Fly Fishing For Giant Pike

[Simpson]

Is this thread still going???? Holy Crap!

 

 

Can't we all just go pike fishing together... I mean... Come on!

 

 

That's it! Everybody go pike fishing and leave the Bow to me! Fishing the Bow is no fun anyway

[Smitty]

Seanp:

 

You seem to be the kinda guy that likes to "calls it as he sees it".

 

Well, hopefully, you haven't deluded yourself into thinking that your approach to fishing is any "worthier", or more "ethical" or "moral" than someone else's, just because you have the "decency" to eat your catch.

 

A few points to consider:

 

1) So you release small fish because you "have" to? So, in other words, you "sort" through your fish, torturing and then releasing the small ones just so you can find some of the "right" size to keep?

That's utterly barbaric. A person who truly is morally opposed to C&R would choose not to fish in a place that puts them in a position to "having" to release smaller fish by law because of size limits.

Can I presume, then, you will only fish stocked lakes, and you will keep the first 5 fish you catch? Because otherwise, your so-called "moral" stance is in gross violation with your practices.

 

2) Can I also assume then that you would never fish in a stream with bull trout? What if you accidentally caught one? How about virtually every Eastern Slope stream? Do you fish those? If so, then I find your argument proposes a hypocritical contradiction that I assume you must ignore in order to live with yourself.

 

Seanp, I challenge you to take your thinking to a rational, consistent, logical conclusion: and that being if you were really, truly, 100% committed to avoiding torturing fish, you would acquire them at the only places possible as to avoid any scintilla of a chance of harming fish. And those places would include Safeway, Superstore, Save-on-Foods, etc.

 

And until you decide that, I find your arguments rather weak. You have chosen to live in a province, that uses and endorses C&R fishing as a fisheries and angler management tool (for good or evil, according to everyone's values); I think you really need to recognize that.

 

Or at least confine your fishing to stocked lakes with no C&R regs, and you keep the 1st five fish. IF you can honestly say that's exactly what you are/or will do, then, fine, I totally respect that. If you can't claim that approach, then, respectfully, you need to come down off the high horse.

 

Smitty

P.S. A blood sport is a blood sport, and the torture/harassment of fish is just that. No one can claim any superiority, because they only do it a "few" times.

[Smitty]

Reply number two - this is for everyone:

 

I think, despite some sidetracking and shacknasties, this has been a really great and productive thread. What comes across between Humblefisherman and Clive are two parties respectfully disagreeing in some aspects, agreeing in others. With Clive sharing is pike handling technique, I think that's great.

 

I understand that people can get frustrated by censorship, but lets face it, we already impose some level of censorship on ourselves. Its just that when you bring together a community of anglers with varying opinions, some level of moderation is required. We agree to it by participating on the forum, and overall, given 1000's of posts, the forum - I think so anyways - is moderated extremely effectively.

 

Photos will always have the potential to ignite controversy, but in the end the educational value of these discussions and having an entire forum dedicated to photos is productive, since it affords opportunities to have discussions like these (notwithstanding some of the negativity). We're human, the moderators are human, lets just take a small dosage of chill pills and realize that the majority of photos are still pretty good and acceptable.

 

Smitty

 

P.S. I like cake. Double chocolate fudge with grandma's brown sugar icing.

[cuttbow]

Seanp:

 

You seem to be the kinda guy that likes to "calls it as he sees it".

 

Well, hopefully, you haven't deluded yourself into thinking that your approach to fishing is any "worthier", or more "ethical" or "moral" than someone else's, just because you have the "decency" to eat your catch.

 

A few points to consider:

 

1) So you release small fish because you "have" to? So, in other words, you "sort" through your fish, torturing and then releasing the small ones just so you can find some of the "right" size to keep?

That's utterly barbaric. A person who truly is morally opposed to C&R would choose not to fish in a place that puts them in a position to "having" to release smaller fish by law because of size limits.

Can I presume, then, you will only fish stocked lakes, and you will keep the first 5 fish you catch? Because otherwise, your so-called "moral" stance is in gross violation with your practices.

 

2) Can I also assume then that you would never fish in a stream with bull trout? What if you accidentally caught one? How about virtually every Eastern Slope stream? Do you fish those? If so, then I find your argument proposes a hypocritical contradiction that I assume you must ignore in order to live with yourself.

 

Seanp, I challenge you to take your thinking to a rational, consistent, logical conclusion: and that being if you were really, truly, 100% committed to avoiding torturing fish, you would acquire them at the only places possible as to avoid any scintilla of a chance of harming fish. And those places would include Safeway, Superstore, Save-on-Foods, etc.

 

And until you decide that, I find your arguments rather weak. You have chosen to live in a province, that uses and endorses C&R fishing as a fisheries and angler management tool (for good or evil, according to everyone's values); I think you really need to recognize that.

 

Or at least confine your fishing to stocked lakes with no C&R regs, and you keep the 1st five fish. IF you can honestly say that's exactly what you are/or will do, then, fine, I totally respect that. If you can't claim that approach, then, respectfully, you need to come down off the high horse.

 

Smitty

P.S. A blood sport is a blood sport, and the torture/harassment of fish is just that. No one can claim any superiority, because they only do it a "few" times.

 

[humblefisherman]

Not sure what to add, other than,

 

Thanks Highwood Fisher, I am very surprised at the wide spectrum of views on this topic. Who knew?

