Question for the fishermen/women of Avalon

[9eagle9]

And if you're out this way I'll be happy to take you up on the offer, I'm getting the guilts too but not sure I can go cold turkey or need to. Lots of good places left. Some of the lakes have been over run with overbuilding but the home owners are adamant about keeping their lakes in good shape so you get the good and the bad. We get a lot of Iowans here to fish, they say they don't have water in Iowa. he he . They come up for the morel hunts to in May as well.

Posted by Stuart M. (here)

Posted by 9eagle9 (here)
Michigan with access to the Great Lakes. We are never more than five minutes from a body of water here. Inland lakes offer walleye (my favorite hands down mannah from heaven and I'll fillet the person that disagrees , perch, lots of different pan fish, sunfish, croppie, etc.. Sport fishing is usually catch and release as Bass and Pike don't taste all that great.. If catch it and I'm not going to eat it, it goes back. There's good salmon runs and smelt runs too. Pretty abundant fishing here inland and Great Lakes. The conservation and stock programs have been decent until late. Our problem as is with everywhere else is zebra mussels.

In the great lakes there's even greater variety but more often I focus on my obsession with wall eye so Saginaw Bay, mostly.

Shaira made a good point about pleasure crafts. Some of the fish I've harvested from all sports lakes taste like boat exhaust. I try to find those lakes that have no motor boats on them. Less a problem on the Great Lakes. There's a small lake or large pond however you prefer a few minutes walk here, and a larger private access lake that I don't have any official access to unless you call 'sneaking' access.

Just sold my boat not sure what I'm going to do this year

Thats a tuffy 9eagle 9. If I'm out that way you'd be welcome in my boat! In Iowa walleye management is fair, but it is a very sought after species. Plus as I get older the ethics of the whole thing has crept in more and more for me but I still enjoy fishing quite a bit. Love the coveted walleye for sure.

Stu

[Peta Babkama Luruba Anaku]

Fantastic thread. Thank you for starting it. I live in Eastern Ontario like brotybro. The area I live in is called the "Thousand Islands". Lakes are everywhere. I have been distracted for so long. Thank you for helping me remember how much I enjoyed fishing. I now plan to do some soon. Responsibly. I hope it's not to late.

[9eagle9]

I've tried them all with some fair success. My killer bait is using fish oil gel caps. Try it you practically don't need a hook they jump in the boat after you.

Posted by pugwash84 (here)
The waters are overfished here you even need to buy a fishing liscence before being allowed to fish its stupid. I can catch in 1 long day of fishing about 30 fish not all big and a lot of varietys of fish i caught mostly flat fish at one point but different fish are caught more on different seasons. i use a lot of different bait like sweetcorn and dogfood and maggots and worms also some fish like bread and some like spam oh and if you mush some cheese up and put it on your hook fish like cheese too. oh and i sometimes put a bit of sweetcorn and a bit of bread on the same hook. experiment a bit more maybe with bait.

[witchy1]

Might put a plug in for the Kiwis here:.

About 30% of New Zealanders engage in, at least occasionally, recreational fishing with recreational take of about 25,000 tonnes. There are about 2 tonnes of fish in NZ fisheries for every NZer and just under 10% of this stock is harvested each year. Its the countrys 5th biggest exporter. The country now exports 90% of the fish harvest since 2000. 129 species are targeted comercially. There is 4.1m square miles of fishing zone, the 6th biggest on the planet. It also has the 10,000 metre Kermedic trench quite close which is the 2nd deepest in the oceans so makes it quite unique and diverse (source Wikipedia)

You can fish rivers, lakes deep sea and high sea fishing. The water is clean and the country green. They even replenish stock of trout in Lake Taupo annually (and probably other lakes). Many local councils have yearly fishing competitions at certain times of the year

They will close down fisheries to allow stock to recover if in danger - eg orange roughy

Delacacies include famous Bluff oysters, crayfish, paua, whitebait etc. (never went eel or kina) We grew up on this food and perhaps took it for granted. Now of course there are quotos and many many foreign ships poach our fish. They are very active outside (and often inside) the 12k zone which depletes stock very quickly.

There are only 2 countries in the world that I eat fish from and that is Australia or NZ. No New Zealander lives more that 2 hours away from the beach.

