Catch and Release

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Frothey

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How many of the waters you fish are catch and release? if not, why not?

i went to one of the local fisheries this morning with my dad, and we could've got our limit in five casts - and thats only as i missed the first one...on the dry fly as well! great, but it would've cost us ?36 for approximately 20 mins fishing (2 fish each) as it was we were trying to get fish to rise but miss them unless they were the bigger fish....it would've been much better if it a catch and release venue

i know theres an argument about fish mortalities after being put back, but a basket system like they (still?) use at tenterden fisheries in kent will sort that?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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The debate regarding catch and release v kill all trout waters has been going on for decades. The problem on many C&R waters is that a large percentage of the anglers tend to treat trout like coarse fish. You see many netting trout, letting them bounce around the bank, weighing them on scales and then posing for photos.

Trout will not survive this sort of handling, especially in the summer months.

Personally I prefer waters that are a combination of both styles. That is they allow you to take say 2 or three fish and then release the rest up to say a limit.

There is also another way on kill all waters. Catch a fish first of all on the going method. Then experiment with some other method or fly.

Or you can sit for a while and admire the scenery. Or like me, go back and sit and drink tea with the bailiff for an hour or two.

I think it is also important to consider the ethos of trout fishing. It's not all about bagging up and getting so called "value for money".
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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I'm with Frothey on this one. I don't like to eat trout for one thing and always put them back. If the water isn't catch and release then I don't fish it.

I understand the arguments for C&R but I think the arguments against it outweigh them.
 
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Frothey

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we ended up stripping one of my bass shrimp imitatations - seeing if we could outstrip the trout...it was just one of those mornings that the trout were going mad....they were coming out on nymphs, wets, lures....at least mine were the "purest" (small hopper type dry).

tried to stalk a low double mirror that i found tail up in the the shallows....have to take a "cornfly" next time.....
 
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Frothey

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and like graham says, i've got 8lb of trout fillet in the freezer now that my wifes going to have to eat.....!
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Get them cold smoked Frothey.

I am fortunate in that I like eating trout. I bring home just enough for my own needs plus a few to give away.

And all the browns I do catch these days go back.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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And I'll be blowed if I am going to take sides on this one.

I'm happy to sit on a dirty great fence.
 
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Frothey

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do you reckon it (having to take fish) puts people off - i know it does me. i'd fly fish far more often if i could put them all back.

thats why i like fishing for bass on the fly....i catch bugger all so dont have to worry!
 
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Ric Elwin

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I know I'm going to get slagged for this, but I just can't get my head round put and take fisheries.

A truck rolls up at the fishery with a hundred or two pellet-fed Trout with no tails. Anglers start catching them and killing them 20 minutes later.

Why not save yourself the bother, and just go to Sainsbury's??

I guess it's different on large waters where the fish might overwinter, perhaps be caught and released a few times, learn a thing or two and become quite a challenge.

Am I missing the point?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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That's why I spend most of my time on reservoirs and larger lakes these days. The fish are generally stocked small in good numbers and have chance to grow out.

Thrybergh to me is the perfect fishery. Plenty of grown on and overwintered fish plus you can realease them all day if you want, all for ?2.40 a day!

I have now got sufficient photos, I'll do a picture feature on this place shortly.
 
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Frothey

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to be fair the condition of the fish we caught was excellent, they are grown on in moving water, fresh from the moors. even the lake has a "flow"

was funny the looks we get when turning up with a 42" landing net and a little bag of bits....not a bit of tweed in sight!
 
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Ric Elwin

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2.40 a day Ron? That's exceptional value in anyone's book. How does it work, do you pay extra in advance if you want to take one home, or do you weigh them in? Or are you on a wind up, and basing that rate on a season ticket?

I think we are lucky up north, certainly in repect of the available game fishing. I get the Trout and Salmon magazine every month, seems people are happy to pay 50-70 a day to fish a river, and 20-50 to fish a stillwater in the south, perhaps to take a couple of bloated pellet monsters home.

We have waters such as Ron's, or Ladybower (13.00 a day I think?) and endless rivers, many of which are free to fish, and hold much bigger Trout than the Test, Itchen, Avon, Bourne etc etc.

Happy days.

There again if I was a coarse only angler, I think I'd move south, and just tolerate the lower standard of living.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Yes Ric, Ladybower is ?13 a day. You can get on rivers like the upper Don and umpteen Derbyshire streams for about ?100 a year. Full of wild brown trout.

