As a dad of young children, I wonder what to do about this

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Jul 12, 2020
10:14:35am

cougarBee Playmaker

As a dad of young children, I wonder what to do about this

I take my kids fishing frequently (ages 8, 6, 3). They love it - but they mostly love catching the fish and they do love eating the fish. However, if they don't catch, they quickly lose focus. Right now I've focused on just getting them to love fishing - which usually involves bait fishing in stocked lakes. But it does make me feel horrible everytime I kill a fish trying to get a hook out of a stomach.

How do you make the transition with little kids to something less damaging to the fish?

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cougarBee

Bio page: cougarBee
Joined: Aug 1, 2009
Last login: Apr 27, 2024
Total posts: 1,839 (0 FO)

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Messages

Author

Time

Catch & Release Fishing

Goliath

7/12/20 9:18am

I'm not going to condemn anyone

byujdmba

7/12/20 9:28am

So your argument is to kill the fish, rather than to release it, because that’s somehow more ethical?

SJS

7/12/20 9:28am

RE: So your argument is to kill the fish, rather than to release it, because

85fan

7/12/20 9:30am

How about Goliath just doesn’t fish? He doesn’t need to go fishing to eat.

SJS

7/12/20 9:31am

Someone has to kill it if we're going to eat meat.

Goliath

7/12/20 9:32am

Not really. Your OP is accompanied by a bunch of articles that talk about fish feeling pain

SJS

7/12/20 9:33am

Do you suggest dynamite? What's the painless way you propose to harvest fish?

Goliath

7/12/20 9:35am

No, I don’t care about fish pain. You apparently do, although I’m not at all sure how KILLING the fish

SJS

7/12/20 9:36am

Keep thinking about it, and maybe something will come.

Goliath

7/12/20 9:39am

I definitely hope so, because your OP rationale is struggling

SJS

7/12/20 9:41am

Odysseus, will you please invite Goliath to your FO?

SJS

7/12/20 9:42am

Is there any part of you that can appreciate that only fishing for what you

Goliath

7/12/20 9:48am

Im genuinely trying to understand why it matters that fish feel pain

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:49am

I get what your saying. If causing pain is the issue, they why fish at all.

DJROSS

7/12/20 9:55am

The world is insane. Now we are supposed to feel guilty for fishing.

Backcountry

7/12/20 10:00am

Not at all. I fish because I love being outdoors and enjoying God's creation.

DJROSS

7/12/20 11:12am

Montana Outdoors magazine recently published a great article on catch & release

7/12/20 9:32am

I’m all for people keeping medium sized fish. It does pain me to see people keeping the huge trout though...

letthewookieewin

7/12/20 9:35am

Absolutely. Watching people throw 18"+ fish into the cooler is painful for me.

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:43am

You would have lost your mind yesterday

TheKing

7/12/20 10:01am

So shortsighted. Kills me

Backcountry

7/12/20 10:11am

Thats just basic fisheries biology stuff. Catch and release is definitely

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:41am

Yes, but some folks are almost religious in their fervor for C&R

7/12/20 9:50am

Absolutely. Every water is different. I really appreciate the efforts of

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:54am

But isn't that the reason fish and Game actually place limits on size and number

DJROSS

7/12/20 11:16am

Yeah. They often try to encourage people to keep fish in places, but many don’t. I usually don’t.

mvtoro

7/12/20 11:20am

Interesting that you had a fish swallow a fly. I’ve never seen that. 99% of the time it’s on the outer jaw

letthewookieewin

7/12/20 9:33am

It's certainly not common, but it's happened a couple of times

Goliath

7/12/20 9:40am

Seems fairly common with smaller bugs

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:44am

Maybe you weenies need to throw real meat like huge feathery streamers!

letthewookieewin

7/12/20 11:02am

RE: Maybe you weenies need to throw real meat like huge feathery streamers!

Backcountry

7/12/20 11:16am

I've seen it a few times as well.

cracka

7/12/20 9:51am

It happens pretty rarely, and usually when a fish is extremely aggressive. I was once fishing a double streamer rig.

mvtoro

7/12/20 12:10pm

Thats rad

Backcountry

7/12/20 12:17pm

I figure that if fish feel pain, they are often imposing their own predatory

BW84

7/12/20 9:34am

I see so many bearded 20 something hipsters on the water these days. If you can

Backcountry

7/12/20 9:46am

I don't think fishing is unethical. So, I'm not your man.

Goliath

7/12/20 9:49am

Just stay away from the popular rivers and you’re golden. Here it’s all these Colorado kids that do a guide school

letthewookieewin

7/12/20 10:34am

Pyramid Lake is where I have seen it the worst personally. Bearded Pabst drinkin

Backcountry

7/12/20 10:47am

Why would you not be concerned about causing pain to another living animal?

ditch

7/12/20 12:37pm

Dude, there are so many freaking things in this world to get worked up about.

Backcountry

7/12/20 12:49pm

You don't have to get worked up or lose sleep over it to give it a thought.

ditch

7/12/20 2:01pm

I wouldn’t worry about it

TheKing

7/12/20 9:52am

No way my son can eat all the fish he catches. Here’s what’s unethical:

Misteak

7/12/20 10:07am

True

Goliath

7/12/20 10:11am

I catch quite a few fish with hooks in their mouths. Totally anecdotal but those

Lance71

7/12/20 10:12am

As a dad of young children, I wonder what to do about this

cougarBee

7/12/20 10:14am

Using a casting bubble with a spinning rod, with 5 ft of leader and a fly

Goliath

7/12/20 10:19am

Little kids can fly fish. You just adjust what you have them do. When they’re really young they’re happy just reeling

mvtoro

7/12/20 11:11am

Pic of the oldest, 12 y/o with her first of the year, 10 y/o tying his first fly (which he has caught a fish on now, 7

mvtoro

7/12/20 11:19am

I have always been taught

TheHop

7/12/20 10:20am

The science is far from settled in fish and pain. There was also a study that

BNcoug

7/12/20 10:28am

They don’t seem to have nerve endings in their mouths...just cartilage. Am I

Misteak

7/12/20 10:44am

I don’t know.

BNcoug

7/12/20 11:05am

I don’t think it matters. “Pain” is only triggered by nerve endings. It doesn’t actually exist outside of the brain that

mvtoro

7/12/20 12:02pm

Wow! Is there now going to be an FLM movement? We CnR all the time. Not stopping

TheWoodman

7/12/20 10:42am

Not from me. But I think they are questions worth considering.

Goliath

7/12/20 10:57am

That movement already exists, it’s called PETA

7/12/20 1:47pm

What about fishing for raccoons from the cabin balcony? Is that unethical now?

panguitch

7/12/20 10:50am

Coon and cat fishing remain a gray area

Goliath

7/12/20 10:58am

“Pain” and more specifically “suffering” exists in the mind (brain) and is only signaled from the nerve endings. Fish

mvtoro

7/12/20 11:40am

I also think it’s important that C&R fisherman come to accept that all fishing is eventually a blood sport. We limit

mvtoro

7/12/20 11:58am

I think there is validity in most of what you're saying here.

Goliath

7/12/20 12:15pm

Well do what you feel good with, but I’d recommend starting with the understanding that fish don’t experience anything

mvtoro

7/12/20 12:31pm

I always try to release. If I can't then I eat it.

Jacksonian76

7/12/20 1:15pm

Here's my theory...

ditch

7/12/20 12:25pm

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