Bass Conundrum

[The Great Wallsendo]

Here's a poser...:question:

Say you're fishing a Comp' and you land an insize Bass on every cast, like shooting fish in a barrel...

But when I say insize, I mean the legal limit or just over - so they're schoolie size...

But it's a comp' and you've landed over 10 of these and are more than likely in line for one the prizes

What do you do? do you have an attack of the conscience? do you release them - thus forfeitting your chance of the prize money?:question::question:

This is purely hypothetical - but given the usual outcry when someone says they've been catching (and keeping) Bass - what would you do?

 

[marksworld]

if they are sized keep em, you may get on the prize table and what fantstic eating you will have afterwards. i think as long as they do not get chucked afer weigh in no problem with keeping them.




cheers
mark

 

[Mogthemackem]

I'd agree with Mark. Purely Hypothetial lol you can say hat again Tony. I don't think I'll cath that many in my lifetimethe way I'm gong

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

...you can say hat again Tony

Hat

 

[mark]

do as your conscience bids. I'm rather partial to a couple of bass on a plate!

its a funny thing though, compare this scenario with a match fished say on the dorset coast, where they catch the things by the dozen... yet cod are much harder to come by.... they'd have no second thoughts

I'd guess most match anglers would take em anyway, but what would really hack me off would then be to find them dumped near the weigh in as seems to happen with some match anglers, not all match anglers, but the odd few.

My mantra has always been don't kill em unless your gonna eat em

 

[Hillbilly]

I appreciate what your posing,personally as a rule dont fish compeitions any more,i used to,but i got sick of the pointless waste,buckets of flatties poured bak in to the river all of them floating white side up and somebody won £60 whe-hay!I know its a bit different these days catch and release which is a good thing but still a lot of comps where people are fishing for bags and fish are being wasted,all i keep these days are fish to eat or fish which are hooked severely.I enjoy my sport but get annoyed when i see fish been caught and dumped ,what is the point,I think it should be the case where if fish can be returned then do that,if you have a good session and catch 10 decent fish do you really need to keep them all,i doubt it is a case of starvation but more a case of fishing comps and the thought of winning maybe a couple of hundred notes.Maybe time for rules to be changed,Just A thought guys,what do you think?
regards

 

[northeast1]

Could not had said it better Hillbilly

 

[davem2005]

I never fish matches but from a quick google search it would seem many matches are fished to NFSA size limits which are above the national limits and it would seem more and more matches are being fished on a measure and release points basis.

In the instance set by Tony the match would probably be fished to NFSA size limits which means a 41cm limit. At this size the chances of bagging up on keepers is pretty slim and the fish would probably had a chance to spawn thereby eliminating the impact on the stocks.

A very similar conundrum is when a tag and release charter skipper catches a potential record as happened recently over in Luce bay. The pound signs for potential publicity can enter your head or you can stick to your beliefs and release it.

Its down to an individuals morals.

Please dont let this decend into a BASS debate

Regards
Dave

 

[KeithB]

surely you mean MASS debate Dave

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

surely you mean MASS debate Dave

which can lead to early blindness and hair-loss....hang on a second I've got no hair and I wear gegs too!!! LOL :red:

 

[Red5]

Doen this meself in our club comps with coalies. My first size coalie I caught in a club match was just on size and I took it back as it boosted my total weight. Got home with it and thought....I don't even like coalie, but rather than waste it put it in a fish pie with some cod and smoked cod.
Now rather than take a coalie back to weigh in, if they are just size, I put them straight back to fight another day.

 

[Charlie_Thompson]

If you're going to keep Bass keep the smaller ones. They are very slow growing fish and the bigguns can be a good few years old 10+ I think. Re: Returning record fish - the fella who released the 54" Ness Salmon a few days ago has given up any hope of claiming it as a record, a very famous record which has stood for yonks. He did the right thing

 

[Hillbilly]

allright dave,
i think you are right in what you are saying,a lot more comps are being fished on measure and release but still a lot of comps are fishing heaviest bag,i think we still have a long way to go before we are all doing the right thing as far as protecting our sport,a lot of people had a good run on smaller codling on the last big sea,if put back these fish would be decent size come jan/feb.I am guilty in my younger years of taking fish home just to p[rove what i have caught almost like a cat taking home its prey and dumping it on the doorstep,my how ive changed.nother pet hate is going along the pier in the summer and seeing a pile of macky almost cooking in the sun,whatis the point aaaarhhh!!! Wallsendo what have you started!!

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

allright dave,
i think you are right in what you are saying,a lot more comps are being fished on measure and release but still a lot of comps are fishing heaviest bag,i think we still have a long way to go before we are all doing the right thing as far as protecting our sport,a lot of people had a good run on smaller codling on the last big sea,if put back these fish would be decent size come jan/feb.I am guilty in my younger years of taking fish home just to p[rove what i have caught almost like a cat taking home its prey and dumping it on the doorstep,my how ive changed.nother pet hate is going along the pier in the summer and seeing a pile of macky almost cooking in the sun,whatis the point aaaarhhh!!! Wallsendo what have you started!!