I havnt fished in Oz, but understand from friends that there are some pretty amazing secret spots here. (I wouldnt eat fish from sydney harbour - I think the fish glow green)

One of my brothers just parks up at the beach or rocks and throws out his line and catches beautiful fish, runs home to throw on the barbie - YUM. My son goes down to the river at the back of the farm and catches heaps in there either from the side or in his little tinnie. However it has been some years since I have indulged in it. Used to love it.

Most common, Snapper, trout, salmon, flounder, kingfish, hoki, Terakihi etc - Of course you have to go out a bit further for Marlin :-)

ADDIT: Dont forget to throw the first fish back.

[str8thinker]

In Australia we've just finished watching the 6-part series South Pacific, narrated by Benedict Slumberbatch. This thread brings Episode 6 to mind:

. "Fragile Paradise"
Tuna are threatended with extinction due to commercial fishing practices and a lack of protected marine reserves

UK broadcast 14 June 2009, 1.99 million viewers (9.4% audience share)[3]

The final episode focuses on the environmental problems facing the South Pacific. Climate change threatens many islands, because they are low-lying and could be engulfed by rising seas. On Tuvalu, seawater bubbles up through the ground at high tides, making evacuation a realistic possibility. Oceans absorb half of all atmospheric CO2, but this turns them acidic, preventing sea creatures from building calciferous shells. The most immediate threat is overfishing. Reef damage by boats and tourism affects fish populations, but coral gardeners in Fiji have a solution. They harvest and grow corals artificially, then transplant them back to damaged reefs. Different fishing methods are compared, from sustainable pole and line fishing practised by Solomon Islanders to long-line fishing, which has endangered albatross populations across the region. Commercial fishing vessels lay huge purse seine nets, large enough to catch 150 tonnes at a time. Cameras follow the action inside the net as a haul of yellowfin and skipjack tuna are brought to the surface. Greenpeace's flagship Esperanza patrols the high seas, unprotected pockets of ocean where fishing is unregulated. Less than 1% of the Pacific is protected, and yet up to 90% of its large predatory fish may have been lost already. A Fijian community reef is proof that protection could yet work. Tourism benefits from divers prepared to pay for close encounters with bull and tiger sharks, and fishermen benefit from increased stocks. An international conservation effort also helped save humpback whales, as numbers have recovered since the whaling ban.[9]

Wikipedia

Note: The series was released by Discovery International in the USA under the title Wild Pacific, with narration provided by Mike Rowe.

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that in "pockets" of international waters lying between the islands' national fishing zones, huge trawlers from Taiwan and as far afield as Spain lie in wait for whole shoals of fish. If you haven't seen the series I highly recommend it. You should be able to find all the episodes on BitTorrent.

[Fractalius]

My response is best given by directing you to this documentary which involves my local fishing coast. Related subjects are again in our news here currently.
The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=v2uPnG4qEmY

[shybastid]

9eagle9? You mean like bad vitamin E gels that taste like carp?(and crap)
THAT kind of gel cap to catch fish?

[witchy1]

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that in "pockets" of international waters lying between the islands' national fishing zones, huge trawlers from Taiwan and as far afield as Spain lie in wait for whole shoals of fish

Yes Str8thinker - they are a menace and dont subscribe to sustainable fishing. They process everything they catch on board, including endngered species. They have no care. The coast guards regulary catch them inside the 12k zones they are not allowed in. Despite the fines they come back and back and back. Anything not considered edible are ground up and used as fertalizer etc. Such a waste of valuable marine life. Dont get me started on the whale situation
The countries should be sued for piracy IMHO

[9eagle9]

Yes that kind of gel cap. It's fish oil. Fish like the taste of other fish...lol. Thus the use of bait fish. . I don't know if you ever heard of the killer irresistible bait otherwise known as WD40, the all purpose lubricant? People who fish up here use it in lieu of bait. Its principal ingredient is fish oil (maybe shark oil) . I didn't like the idea of putting whatever else might be in WD40 (contaniments) in the water so I just tried the fish oil caps. Worked the same way, maybe even better.

