Explain Catch And Release Season To A Kid?

It was 6 years ago. My daughter was 10 years old. We were fishing panther martins on a local stream.

Anna had a monster hit. I could see the huge trout flailing away near shore. It was a gill hook up. There was a cloud of blood already behind its gills. I knew this one was going to die that moment.

I waded in and netted it. Anna and I unhooked the trout and carefully attempted to revive the fish for over 30 minutes. There was no reviving of it. This one was dead. She had been pestering me the entire time we were reviving it to get a photo of it. She said no one will believe she caught such a big trout. I told her that we needed to give this trout every chance to live and no photos were going to be taken unless we were sure it was going to die.

We talked about the dead fish and how wasteful it was to just let it go and let the other creatures eat it. I guess she understood a little at age 10 but it really seemed wrong and against everything my father had taught me about wasting fish or game. We took one photo of her and her monster brown and sent it belly up downstream. The evolution of trout fishing?

Great photo

Circle of Life, it does seem at times to be a waste but like you said some other creature was able to utilize that meal.

That fish did pay the ultimate price. However, would that fish have attained that size without catch and release? We can never know but we can choose not to fish durring catch and release seasons right? IMO there are too many anglers out there for me to feel I’m intitled to harvest any fish I want and too many dishonest people to alow an exeption for unreleasable fish in a situation like this. I don’t doubt that fish died but there is a big grey area with the term “unreleaseable”.

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We can never know but we can choose not to fish during catch and release seasons right? .

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The wisconsin trout regulations are going through some changes soon. There could be 3 more months added on to the season and these months look like they are going to be c/r only also. Five months for c/r folks and 5 months for the rest? This seems quite foolish seeing the vast majority of trout anglers harvest trout.

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It was 6 years ago. My daughter was 10 years old. We were fishing panther martins on a local stream.

Anna had a monster hit. I could see the huge trout flailing away near shore. It was a gill hook up. There was a cloud of blood already behind its gills. I knew this one was going to die that moment.

I waded in and netted it. Anna and I unhooked the trout and carefully attempted to revive the fish for over 30 minutes. There was no reviving of it. This one was dead. She had been pestering me the entire time we were reviving it to get a photo of it. She said no one will believe she caught such a big trout. I told her that we needed to give this trout every chance to live and no photos were going to be taken unless we were sure it was going to die.

We talked about the dead fish and how wasteful it was to just let it go and let the other creatures eat it. I guess she understood a little at age 10 but it really seemed wrong and against everything my father had taught me about wasting fish or game. We took one photo of her and her monster brown and sent it belly up downstream. The evolution of trout fishing?

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Awesome job Len. That is the way to set an example. Following the law. Just a bad situation.

It seems to me you did a great job with this, one thing more you could have done is explain why they have a C&R season is to give people more time to enjoy the fish and the dnr does figure in a mortality rate for the accidental injuries such as that one. You could explain that the studies they do suggest the ideal population levels and that is why some fish are suggested to be removed. Just a thought, that’s how I explain hunting to people.

I often wonder about this same thing when I see hundreds (heck maybe thousands?) of walleye floating on Mille Lacs in July/August. Think how tough its going to be this year with that horsebleep slot this year…

“Everything becomes a turd”

Explain it the same way everyone that walleye fishes has to explain it when their kid catches a 17.5 inch walleye on certain MN lakes. A C&R season is not a slam to the catch/kill fisherman, but merely an extra opportunity for ALL to go fishing.

In another recent post of yours, you commented on you and a friend catching many, many trout in a day. The odds are that “some” of those trout did not survive the encounter. When people fish, some fish are going to die, whether we like it or not. Some things like live bait and barbed hooks may increase those odds.

T

We’ve all released fish that didn’t make it. Watching gulls picking on a floating walleye years ago, I just concluded that a variety of predators occasionally get an easy meal too – like we do when we’re on a hot bite.

It is gut wrenching to see the fish floating belly up, but that is what needs to be done. A few times in the summer I have released 14.75″ walleye that were accidental gut hooks and watch them float belly up next to the boat. Minimum size is 15″ here.

I don’t keep trout so when I trout fish I try to use soft plastics. I’ve seen way too many trout get snagged from slashing at a spinner and end up as floaters. Not really sure why spinners with treble hooks are even legal for non put-n-take streams. Those glorified creek chubs will slash at anything flashy.

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Not really sure why spinners with treble hooks are even legal for non put-n-take streams. Those glorified creek chubs will slash at anything flashy.

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Same reason they’re legal to fish on rivers that have size restrictions for the glorified bottom feeding marble eyes would be my guess…

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Not really sure why spinners with treble hooks are even legal for non put-n-take streams. Those glorified creek chubs will slash at anything flashy.

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Same reason they’re legal to fish on rivers that have size restrictions for the glorified bottom feeding marble eyes would be my guess…

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I see I touched a nerve there.

Walleye do not slash at baits, they eat them or pass. Trout will slash at baits even if they do not want to eat them. Almost like they are just testing to see what they are. They swim up and smack the bait with the side of their head or tail. This makes it very easy to snag them in the gills, and just as it happened in the OP post, a dead trout. Just doesn’t make any sense to me. Anyone with experience trout fishing knows there are hundreds if not thousands of lures that will catch trout just as well as a spinner. Yet everyone thinks they need one to catch a trout.

A berkley trout worm on a 1/32 jig head catches them just as well. Fast moving areas, a 1/32 jig head with a small 1.5″ grub. Those are my two go-to lures and I have no problem catching just as many if not more than the guys with spinners. And I have never snagged a trout this way.