Thrybergh costs me ?122 for 50 visits. Each visit allows me to kill 2 fish plus catch and release. But I must point out that this is a concessionary ticket for over 60s. You pay about ?180 a year if you are under 60.

We do have the odd very big fish water - like Pennine for example. This costs about ?18 a day for two fish and a bit less for a sporting ticket - C&R.

To tell the truth I am right in the middle of lots of good game waters, that are improving all the time.
 
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Ian Alexander

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Our local FDG club usually fishes catch and release when in competitions.
I've fished Tenterden too and it's a beautiful water.
Not as productive as many others and those carp can be caught too.
I used the baskets to keep and choose my fish for retaining and it is a great idea.
I actually had one fish in the basket I was using that the previous angler obviously missed though.

If I want to keep my fish, I can go to waters that don't have catch and release. But if it's just the sport alone I want, I always go for catch and release.

I have often returned fish five pounds plus and kept ones weighing about 2 or 3 instead.

Here's a tip I have used on catch and keep waters- cut off the point and barb of your hook. You get to play the fish but landing it is unlikely.
It may seem that you could harm the fish, but any more than actually landing it?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Sorry Ian, but there is something John Baileyish I do not like about the idea of removing the point of a hook.

I go fishing with the aim of catching them.
 
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Sean Meeghan

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Never like to sit on fences me hurts the pile something chronic. I think the issue boils down to the size of the trout and the water temperature. On many Southern fisheries with extremely large force grown trout most fish would not survive being caught and returned. It would be like forcing an obese person to run consecutive 100 metre races with a hungry Lion. High Summer water temperatures can only make this worse. Many Northern fisheries, and certainly the ones named above, have smaller fish and much cooler water temperatures (wouldn't like to swim in Ladybower!). On waters such as these catch and release is viable.

There is also a bit of a stigma to catch and release in the more rarified echelons of trout fishing and I would dare say that there of this down South than oop North.
 
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Ric Elwin

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Ron I haven't fished any of the south and east flowing Derbyshire streams, I fish the ones that run west to form the Mersey. I guess they are similar though; low on fly life, opportunist Trout that grow very big, and some excellent Grayling.

The only river I've fished east of the Pennines is the Holme. When I was married, me and the wife used to go to a camp site near Holmfirth. I always pusuaded her we should camp right next to the river, it was a figment of her imagination that there were more biting flies there he he.

Anyway, I only bait fished at the time but there were some nice Brownies in there, cracking looking fish.
 
GrahamM

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Ric wrote, "A truck rolls up at the fishery with a hundred or two pellet-fed Trout with no tails. Anglers start catching them and killing them 20 minutes later."

That only happens on the day of the stocking, but within a few days the new stock are settled in and becoming harder to catch. A catch and release policy makes the fish even harder to catch so that you actually have to think a bit and often fish hard to remove one or two.

The tailless stock is happening less often these days, in fact there are very, very few trout with stumpy tails in the waters I fish. Fishery managers are far more fussy about quality these day, mainly because fly anglers are becoming more fussy about where they fish.

A far more ludicrous situation for me is the one where a man-made lake is vastly overstocked with small carp to the point where the fish are always hungry and can't resist feeding on angler's baits no matter how many times they've been caught before. Every day hundreds of the same old fish are caught and returned.

In comparison put and take trout fisheries are very natural.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Quite right Graham.

Anyone who has done a fair amount of still water fly fishing will know that there are days when the trout can be very difficult to catch.

At Thrybergh they stock small fish - 12oz to 1lb each that grow on quickly in the extremely rich water. If you catch a fish that is carried over from last year it's often in the 3 to 4 lb category. Such fish are truly magnificent specimens with fighting power that would astonish many coarse only anglers. I have lost count of the number of fish in this size bracket I have released this season.

Here is an interesting quote:

"So you finally got a double figure trout. I don't know how you can bring yourself to fish for these artificially bred force-fed fish farm rainbows that are tame, don't fight and are no good to eat. Dashed unsporting I call it."

RSW to PS 27th September 1979
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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By the way, some of Britain's most famous game anglers are dead agin catch and release, starting with the legendary Hugh Falkus.

He condemned the practice on more occasions than I can remember.
 
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