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Gone Fishin'
November 24, 2012 - 10:51pm
I've recently taken up fishing. I'm awful. I live in a city where I can literally go fishing 365 days a year for salmon, trout, ling or halibut. Fortunately, I've adopted a strictly "catch no fish" policy so that when I come home empty handed (like today), I have a good excuse.
I have a spin reel and a mooching reel. I've used both with equal "success" (although I hooked my only salmon with the moocher on a kayak). Any other fisherpeople on babble?
And don't think the fish don't appreciate you for it.
I used to fish. I had some success catching brook trout, lake trout, mudpout, smallmouth bass, rock bass, yellow perch, and bluegills. It was kind of fun, but I eventually had trouble reconciling fishing with the fact that I didn't actually want to eat fish. I kept it up for a few years just because I recognized that it was important for my dad to have someone to go fishing with him, but I haven't been fishing since he died. Truth be told, I think I always enjoyed collecting lures and organizing my tackle box more than the actual fishing.
I used to fish as a kid, back in the days when we hand poured lead weights. Last time I actually cast a hook into water was 1987.
I have been thinking about taking it up again, though I have no idea when I would ever have the time.
And catch and release? I'm not sure who would suffer the greater torture - the fish or the perpetrator. I can't imagine fishing if I don't wind up with something slathered in butter, lemon and garlic at the end of the day. Though I know there are plenty enough people who do it as an enjoyable pastime. Enjoy it!
Honestly, this is one of the greatest things about fishing: fish names. Cutthroat, Bull trout, Coho, Sockeye, Crappies, Rockfish, Chinook, Pikeminnows, and so on. "Whadyou catch?" "Aww, just a bunch of mudpout." Awesome.
Yeah I have to say that the thing I love most about fishing is the eating. Coho caught that day? Unbelieveable. I mean the other aspects are good too--meditative repetition, isolation in nature, quiet camaraderie, etc.--but eating is believing. Of course, the fact that multiple fisheries of two of the three most delicious fish ever (third being tuna, natch) are catchable within 150kms of my front door make that an easy piece of criteria.
Catchfire, are you talking about fishing in Vancouver? I never thought to fish anywhere near Vancouver, but I guess people do off the seawall, and the Fraser.
I like eating trout and would like to feel better about catching and killing my own. But I don't know if I can. This year, back in BC (northern BC), I got a rod and a license and went out on my kayak on the nearby lake, which is clear and pristine. I guess this was my first time fishing alone. Using the recommended "wedding band" I did have some luck with a trout, but had a horrific time killing it. I had not brought a mallet.
My intention had been to release it, especially as it was a little on the small side - 8". But the hook was barbed, and I could not get it out of the fish's cheek, and I was making a mess of its eye. So then I just had to kill it, smashing its head against the side of the boat repeatedly (felt like the rowboat murder scene in Talented Mr. Ripley). But it wouldn't die until after about ten tries. And even then it flipped around in the back of the boat. It was very disturbing for me.
I felt that fishing in general was an unfair kind of trickery, and was disgusted at the imbalanced human advantage in it. However, there is something addictive about it, a quiet game of lure and catch, and then the excitement of feeling something tugging on your line. If I can get better at killing the fish, it could become a fun hobby. Otherwise, I could try using the catch and release hooks.
I'm thinking Indian Arm, Golden Ears or Squamish would all offer some good spots.
I used to fish, but gave it up when all the waters I fished in got polluted or over-fished. That's a problem I have with fish - how can you tell if it was caught in polluted waters, or not?
Hey jas--kayak fishing is awesome! I went to Tofino earlier this year for a camping/fishing/kayak trip. It was pretty spectacular. Fortunately I was with my brother-in-law, so we ended up eating some fish. Delicious!
In the late summer, you can fish right off Ambleside beach underneath Lion's Gate Bridge in North Vancouver for chinook and coho. I've never caught anything (naturally) but I've seen loads of people pull in fish. Golden Ears lake has trout and kokanee salmon (again, I've fished there and caught nothing). I was at Harrison River yesterday (nothing) which still has Coho and cutthroat trout season starts next week or so. You can fish the Harrison, Fraser, Chehalis, Squamish and Capilano rivers in the fall/winter. It's pretty ridiculous the wealth of spots Vancouverites have to choose from.
@BB I don't know, I guess you can talk to local fishing shops or other anglers you see at the spot to find out if it's been polluted. A lot of spots are in provincial parks, so that should help, right?
What it boiled down to for me that day was that I had no right to take that fish's life. In my world view, I am not more worthy than the fish. My lifw was not dependent on eating it (in which case, I would have had much less of a problem with it.) This may sound extremely flaky to some, but for me it's unavoidable logic. And yet, I will buy and eat fish that other people have killed, and I buy and eat factory farmed meat. So that makes no sense. Why would killing my own fish feel so much worse?
Does anybody else have this problem?
Jas, a fishing trawler with a handful of people on board on the north Atlantic can take the lives of hundreds of thousands of small fish in one fell swoop, so taking the life of just one fish becomes almost moot, no?
I certainly don't enjoy it, but I can do it automatically when I have to. These days that involves mostly killing mice and birds that need to be put out of their misery.
To turn it around, I'd say anyone who just enjoys killing for its own sake is pathological. That's no different if your only goal is killing pests. Of course it is serious business. Again, no slight to catch and release, because I can see how it would be interesting as a sport, but I can't see it in any way other than as a skill for getting food.
and @ Catchfire
We did a bit of ocean canoeing when we lived out there, and got up on Harrison Lake one time, which was pretty hairy. We only learned afterwards about that lake's dangerous reputation. We also almost got carried out into the middle of the strait by a stream off Victoria one time. It's amazing how those things can be like fast-flowing rivers in the middle of the water.
I think relying on someone else to kill your food for you makes it easier to detach one's self from the process in a way that killing it yourself simply doesn't allow. That detachment isn't unique to meat either. Much of our energy, clothing, electronics - even our fruits and vegetables - comes to us via distribution systems with built-in plausible deniability.
I know what you're saying, but it doesn't change my relationship to the fish that I trick into biting my hook and then kill. I can't help what fishing trawlers do*, but I can help what I do.
Nevertheless, I do hope to get over my qualms about this.
*(beyond not buying their product)
Yes, absolutely.
In another bout of unbridled optimism, equalled only on my insistance on bringing plastic bags with me in the unlikely event I actually catch anything, I've bought my fishing licenses for this season! Watch out, salmon!