Catch and Release - A Primer for the Uninitiated

Two years ago, two guys went by me in a canoe while I was fishing. "Any luck?" they asked. I responded negative. The guy in the back of the canoe got to do what he was hoping to do from the outset, holding up a pretty two to three pounder that he had apparently decided to keep for himself. I was mad. Not because I was part of some jerk's ploy to show off his fish. My fishing inferiority was no more a secret to me then as it is now. I was mad because killing that particular fish - a large mouth bass on a fresh water lake - was an incredibly stupid thing to do. I couldn't help but wonder - why didn't he think so?

Now that fishing season's finally here, I end up steering conversations toward it at some point during social gatherings. That leads almost invariably to the question, "do you keep the fish?" It's quite clear from the quality of the people asking the question that there's just a knowledge gap at work here. Sort of like buying puppies from a pet shop. Seems perfectly reasonable - until you start to understand the many splendors of industrial dog mass production.

First, a disclaimer. I eat fish. I have eaten fish that I caught. Striped bass. Tuna. Some big cold water that I've reeled in on charters like haddock and cod and all that too. I've eaten dolphin fish, which isn't really a dolphin at all but shares the name of a mammal, making it seem more wrong to eat.* So I'm not coming at this from a holier than thou, fish are people too angle. Instead, I'd like to explain why killing a large mouth is a bad idea.

Large mouth bass are hard to catch. In most cases, they need to be tricked into striking and they rarely strike anything that isn't placed within 16" of their noses. That means large mouth bass fishermen need to understand where they are likely to be based on any number of factors like weather, water temp, season, water turbidity, etc. Once a fisherman is able or lucky enough to zero in on the most likely locations, the fisherman but match the conditions to a lure that is likely to evoke a strike. The types of lures at the fisherman's disposal number into the thousands and each must be matched with a particular presentation in order to culminate in the strike. Land too close, you spook the fish. Too far away, the fish won't leave the comfort of its hiding spot. Too slow, you're ignored. Too fast, you're avoided. Do you bump off a log to wake the fish up? Can you pull it off without getting hooked on that log? You get the picture.

That, really, is the sport and attraction of fishing this particular fish. It's about learning what works through trial, error, and study. And as with anything that requires practice, the payoff is in proving you can do it and in experiencing success after investing the effort.

So why the hell would someone eat the prize? That's like popping a basketball after dunking it. It's downright stupid for a number of reasons. Bass have favorite hiding spots they return to again and again. Last year my father took the same 2+ pounder from the same spot two days straight. On both days, it was the highlight catch and we still joke about how he threw his line on top of mine to hook that same fish on the second day. You decide to eat that fish and you've just decreased the number of fish you could possibly catch by one. If you own the lake and no one else fishes it, and the eco system is such that you're not making a dent - no big deal. But if everyone decides to be like the asshole in the canoe, killing fish so they can show them off to strangers, it quickly leads to over fished lakes.

Plus any given 5 pounder is usually at least 8 years old. After 8 years, there's a good chance that fish has seen some things, including being hooked more than a couple times. Who knows how many other people have great memories of catching that fish. Seems a bit selfish, if not inappropriate, to end that journey because you feel like it.

If it's about eating it, I guess I'd have to ask why not just swing by Shaw's and pick up haddock or some other ocean eating fish? Not only will it taste better, but you'll be eating less mercury. According to the MA Game and Wildlife reports, the fish in almost every MA & NH lake should be avoided (at least by children and the elderly) because we've been burning coal, driving cars, and mining asbestos for too many decades to keep relatively still water mercury free.

So now you know. Please don't be the asshole in the canoe.

*If fish had any say over their own evolution they would be wise to develop the ability to scream. Tugging on the emotional capacity of humans is probably the most effective defense against the world's greatest predators. Just ask dogs, cats, eagles, dolphins, whales, and so many others. Except piglets. They're just too delicious.