Anglers: Catch and release or catch and eat? And why?

[Zookeeper]

How much of a concern is Mercury/PCB/other contamination to you?

How safe is the fish in your area?

[bmbmd]

1. I release all black bass

trout, ress, etc-the so-called "glamour" fish. A few times a year, though, I'll keep stripers or catfish for the table.

[Zookeeper]

2. Do you release the black bass...

and glamour fish for the sake of preserving the supply?

I've heard that some anglers just don't consider bass good fish for eating, but they taste good to me.

Thanks for the response, bmbmd!

:hi:

[shenmue]

3. I let them go

I am afraid of poisoning. Also, my dad taught me that if you don't need them to eat, you shouldn't.

[YankeyMCC]

4. Not that I've 'angled' in years but

I do like spending time standing near a nice river, pond or lake and relaxing :)

But I don't eat fish so unless I have someone to give the catch to I guess I'd release.

PS: I did recently try some grilled fresh salmon so I may be changing my ways, at 39 my tastes continue to evolve I guess.

[Paladin]

5. A Wild Trout Is Too Precious A Resource.....

....to only be caught once.

Putting a fish back in a stream to live, propagate and fight again feels great. If I'm hungry, I'll get a fish sandwich at McDonald's......

[SteveM]

6. It's hard to avoid these contaminants and others like Chlordane...

I'm on the look out for advisories which warn against eating fish, but most places where I go don't seem to have a problem. A note on bass: the catch & release practice has caught on so much that now some outdoors writers are advising that more bass be consumed because they are eating up other species when they are not removed from a water body. You can tell when an ecological imbalance is occurring when the bass become long, but more tubular in girth.

Bass is fine eating, esp. in various chowders. Some complain about a "grassy" flavor, but I don't notice this.

I also hunt which is NOT catch & release. The meat of wild animals is excellent and very uncontaminated when compared with other animal flesh and perhaps less contaminated than many vegetables. And hunting deer has become essential to keep some semblance of eco balance. I "drew" into 2 public hunts this year and go on 2 private hunts a year for deer. I hope to stock the freezer with natural food.

[pscot]

7. Really depends on the strength and health

of the resource.

[SteveM]

8. In fact, most fishers catch & release because of size limits....

I eat legal-sized fish, including bass. The catch & release phenomenon, which caught on after WW II, is probably a good thing in order to keep big game fish numbers up; however, if a species like bass become too populated they have a tendency to eat everything else in a water body, including themselves. I have caught bass where this has occurred and their bodies are characteristically long and thin for their weight.

If there is an advisory on chemicals, then I don't eat them. But in Central Texas, the water bodies are pretty good. Even Chlordane contamination has gone down in Town Lake, Austin, TX, due to scouring flood waters which wipe the chemical off the bottom.

[Generic Brad]

9. I keep the occassional crappie or walleye

But everything else gets released back.