I wish I could like this post 1000x. People who go around killing species they deem 'undesirable' have no appreciation for ecology or the role these fish play in the health of the species they want to catch. Educate yourselves for Christ sakes!
Personally, I think the 18-20" fish pull pretty good. Had one give me line burn during a run. Never experienced that before! Aren't they vegetation or algae eaters for the most part? I was trying for a few trout mixed in with a herd of suckers, the suckers would take a egg pattern.
I killed Suckers in the Winter a few seasons ago on Senyo's AI in purple and blue. Every fish I caught ate it, only the head of the fly was out of the fishes mouth. Strange. Must have caught 10-12 of them in 20 casts. Not big fighters, but beat a stick in the eye.
Edit: just in case, and to clarify, I did not in fact "kill" any of the suckers. They allswam away.
There is a certain breed of "angler" that feels the need to kill rough fish that they don't like, suckers and dogfish and chimaera and the like. These people should not be allowed to fish.
Please don't kill the suckers. They don't hurt anything and in fact make wading better as they eat the slippery snotty algae making footing better. There is no reason to kill them. They do not compete or harm other game fish. The only reason to kill them is to confirm your status as a total dick.
The only fish I kill and don't eat is tench, and only at the biologists' request. I still don't like needless waste, but they really don't want those fish in there. So I usually whack em and toss them up on the bank for bears and birds to eat.
I catch them in the Columbia, but they are in a few other lakes like Sprague. They will take a fly, but you need to sight fish them. They spit the fly fast.
Good point clo. Some doing know the difference between the two. All they know is that it's not what they are after and must kill it to quell their wounded ego for yelling, "fish on, coming down" in the hog line of mouth breathers.
The bounty program certainly breeds misconception about northern pikeminnow among anglers. I'm sure those same misconceptions bleed over into their attitudes about other fish as well. The bounty doesn't exist because the NPW are inherently bad for salmon it's because dams are inherently bad for salmon. The bounty probably doesn't make a huge difference and is far less expensive for the power company than more meaningful remediation would be.
Yup. Northern Pike Minnow, Sea Lions, cormorants, are all being used as scapegoats. The actual cause: mankind: Overfishing, overlogging, overdamming, overpolluting, etc.
Used to be a bounty on Bull Trout in oregon. Hell when I moved to the dry side, you could still kill them in WA in places. Untill very recently there was one place in OR you could still kill them. Last reminants of a colder time, and we kill them to protect the salmon we wiped out.
Kind of reminds me of my own personal definition of a "pest."
Pest = any non-economic animal or plant that has the gall to flourish despite human attempts to ruin habitat. Ex: possum, rat, pikeminnow, etc.
Some interesting points brought up here. In the 1920s, and at the behest of commercial interests, the Alaska legislature passed a law placing a bounty on Dolly Varden because, obviously, salmon runs were in decline so they must be decimating runs by eating too many fry and smolts. Bounties were paid on wire hoops of dried fish tails and a not uncommon method of obtaining tails was to chum a pool by stamping on a gunnysack of salmon eggs at the head of the pool and, when enough fish were deemed to have gathered, a lit stick of dynamite was tossed in. Dead fish were gathered up at the tailout and their tails were cut off and strung on wire hoops. The bounty was abolished when a US Fish and Wildlife biologist examined a large sample of hoops and identified most of the tails as being from juvenile salmon and trout, with only a very small number of the target species. I guess the legislators should be considered conservationists since, at the time of the passage of the bill establishing the bounty, they rejected a provision which would have included bald eagles too.
It would be comical if the consequences weren't so depressing, but humans have proven to be slow learners.
Step 1: Screw with natural processes/ecosystems
Step 2: Realize unwanted consequence
Step 3: Further screw with natural processes/ecosystems to mitigate consequences created by step 1
repeat as needed, desired, or as long as some profits are available
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Washington Fly Fishing Forum
1.8M posts
21.3K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to fishers, anglers and enthusiasts in the Washington area. Come join the discussion about safety, gear, boats, tackle, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!