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You eating that?

3K views 30 replies 17 participants last post by  Cold 
#1 ·
I can't keep the fish I catch on the fly most of the time. It doesn't bother me. I can still put fish in the freezer should I choose to do so. I can go other places and fish in other ways. It's not that hard.

But, echoing another post here, I see a lot of folks taking fish from places where it is not allowed.

I don't want to so much talk about them and the conversations I have had with such folk. Some have gone badly and some have gone okay.

I want to say this. I have, in fact, had the mindset a time or two, over the last nine years, to keep a fish that isn't allowed and cook that thing up in foil on the coals of my fire. I have had that thought. I have pulled in fish that I know would be delicious with some butter, salt, and pepper.

Yet, in nine years fishing mostly catch and release waters, despite those thoughts, I can honestly say I haven't done it once.

I would imagine many fly fishermen have similar thoughts? I just know, for me, it will never happen. I can choose to protect a protected water no matter what else I see others doing. Even if I succomb to those thoughts once in awhile.
 
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#3 ·
I mostly catch salmon trout and steelhead. None of which are especially good eating.. A couple salmon species are alright if they are caught bright and eaten fresh and bookies are ok. If I never ate another salmon trout or steelhead that would be fine with me.

I am gonna start walleye and perch fishing out here near Bozeman.. Now those are good eating fish and they have very liberal limits.

Red snapper and yellow fin tuna are my favorites though. But I try not to eat too much yellow fin because from my understanding tuna stocks are overfished.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I don't eat freshwater fish... or most saltwater fish for that matter... so I have no urge to kill and eat a fish... legal or otherwise. I will knock off a hatchery steelhead when it is legal to do so and the reason I buy an Oregon steelhead tag. Oddly enough, I have no problem finding someone to take a legally killed steelhead off my hands.

When I was a starving college student, I did have an urge to kill and eat a steer that was standing in the road in an open range section of hwy I was traveling but the illegal aspect of it all kept my lust for hamburger on the hoof in check.
 
#24 ·
No, thinking I eat a lot of fish and the one on the end of the line looks damn tasty sometimes. I'd never take a fish illegally.

Mostly those thoughts were in my early years before I understood very little about the areas I fish. Fly fishing definitely lead me away from the dark side.

Can't say I yet fully understand those that fly fish without a hook though.
 
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