Do other CPR guys get sick of this like me?

This is a pet peeve of mine when talking about fishing or showing pictures to other people who either aren’t serious fishermen or don’t fish at all. The question that always comes up is, “What do you do with the fish. Do you eat them”?

Maybe I am just tired of the question, but I don’t like that people assume the only reason people fish is to eat them. When I say this, I don’t mean I have anything against people who do, I do occasionally keep fish to eat as well. But the implication is that the only reason people fish is to eat. They miss that there is so much more to fishing than that. I know eating the fish can be a great reward, especially if you can share the catch with friends and family.

Also it is a little dissappointing that people haven’t gotten the word about catch and release or that it is not a part of the culture. I know it is a part of our cultural cirle, but not to the extent where people on the outside looking in know about it or recognize it. It’s as if people don’t know about it and it is dissappointing.

Please let me know if I am just being an over sensitive Nancy boy too.

my vote is Nancy

Quote:

---

my vote is Nancy

---

X2

I don’t think you’re being over sensitive. I’m always amazed when I run into somebody….in Minnesota!…that doesn’t know anything about fishing.

Look at it this way: Every time you get that question it’s an opportunity to educate people about CPR and selective harvest. We (Hunters and Anglers) are the original conservationists in this country and that’s not recognized very often.

Rootski

you’re being a nancy boy, this thread should be deleted to keep as many people off the water as possible.

I don’t think you are being a Nancy Boy at all. I just returned from a family vacation where filling limits and having fish frys were the call of duty. My relatives looked at me like I was nuts when I suggested throwing some back and taking it easy on the keeping. But these people only get out occasionally so they want to make hay while the sun shines. I even had a cousin telling me that the catch and release guys probably kill more fish than the keepers because they catch more fish and fish more often. I replied that the fish definetly don’t survive being filleted and eaten.

dd

In defense of those who might ask the question many people who haven’t been introduced to fishing as a sport simply don’t or won’t ever understand the excitement of simply catching a fish.

I might add the next time someone asks that question you might reply by politely asking if they have ever had the opportunity to get out fishing?? They likely will not have had the same introduction to our beloved sport as your or I. Passion for a our perssonal chosen sport can be passed on with some effort and ivitations.

My Vote…. Nancy boy…. only because I can remember the days when what you caught was what you kept! I am no approaching 50 real soon and the changes I have seen in respect to catch & release is a 180 degree turn for many anglers, myself included. We started our own slots limits years ago. I understand the out front perception of the anglers that keep them all big and small. My point is catch them all big and small but …… keep a few for dinner.:)

I just realized I only like about half the IDO members.

I know it is a chamce to educate people and I do. I just find it annoying. Maybe instead of asking with an open door if I am a Nancy, I should have asked if my frustration is justified.

“What do you do with the fish. Do you eat them”?

That question to me indicates they might be familiar with catch and release and wonder if you practice it.

It’s much easier if when people ask what you caught just tell them “nothing. Haven’t caught anything in a week.”

Handles the problem of them asking “the” question and also will slow down the over population on the rivers and lakes.

BTW, lots of Nancy’s in the country. You don’t qualify in any regard.

Quote:

---

I just realized I only like about half the IDO members.

I know it is a chamce to educate people and I do. I just find it annoying. Maybe instead of asking with an open door if I am a Nancy, I should have
asked if my frustration is justified.

---

You must be very unhappy participating on a forum where you like only 1/2 the membership but you post 2.2 posts per day on average…LOL!

On your question of justification, sure you are justified if it affects you the way it appears it does. Maybe the circle of people around you are the problem…. just say’n.

Quote:

---

BTW, lots of Nancy’s in the country. You don’t qualify in any regard.

---

You obviously haven’t fished with Pug.

Quote:

---

You must be very unhappy participating on a forum where you like only 1/2 the membership but you post 2.2 posts per day on average…LOL!

---

I just like the half on here twice as much. So it all evens out.

No different than when I moved here from Colorado. The first question people asked me is if I skied. HELLO……the entire state of Colorado is not a mountain resort. Northeast CO is far from having hills, in fact I could see the grain elevators 22 miles away.

Timely topic for more reasons than one.

its not a big deal when people ask you if you ate a fish! your just being waaaaaaaaay over sensitive.when i was a kid and probally when they were kids hardly anybody practiced CPR.

Look, not many people catfish. I would propose that VERY few people know anyone who’s caught a fish over 30#. People may not be ignorant about walleye fishing, crappie fishing, selective harvest in general… but show them a picture of the fish you caught last night and it blows everything they know about out of the water.

You got the opportunity to go catch that fish… so suck it up. If you’re going to show off the picture, expect the question. If you don’t like the question, stop showing off the picture.

So yeah, kind of a Nancy. You’re baiting them into irritating you.

Big red rubber stamp: DENIED. IRRITATION NOT JUSTIFIED.

I look at it as an opportunity to educate people on pollution and conservation. “Big fish have higher breeding potential and higher concentrations of toxins. I only keep catfish under 10 lbs. Period.”

It’s a good way to open some eyes. If you never showed them the pictures, they’d never ask the questions. If they never asked those questions, they wouldn’t have gotten the minute lesson on conservation and pollution.

Personally I see it as a duty, as a fisherman who has the opportunity to catch remarkable fish like these, to teach people who have no reason to know about them when the opportunity arises.

