eating smallmouth

[Struggles2Paddle]

http://www.facebook.com/ajax/messaging/ ... height=500

Guy kept all these smallmouth from a stream to eat. Come on people you don't have to eat everything you catch! Leave some fish for the rest of us. Hopefully this dosnt happen too much in other spots as well

[roadwarriorsvt]

Link isn't working for me. Please try again.

[Struggles2Paddle]

[hanapa]

Man, hope this wasn't on Oahu!
Personally, after living here my whole life and eating saltwater fish from small kid time, it's hard to eat ANY freshwater fish. This is just my personal opinion and taste. I have tried local smallmouth as a kid, as well as freshwater fish from all over the country, and I still taste that "muddy/freshwater" taste, no matter what is done to mask/filter/refine/de-mud, the fillet. Again, just my opinion. Practice CPR for all our freshwater fish in Hawaii!

[Struggles2Paddle]

Yeah this was on Oahu...

[Cris808]

What stream?

[Struggles2Paddle]

Sent you a pm cris

[Struggles2Paddle]

Apparently the guy said he's been doing this for a while now

[roadwarriorsvt]

While I see your concern, depending on where they were taken from, time of year, current population in that stream, etc., harvesting fish can be a good thing. Probably because we have Catch & Release at Lake WIlson, we are trained to think it's a sin to take fish from a body of water. Harvesting fish can help with over-crowded conditions, allow for the current forage base to provide for the fish left in, and prevent fish from becoming stunted. Again, we don't know where the fish came from or what the current conditions are there so we really don't know if this action is harmful or helpful.

[BASSTRACKER]

while road warrior is right, the thought is also you have a very small population in a very small area and taking more than one or two can easily wipe out a breading population. yes they are invasive species and all but for fisherman that enjoy going after them its hard to not be concerned. i have seen the mind set about take all you catch wipe out entire ocean areas, i know alot of guys posting pictures of 40 or 50 tako caught in one area or 3 dozen moi from one hole. nice to stock a freezer but come on now.made the mistake of taking a guy with me to a secret smallmouth place, eventually there were none. couldn't figure out why. then found out he had taken a friend and that friend had taken a friend and so on and so on and people were taking what they caught till there were none there anymore,sadly last time i was back a year ago there wernt any catchable bass there.

[Stan Wright]

Last year I did a story in the Hawaii Fishing News about catching mosquito fish, tailapia, and 5-bar generals in a stream in Kaneohe. With in a month there were no fish left in the stream. People were coming from as far away as Hawaii Kai, Mililani and Kahuku. They used nets, traps, and hook and line to catch anything and everything in the stream. Fortunately, after all the fish were wiped out and no one was catching anything, people stopped coming... and the fish population is slowly coming back.

Many years ago a local fishing show did a program featuring a certain beach... The next weekend there wasn't a parking spot within a 1/4 mile of that beach park.

While doing the Let's Go Fishing TV show we would be invited to fish with people... ONLY if we promised not to reveal the location of their secret spot. Many people wanted to take us fishing... but NO CAMERAS. (they didn't want to take any chances.

I remember one guy called the TV station... threatening us with severe bodily harm because we had done a show at his "secret spot". It took some time to finally convince him that the show in question was not, in fact, even filmed on his island.

I always tried to explain to people it wasn't the location that was important... it was the style or method of fishing we were trying to show. Do what we do in your favorite spot and you should catch fish.

[roadwarriorsvt]

Even this site has the mana! If Stan were to mention that they caught XX number of peacock bass at "area X", the next day, the boat ramp parking lot would be packed. Some of you know this to be true and have seen it for yourself. As much as I like to share and help other fishermen become sucessful, at some point you have to become elusive.

[Struggles2Paddle]

It's kind of sad, the mentality of most of hawaii when it comes to fishing is to "keep what you catch". I guess im not sharing any of my 'secret spots' now lol

[Ahnkochee]

I had my favorite local smallmouth stream wiped out by Clorox fishermen. Stupid thing is they were after the mosquito fish and wild guppies to make bagoong and most stuff killed just drifted away downstream.

Good fisheries management even self managed should involve slot sizes, and bag limits. DON"T take the biggest fish, they are breeding stock with the best genes, and take ONLY what you need. Also give the place a rest to let it recover.

I had my favorite Kaku grounds wiped out because some idiot nOObs to the waters thought it was a bottomless pit of Kaku and kept EVERY fish they caught giving away what they could not use to friends and family. Took just a months of this abuse to totally wipe out the grounds.
Same thing at a local smallmouth stream. This one idiot was very proud showing me several LARGE dead females on his stringer that I had previously over the years released to reproduce. I would have really chewed him out except he had his little son with him (fine example he's setting) so I held back.
These kinds of grounds are finite and need management or they get wiped out in no time flat.

[Crash]

I can say that I am guilty of sharing local, smallmouth stream info with a few other anglers. Luckily, it sounds like they were all respectable anglers that did not abuse the info.

It's a shame to see that many sizeable SMB being kept though, even if it is 100% legal. I get keeping populations in check, I really do, but sometimes it's overkill....especially since the angler admitted to doing this often.