C&R Ice fishing?

[TruthWalleyes]

Does ANYONE practice catch and release while ice fishing?

I don't ice fish much, and I don't want to start any fights or get anyone mad, BUT why is it that during open water season C&R seems to be practiced more than in the winter?

Like I said, I don't get out much, but when I do, it seems that everyone I talk to feels like they have to keep every fish that is cleanable.

Am I missing something, why won't people release a few fish in the winter?

99.99% of the fish i catch go back in the water. Summer or winter. But i do fish a lot! So its easy to release such a big %. The only fish i've eaten in 2011 were eaten within two hours of catching.Haven't frozen a fish in quite some time. (With the exception of one limit of trout each year as i only fish for trout once per year)

[Esox_Magnum]

I keep fish in the winter but selectively, yes I do keep up to my possesion limit in the freezer since open water I'm 100% CPR and like to eat fish....

[dougger222]

Tonight my buddy C&R'd a 8lb 13oz walleye.

[FishinFools]

Nothing inspires C&R better than cleaning two limits of pan fish! We hit 'em pretty good a few days ago (nothing kept under 10". That lake can handle it) Tonight, we raised the bar and hit 'em hard again...but kept none. Different lake (metro) and all were under 10". Bite lasted 45 minutes and bang. Done.

[OnAFly]

Mostly C&R. A few walleyes get kept a summer and winter, but other than that 99% C&R.

[Slabasaurus]

99% of the fish I catch are released.

I love eating fish though, so I do keep a meal or two in serving sized freezer bags at home. At the cabin, more often than not the fish don't even make it to the fridge before they're devoured... tonight was the exception, my mom had some chili cooked up when I walked off the ice today. guess that perch sammy will be lunch tomorrow!

I do practice "selective harvest" so the size of my keepers is moderate.

[Fowlmouth]

I enjoy eating fish, so I keep what I'm going to eat.

[Knoc]

I live on a lake and fish nearly everyday (even if its just for a half hour) so if I was to keep every fish I caught that was a keeper, not only would I have more than my limits in the freezer but more than I could eat before it went bad. Alot of times I go out its just for fun and have no intentions of keeping fish.

[BrandonJ]

I usually keep most of my fish in the winter because they taste better in my opinion and also they are easier to keep fresh till I get home. I only keep what I need for me and my daughter, the woman doesn't care for it to much. I love seeing big fish swim away, after I've caught them of course. I wish you wouldn't have caught that eye ebass, I couldn't focus on bass fishing the rest of the day. People ask me all the time "do you keep the fish you catch when you go out?" and I'll tell them no, they then will ask "Why do you go then?". Some people just don't understand.

[simple1]

This is a great topic to discuss, but its important to point out that what you keep may be more important that how many. I love to walleye fish and have set myself a strict keep vs release range. For example I would never keep a walleye over 22 inches unless it smokes my personal best, at which point I will have it mounted. But I would like some feedback on what people look at for their range of walleye C&R.

Thanks

Simple1

[BrandonJ]

Nothing inspires C&R better than cleaning two limits of pan fish!

This is very true

[popriveter]

In my lifetime, I've seen panfish sizes decrease drastically. It scares me to see someone write that they kept 2 limits of panfish and then write "nothing kept below 10 inches." The science is sound- if we keep the smaller fish, the size structure will stay strong, but if we pickle our 12 lb pike and eat our limits of >10" panfish, we will create stunted fish populations. I harvest and eat a lot of fish in the winter. I'm not going to judge anyone acting within the law, but I will continue to try and encourage my fellow sportsmen to view "keepers" as smaller fish that don't negatively impact a population's size structure. Okay, soapbox time is done. I respect you all and will back away slowly. Oh yeah, one more thing- a lot of the best ice fishing happens deeeeeep. That inhibits C&R as the pressure change kills what you were hoping to release. I don't fish that deep, but then I'm not chasing trophies like most C&R guys.

[simple1]

Good points all. For me fishing is not bringing home the biggest or most fish, but I do like pics of big fish I caught and I like the taste of fried panfish. I fish for so many other reasons than to simply catch fish, I cannot explain them all. To me there is nothing better than being out on a lake in your boat, early morning with no wind, or just before dark in my Frabill popup with the evening bite coming in. Fishing is fun, its that simple. The bottom line is we all need to do what we think is best for the continuation of the sport we love, and go from there.

Simple1

[candiru]

As far as I am concerned you are all individually telling the truth. In saying that, I'm sorry but I don't buy all the C&R talk on here about how people hardly ever keep any fish. Fish are dang good to eat. You can't tell me so many people are going out and catching 12" Perch, 16" walleyes, or 10" Crappies and letting nearly all of them go.

[KrabbyPatties]

It scares me to see someone write that they kept 2 limits of panfish and then write "nothing kept below 10 inches." The science is sound- if we keep the smaller fish, the size structure will stay strong, but if we pickle our 12 lb pike and eat our limits of >10" panfish, we will create stunted fish populations. I harvest and eat a lot of fish in the winter. I'm not going to judge anyone acting within the law, but I will continue to try and encourage my fellow sportsmen to view "keepers" as smaller fish that don't negatively impact a population's size structure.

+1

Agree.

[KrabbyPatties]

As far as I am concerned you are all individually telling the truth. In saying that, I'm sorry but I don't buy all the C&R talk on here about how people hardly ever keep any fish. Fish are dang good to eat. You can't tell me so many people are going out and catching 12" Perch, 16" walleyes, or 10" Crappies and letting nearly all of them go.

