Quote:
Originally Posted by Bent Wookie
How bout we agree to disagree.
I am far from a peta-type.
I am however a staunch believer in keeping the fisheries as healthy as possible. Fish like this, are a natural balance. They do not impact the fishery as you and someone else implied. In fact, as you stated, they are SUCCESSFUL (for whatever reason) thus, perpetuating their genes is that much more important.
I did see alot of blood on the ice and as stated, if the gills were cut in some fashion, that fish was doomed. I would venture to guess that some form of live of once-live bait was used.
Just to be clear, I am not an environmentalist nor a peta type as you implied. I am for healthy fisheries. Which means to me that one must make all efforts to preserve large, successful fish. That is all I am saying.
I would even suggest that through my own personal experience, pike populations are not as healthy as they once were.
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I respect this point of view. Some pike populations are lower than they once were (Glenmore Reservoir, Dalemead Reservoir), but Sylvan Lake has an incredibly healthy fishery. It tends to cycle, like most lakes, but rarely have I ever seen a significant drop-off in the population.
We have an underwater camera, so we can watch the fish. It is really interesting and gives you a whole new perspective. In Sylvan there are tons of fish and I am always amazed at that lake's ability to support a healthy enough fish population that it seems very resistant to the massive fishing pressure. Many times you are not catching any fish but you stick the camera down to take a look around and there are tons of fish. It is a stark contrast to other lakes as well, where much of the time you may see nothing. Sylvan is impressive.
In the case of this particular fish, she is very large and my dad was considering releasing her but she was bleeding a lot from her gills, as you can see, and therefore there was no reason to release her.
As mentioned earlier, we were using large smelts as bait. Smelts are by far the best bait for Pike in the winter but they will strike pretty much anything if it is moving, and some things if they are not.