[shybastid]

Great suggestion. I live at Lake Tahoe. Lots of old fish and new fish.(They stock it) It's my understanding that Powerbait is illegal in certain States for fishing because the manufacturers took the "essence" of the feedstock used in fisheries . So,evidently the fish remember the smell from the hatchery and respond accordingly. They get released in the wild and smell "mommafood."
One of my kids just said your idea is a great suggestion.
Thanks..
(Dad always likes to act like he's in the know)

[witchy1]

My response is best given by directing you to this documentary which involves my local fishing coast. Related subjects are again in our news here currently.
The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal

Hi Fractilius, I knew about the joint ventures and assumed watchers were on all vessels and vigilant...........clearly NOT!

This is simply appalling. Why do they do business with them. Do you think if they got rid of the joint venture boats then the price of local fish prices would skyrocket??? If not, then why have them at all. Where is the benefit to the NZer???????

That sounded like David Lange commentating it was only made 12 months ago?

[BMJ]

Hi Guys,
I used to go fishing with my dad up at the central coast of NSW. The fish have dwindled due to over fishing by the fishing industry even so, it's still was a fun experience. When:

Your launching the boat threw the surf of the beach or riding the waves back into shore safely later that day.

Having had a whale make it way directly under the boat and popping
either side for some fresh air, it sounds like a steam train when it takes a breath, and its like a little island when it pops up.

Having a shark as long as the boat, 16 feet, following us around looking for a feed, I don't know if we were on the menu or our catch, because we spent the day trying to shack him off.

Having dolphins pop beside the boat at speed to playfully squirt some water in your face.

Or coming back to shore after loading up the boat and seating and having a bit of a chat, to then see a pod of dolphins body surfing the waves in the mid day sun.

The fish might not be there like the used to be, but fishing still has it's upside, these close encounters of the natural kind.

[lightwalker]

I live in Southern Connecticut. I do fishing both saltwater and fresh. I fish "barb-less" and do catch and release.(fresh water) It took me a while to bring in a catch on a barbed hook but I figured if my big brother could do it fly fishing I could do it with a spinning rod. I have a Raddison canoe that I bought a couple of years ago that I could lift on my own. They make them in Canada with a foam lining so they don't make noise and wide enough so I can row them like a rowboat. My fav kind of fishing is bass fishing but I really don't care if it's even a sun fish. I grew up listening to hunting and fishing stories from my Mom and Dad. My Mom taught me how to fish about 6 years ago and for that I am deeply grateful. She was also the first woman introduced by my Dad to skeet shooting at his gun club. I have also taught inner city girls how to fish and that has been very rewarding.

Thanks for this post.

lightwalker

[Whiskey_Mystic]

When I was a kid, my family would got to the shore in Washington state. We would bring home large buckets of clams with little effort. I am told that it is not even remotely like that now.

Here in Northern California, the biggest threat to coastal fishing is the destruction of spawning grounds due to development. Logging trees also removes badly needed shade areas. Some efforts are being made to build artificial shade over streams. Runoff from urban development and agriculture, including pesticide fom vineyards, is polluting streams. In many parts of the world, factory ships are vaccuuming up the fish faster than they will be able to repopulate. That is the reason the commercial trend is toward fish farms. That sounds great on the surface (pun intended), but the fish farms are disease factories and they pass the diseases on to wild fish. Also, the companies saturate the fish farm areas with antibiotics and other drugs.

Sadly, my favorite food is salmon sashimi.

[noxon medem]

We ourselves are mostly water.
Maybe that is where we have to go fishing .?.

PS.
Here in Norway there are reports of record fishing
in the North and Arctic Sea.
http://www.kystogfjord.no/Kategorier...kkere-paa-line

Hope the bad fishing elsewhere is only short-time seasonal changes.
Also here in this country freshwater fishing has been very variable over the
last decades, but after strong personal and community effords it is improving.

A note on the local waters in my island. Here it is a problem that people in general
do not fish in the lakes and rivers anymore, then the fishpopulation outgrow the
resource-base, and the result is a lot of tiny small fishes, and fewer big ones.

For me the fishingtrip, and sitting by the river or sea is the main experience.
I do not care if I get a lot of fish, but do care, and hope, nature stays healthy.



Thanks for the reminder. Time to go fishing.
See you later.

[Ouroboros]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=L2fZcmjbqpA

This above clip shows the sorry state of the UK fisheries and shocking European Policies it operates under.

Please watch.