Thats a good 8 mile stretch where theres only about 8 too 10 guys who fish it halfway regular. Theres no pleasurecraft in that stretch and everybody knows why, because of the rocks and deadheads. Like Stuart knows, theres alot of good catfishing here and theres just not that many boats that fish it regularily. Theres times when you fish for flatheads with dittypoles and can’t buy a bite and then theres times when every logjam has atleast 3 too 5 under them. Its bad at times when you can’t buy a bite, but theres times when you catch them hand over fist and do that all day and night. Everything is pretty balanced here seeing the length of river that has almost no boats on it, even on most weekends.