Some people like eating more than fishing. So of course you must be fishing for food to put up with such a boring activity…

And some people like fishing more than cleaning fish. So I keep fishing and throw them back.

But to answer your question, yes I get sick of it. Its the no. 1 question I get shorefishing (after “catchin anything?”, of course).

I guess now that I think about it, the question probably gets asked a lot of me because I am talking or showing pictures of catfish and/or the fish came from a major river. I think most people have a preconceived notion about both. The river is polluted and not a ton of people in Minnesota target catfish.

Quote:

---

I guess now that I think about it, the question probably gets asked a lot of me because I am talking or showing pictures of catfish and/or the fish came from a major river. I think most people have a preconceived notion about both. The river is polluted and not a ton of people in Minnesota target catfish.

---

It’s not just that ignorance though. It’s an overall ignorance of nature.

I’ve been on many hunting trips where I’ve taken many cool pictures of Rattle Snakes and other things. When showing the pictures, especially of the Rattle Snakes. I almost always get asked, “Did you kill it?”

It’s stupid questions like that, that get me all worked up. Of course if you don’t know any better, I suppose that’s a logical question.

Quote:

---

I guess now that I think about it, the question probably gets asked a lot of me because I am talking or showing pictures of catfish and/or the fish came from a major river. I think most people have a preconceived notion about both. The river is polluted and not a ton of people in Minnesota target catfish.

---

This. When some people find out I fish the river, much less for catfish, they get a look on their face like I told them I fish turds out of a settling pond. There really are some misconceptions about the rivers.

When someone walk by me shore fishing or walks up to me at the launch, the second question out of their mouth after ‘Catch anything?’ is invariably ‘Do you eat the fish out of here?’ I usually tell them that I don’t, but that you can. Other times I just reply ‘exclusively’ and they look confused.

My conversations go like this:

“Went fishing last night.”

“Catch anything”

“Yup, about a dozen eyes”

“Really? Where?”

“In the Mississippi”

“Do you eat those”

“No, it is all catch and release”

“Oh, dont you eat fish”

“Sure, they have these places now where you can get all you want. It is called a grocery store.”

I don’t think Pug has caught enough fish to have to answer this question much..

Quote:

---

When some people find out I fish the river, much less for catfish, they get a look on their face like I told them I fish turds out of a settling pond. There really are some misconceptions about the rivers.

---

Exactly! I’ve had people tell me they wouldn’t even put their boat in the river, much less fish it. On one hand I think, “Great, less boat traffic on the river” but on the other hand I think it’s sad that more people don’t appreciate what a treasure the river actually is. If more people became “fans” of Old Man River maybe we would be taking better care of it.

Rootski

I would have to say you’re a Nancy boy Pug but I say that in a very good natured way
I love those questions because they are a way to get the message of CPR and selective harvest out there. Every person that asks you those questions has an interest and so they are willing to hear what you have to say. I had a young man in the boat with me not so long ago and when we caught a 22 inch walleye and he asked if we were going to keep it I went into the whole selective harvest speech and explained we would keep the smaller ones. Not long after that I saw him showing his pictures to a friend of his and when his friend asked if we kept the fish my young friend recited almost word for word what I had told him. It really showed me that what we say does go farther than we realize.

People just don’t realize that the river is cleaner now than it was 40 years ago. Rootski will back me up on that. And I blame environmental groups for this because they only preach that the sky is falling to keep those dollars rolling into their organizations. Young people can’t even fathom how bad dumping into the river was or that the Ohio River caught on fire when I was a kid. Nobody has told them about the progress made in the last decades.

dd

“I feel your pain”–should be a country western song.

CPR, much like passing on little bucks, is a learned trait that must be taught at a young age-otherwise in most instances seems it just isn’t gonna happen. Most fish mongers I know of are not the younger generations, but older (in some cases elderly people) that plain old have to feed the neighborhood(very evident during ice fishing with the old ploy of catch limit in the AM, come back in the PM and catch another limit-or just go to another neighboring lake). I am beginning to think that the old saying “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” applies here.
Unfortunately, certain cultures (and not picking on just one here) do promote keeping everything you catch-which is dooming their younger generations they are teaching-yet, they are within the law long as double, triple bagging is not occurring and possession limits are not being exploited.
Thus, long as they are not breaking the law, all we can say is, “we feel your pain, Nancy”.
Want an example of a kid learning CPR and respect for the resource-just talk to Dean about that little kid Clive that fishes down at the resort all the time. I am sure Clive likes keeping a few fish, but after he caught that 10lber off Dean’s shore, they snapped a few pics and then Clive told Dean, “well,we better let her go now”.
Priceless.

The rest of Clive’s story Doc as told to me by his Dad is that there was a little girl watching Clive and his 10 pounder get caught. When it was released, the girl told her dad to go get a fishing pole so they could catch it.

On another note, speaking as a guide that took Abraham Lincoln out catfishing, I was brought up catching two, two man limits per day.

Old dogs can be taught new tricks.

but the real question is—-does BK qualify as “normal”?

I do realize with saying that, the apple is not falling far from the tree here.

Quote:

---

I don’t think Pug has caught enough fish to have to answer this question much..

---

That’s why I show them pictures of your fish with my face photoshopped in.