Mike/HOF and I did a tour today without much luck. Because of my success at Game Haven on Sunday, we decided to go there. Today was considerably different. The action was nill compared to Sunday. The keepers, 8 inch gills and 10 inch crappies were next to nothing. I can only suspect those have been harvested. All gone. Apparently word got out and some took advantage. Real advantage. I was telling Mike, when you catch a fish, look at its mouth really close. You could see that those not large enough to keep had been caught and released. While catch and release is advocated, you MUST use caution when doing this. Several smaller fish we caught we recognized as having been caught and let do. How could we tell? Because their mouths had been ripped to heck. Crappies especially. Several had loose lip tags hanging down. Remember they call them paper mouths. Some apparently instead of taking the time to unhook them properly, just ripped the hook out of their mouths, thus leaving the torn damage. Yes, by all means, continue to practise catch and release, but PLEASE do so with care and caution. Give the panfish species the respect they deserve.
April 14, 2005 at 12:57 am
#1317362
Ouch. Thats not a pretty picture. Please help everyone enjoy fishing now and in the future by letting most of the big ones go back and handling with care each fish we catch. We ALL benefit that way. 