I was thinking the same thing! It's kind of like how EVERYONE I know says they hardly watch any TV, but big flat screens fly off the shelves and everyone has a 50+ channel cable package. Doesn't pass the sniff test.

[reinhard1]

i remember many years ago when i was a kid we would keep any size fish. i grew up poor and that was a big part of our meals along with wild game when we could get it. over the years i gradualy started to release larger fish except the few i have mounted before i heard of grafite reproduction.

encouraged by a friend of mine while we were on mille lacs years ago, i was talked into releasing a 6 pound walleye. man, that was hard to do. however after that it was real easy, and i started to take good care of the larger fish after netting getting them back in the drink as soon as possible.

i cant say i catch and realease everything because i do like to keep fish for a meal. it's what size you keep that's important in my opinion. for me it's important to release all large fish of any species, all the time. can always get a reproduction done nowadays. good luck.

[frazwood]

I like to keep fish to eat, but even then... I bet 75% of my fishing is catch-and-release. In the winter, it tends to be more catch-and-keep, but then again, I primarily go fishing only when I'd like some fish to eat. My general policy is to keep only what I can eat without freezing, although I will freeze fish on special occasions (for example, if we have visitors coming and I want to be sure that I have fish to serve).

I primarily fish for bass/northerns or panfish. I rarely keep northerns and even then, I only keep the smaller fish (probably less than 22 inches or so). I do like to eat bass, but again... only the smaller fish (usually less than 14 inches or so). And again, only what I can eat without freezing them.

With the panfish, it really depends on the lake and what the population structure is like. I have access to a really good panfishing lake during the summer, so I'll keep bluegills as big as 7.5 inches, but anything bigger than that goes back (we consistently get them as big as 9.5 inches; there have been times when it's been hard to catch a meal because they're too big).

In the winter, I only fish near my home in the Twin Cities, where the local panfish lakes are horrible as far as size structure, chock full of stunted fish. I keep as many as I want (less than the legal limit) with little concern and if I catch something "bigger" (in this case, over 6 inches), then I throw it back.

The key point here is that I am willing to keep very small fish (ever keep a limit of bluegill under 6 inches?) and release medium-sized fish and bigger.

I do tend to keep everyone walleye that I catch, but there are two big caveats. I don't catch many walleye (I caught one, total, in the last 24 months) and walleye are not as hardy and have higher mortality rates when released than bass, northerns, and panfish.

Here is my soapbox: If you plan on releasing the fish, then please treat it nicely and release it quickly. There is no difference if the fish dies in the water than if you ate it. The fishing shows are horrible for this -- they catch a lunker fish and then take photos of it for several minutes. By analogy, you are forcing the fish to run a really long, hard race... and then hold its breath for a few minutes afterwards. Try that yourself sometime.

[ENMIFDAD]

All this reading is making me hungry! J/K

In my family of 5, only my middle son and I will eat fish. That said, I only will keep enough for a meal for him and myself.

The two exceptions to this is when we go catch crappies on Cedar (which are all under 7.5" anyway) and need to be culled, or if I go on my annual trip to LOW. That may be because I have to show the wife that "the guys trip" is actually fishing! Maybe also because it comes out to about $50/lb for walley/sauger the trip!

[Bass Whacker]

I kept fish for the first time in probably 3 years this year to get a lady at work to quite bugging me for fish, otherwise its all catch and release and I fish almost everyday( it helps I get to drive my boat to work). its good to hear there is other people out releaseing fish. I was home from school last week and our local lake was putting out lots of decent perch and it was like every person out there was throwing them on the ice, and I was seeing the same people out there everyday doing it. It was kind of sad to see because this is only a 100 acre lake and I cant imagine the population will hold up to this kind of harvest.

[HammyDavisJr]

C&R well over 90% of the time. I've never kept an actual limit of sunfish/perch ever. It's just a ridiculous amount of fish to have in my possession.

[magic_minnow]

I keep my limit when I want a meal, otherwise its C&R. I hate to clean fish and when I do keep its small fish becuase I can simply fry and crunch away at the bones rather than pick through it and besides, the smaller the fish the less contaminants. just my 0.02

[Nick Kuhn]

I C&R just about all the time. My mom loves walleye so I occasionally keep one for her (read like 1 meal/year): but otherwise C&R unless I get a pike or something that's an obvious goner. Cleaning fish is work: and I prefer the bolder flavors of oceanic fish to the clean/blandish flavors of the fish from our region.

[FISHINGURU]

I C&R 99% of the time, even if I plan on having a fish mounted I weigh it, measure it, and get a pic and off she goes back in the water.

If I'm on a trip up north and the plan is to catch some pannies or eyes for a meal or two then I'll keep some. Really I'm not a fan of cleaning fish, by time I get back in from fishing I just want to relax.

[BTL]

I love eating fish. Luckily the ocean is only a few hours away, so I catch most of my "eaters" there. I don't keep a whole lot of freshwater fish. They generally don't taste as good, and the lakes and rivers around here get more than enough harvest pressure as it is.

You ever see one of those guys who gets addicted to keeping fish when he stumbles on to a hot bite? In my experience it's usually a casual fisherman.

Before he knows it, he's got a full stringer and enough fish to fill his freezer twice. So he calls up his buddies to tell them about it, and they go out the next day, and the next, and the next, and they keep everything. After all, they need enough fish so that their families, neighbors, co-workers, friends, acquaintances, and the guy at the McDonald's drive thru can eat fish every night for the next 4 months.

Eventually the bite dies and you don't see them for the next 11 months. Then when they finally return, they complain about how the fishing sucks.