 

and...

[humblefisherman]

i prefer Pie.

[Weedy1]

I don't fish in C&R only water because I think that catch and release is like masturbation or bullying. It's fun for the person doing it, but it has no real purpose other than amusing yourself.

 

BS, sperm goes stale and must be flushed out. Several times a day will keep it most competitive.

 

[Hawgstoppah]

Holy hells bells guys. Get back on topic or don't post.

 

You took this post farther even than the "questionable" steelhead photo's I posted last fall, even though in neither case were fish handled (in my opinion) with any disrespect. maybe a bit of "oh crap this things huge wtf do I do now!!" ... but not without respect and due care and attention.

[Hawgstoppah]

i prefer Pie.

 

Lemme guess! Humble Pie?

 

[cuttbow]

Lemme guess! Humble Pie?

I like pie

[skearns]

I say...30 days in the Hole...

[reddeerfrank]

no one on this board knows if a fish is going to live or die after it is released. i've caught fish with holes in them, gills hanging out (pike), deformed mouths, one-eyed fish...you name it, i seem to have caught it. i've had fish on the bow and red deer, brought fish to hand, quickly, and they seemingly die of a heart attack....fight to the bitter end, of a short fight, and could never be revived....gills don't move, nothing, dead. maybe 3 in 30 years of fly fishing. be as careful as you can, release your fish and let 'nature' (as natural as c&r can be) take it's course.

 

a few year back 'flyfisherman' had an article on fish and if they feel pain. one scientist said that fish don't have the part of the brain that can actually 'feel' pain. they react on instinct and fight as they would by being attacked from a predator. i tend to believe that part of his theory. one could probably find something to the contrary on the internet if they so incline. my point being, is that seanp seems to think that a fish caught is an 'unhappy one' and will forever be so, but if you talk to some fishermen, myself included, you will find the same fish are caught more often than you think.... that couldn't happen if you ate 'em.

 

animals...fish, dogs, cats, gerbels, birds, salamanders, rats.......ARE different than people. why we put them in the same catagory is beyond me. pike should be handled different then trout. they are bigger and deserve respect. humblefisherman seems to get the point. clive was a little harsh.....all things into consideration, all the points here have some value. take what you can from the original and learn from it.

 

frank

[bulltrout]

Don't condescend to me. I might be new to this site, but I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday morning and I find your comment insulting.

 

dryfly introduced the "***hole" word, I did not throw that out there randomly, or just call him names on a whim. It was a direct response to something that he said. Let me quote:

 

 

 

And I responded to that.

 

I didn't pull it out of the air and throw it at him, so leave it alone. If he wants to respond, he can.

 

to take a page out of your book sean, you're a douche...oh wait, i'm just kidding cuz you implied it first and i just responded...plain and simple, whether you are agreeing with clive or not, calling him an ***hole is just plain rude and uncalled for regardless of what you may think...these are truly the days of our lives...feel free to boot me dave if you feel i'm being an ass...i just don't care anymore... peace out...

[seanp]

Smitty -

 

I'm not making a moral judgment at all. The bottom line is that I find criticizing others for how they handle fish to be objectionable, when, as you note, nobody is perfect. That's all.

 

And as a couple of posters have noted that the tone of my arguments is contrary to depicting the sport in a positive light, I have moved further discussions to PM's.

 

[Swede]

You kids get along now you hear. I think whats important here is Jay learned from his experience. All put money on it that as soon as he picked that net up the first thought that went through his head was,"Dam wish i had a cradle." He took the steps to make a cradle and kudo's to him for it. Personally am a C&R fisherman and all start criticizing others as soon as i make it through a season without mishandling a few myself.

If i want to get shocked by poor fish handling alls I have to do is watch a few of the pro fisherman on tv shows.

 

Another great video Jay , grats on the huge gator.

[cuttbow]

Ya i wish they would rerun a few seasons of the Dimestore fisherman-They were my favorites.

[cgatfield]

Fantastic Video . Really nicely done and a pleasure to watch. You guys should get a show so we don't have to watch that noisy Wazchuk taking up space on the flats. quote name='humblefisherman' date='May 27 2009, 09:48 PM' post='88179']

Hello fishing friends,

 

I've been trying to get this one up for weeks, but the youtube police kept flexin on me. Got some legal advice on copyright laws and I'm fighten back with giant Pike on the Fly.

 

Mike and Mike in one boat, Strando, Camera man Cory and myself in the other. We had an hour long window in the day to target these pigs in the shallows before the storms kicked our asses. Thanks goes out to the boys for doing the deed of hookin up on film, Nice fish Strando and Turnbull. Great job and thanks with the filming Cory.

 

Man that lake has some huge pikers!

Hope you all enjoy the newest film in the Humblefisherman series

 

Fly Fishing for Trophy Pike

 

 

Thanks for watchin,

 

The Humblefisherman

[Ayr]

Guys,

 

I don't know how this slipped through the cracks, but I totally missed the last three pages of this thread. There is some killer stuff here! Thanks for the entertainment!! Hope you guys are having fun in July. I've got some decent photos and more coming for this month, considering the photo posting rules, I hope you all can't get enough of wild-flowers and sunsets and can do without looking at another fish pic .

 

Cheers,

 

Ayr

 

Ice cream sandwiches.........mmm.