HEHE LOL the macky debate raged for most of the summer mate...

 

[Hillbilly]

Allright mate
nowt worse than the sight of fish being caught and left in the hot sun with the guts lying next to them but obviously this has been covered before on this site.
Biggest point for me mate is if we can get away with releasing fish regardless of size and spec ies then it only makes it better for the next generation,I have the responsibility of having six kids,i hope they will all fish as it keeps them off the streets,my oldest one kicks my ass every time we go down, but it makes me feel better when he catches a decent coalie and he says 'i'll just let this one go Dad!!
Regards

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

Personally, if I'd caught (just) insize Bass in a comp' I'd weigh them in...saying that I would not waste them either. I'd keep them for the pot or distribute among friends and family.

As Mark has said, it's a question of scale...on the south coast, Bass are as common as muck and they have no qualms in keeping any just legal fish they catch....yet they have fewer Cod

You could then put the same scenario against other species such as Coalies, Cod etc...how many people out there have seen border line Codling thrown in the bag?....I haven't even caught a Cod from the shore yet LOL so I can't use myself as a pillar of virtue but you can understand where I'm coming from...

Catch, Measure and release is only workable as long as people are trusted enough not to cheat - in an Open can it be easily enforced and checked?

As to Macky - we all know the culprits and it's been talked about to death on here and elsewhere

 

[mark]

there was a thread on the wsf forum a while back and you could swap the words bass and cod and it would be almost identical. Similarly when some announces down there with great pride a reasonable shore caught cod, someone says, "you should of returned it"

now if everytime someone caught cod from the shore and others were to shout "should of put it back" there would outright war in our little cod obsessed neck of the woods

bass can take 5 years to reach maturity, but can take less, bass mature with size not age, so if they feed well they can be of spawning age in a few years

cod can be of spawning age within 2 years, but can take 7, again depends on the conditions, so its entirely feasible that the 'pan sized' codling that are taken in numbers from our shores every year may not have reached maturity and should be returned..... but we all keep a few at least when we're lucky enough and often applaud when we hear of days on a charter boat where 100 plus cod were hauled in

if I were to catch 5 bass - 3 schoolies, 2 5lbers. I'd probably scoff the schoolies as soon as was feasibly possibly, might even wait till I got home to cook em first as well

I reckon the number of bass that fall to anglers from our shores is a teeny percentage of those that are netted inshore, and still less than those that are thrown back dead as they are undersized but perished in the nets

 

[Hillbilly]

Personally, if I'd caught (just) insize Bass in a comp' I'd weigh them in...saying that I would not waste them either. I'd keep them for the pot or distribute among friends and family.

As Mark has said, it's a question of scale...on the south coast, Bass are as common as muck and they have no qualms in keeping any just legal fish they catch....yet they have fewer Cod

You could then put the same scenario against other species such as Coalies, Cod etc...how many people out there have seen border line Codling thrown in the bag?....I haven't even caught a Cod from the shore yet LOL so I can't use myself as a pillar of virtue but you can understand where I'm coming from...

Catch, Measure and release is only workable as long as people are trusted enough not to cheat - in an Open can it be easily enforced and checked?

As to Macky - we all know the culprits and it's been talked about to death on here and elsewhere

I appreciate what you are saying and i would be wrong to criticise as i have often bagged up withall sorts of species and dished them out amongst friends and family,even farm reared rainbows from derwent which tastes bloody horrible.Just think we still need to get out of the habit in comps of catching bag full of whatever species and dumping them.As for catching no cod yet,dont be to upset i've only caught one and of course i let it go!!!

Regards

 

[davem2005]

Intresting email I recieved today partly as a result of this thread.

Its seems clear to me that a large number of matches are fished to NFSA rules. Perhaps this is because the clubs are affiliated to the NFSA or perhaps its just easier than writing your own set of rules. When reading through the rules I noticed that they had a rule saying sharks could only be weighed in on shark tournaments. So obviously I was not happy about this and emailed SOS ...which was then sent on to the NFSA and the reply I recieved said that it would only need one member to propose a rule change with respect to sharks in matches. As shark matches are generally fished on a catch measure and release basis it is just a case of the rules catching up with what is general practice. Getting that particular rule changed should be a fomality

The same would also be the case if changes were to be proposed with regard to total bag matches...it needs a proposal for a rule change and discussion and voting on by members. I think it would have a rougher ride to see any changes made.

Another little conundrum that could potentially happen in a boat match(or a shore match in the future the way things are looking). You catch a tope...theres a prize for the biggest fish ...what would you do?

Now if the match was been run from royal quays you could legally land the fish...if it was being run from south shields it would be illegal to land the fish. That particular anomally in the bylaws is something I am working on and hopefully we will see a change by next summer.

Cheers
Dave