PISSED OFF THIS EVENING

[PutnamOutdoors 0]

I agree this situation is utterly ridiculous! However, we all have to also guard against the mentality that "my favorite activity is better and more MORAL than your favorite activity." ARFs (Animal Rights Fanatics) LOVE it when we (sportsmen/women) start getting a holier than thou attitude about LEGAL activities of others.

 

I know some folks that bowfish and have a great time - I don't see anything wrong with it - the resource is abundant, they EAT what they harvest, and they never would leave carcasses laying around - especially not where it would foul the water! As far as challenging - I tried it and didn't like it - but it sure was anything but easy!

 

I also know some "noodlers" - again, something I don't care to do but I shouldn't look down on those that do.

 

I can just hear it someday - some Carp/Striper/Cat fishermen (just as an example) at a DNR meeting - "those trout aren't hurting anything, why do you have to use our license fees to stock even more of them for people to just catch and take home?"

 

Agreed - that leaving fish to spoil like this is terrible! I too have eaten gar on a number of occasions and found it to be pretty good.

 

Thanks

PO

 

 

[lewy271 0]

I've seen this regularly, Gar are incredible fish...What pains me more are bowfin which are often misinterpreted for Snakehead. A trout by any other name could have been a gar. People suck. Nothing else to say. There is very little that differentiates one from another, besides table quality or the possibility of eating our table quality fish. There is a locale river that I stalk for carp. Let me tell you tons of carp. Everything always seems to be over ten pounds..... As I'm wading I walk up to a familar sand bar that is littered with at least 30 dead 10 - 20 pound carp. If you come to this stretch of river and believe me it is an effort, all you are going to encounter are carp. Good or bad, whatever...I'm not a god fearing man but they are here for a reason...They are native, I'm sorry are brown trout native......I always forget. Regardless, It always boils down to some redneck mutha F'er that is going to get into a bar fight that night then go take it out on his wife later.

 

This will probably get removed but, well it is the truth. We assign value to some and less to others, in this world and and the world under the water. We as humans cannot survive without classifing things as good or evil. I do it my self, Heineken is good Old Style is evil... It is an unfortunate circle of Sh*t or events I mean.

 

 

BTW, carry the number to your DNR regardless of what is being killed or culled Bass or Carp; there are regualations and to all fish there is generally a wanton (SP?) waste senario....This fall under it. I'm sooooooooo sorry that sweet little girl had to see this. Not right, Not right at all. I'm sure dad explained the ignorance that was expidited here.

 

Tight Lines, Loaded guns!

 

[smallieFanatic 0]

They do the same thing to carp here ( :thumbsdown: It stinks though), the common carp though is by no means native to north america. Neither is the brown trout.

 

 

 

 

Jan

[day5 0]

I served 50 + bluegill today as lunch for some friends Im no tree hugger. but this kind of act is crap these types of predators are good for any environment. they should be left to control the populations of other fish. a 50 incher huh that is a nice trophy gar!

[Brian Brown75 0]

just rediculous, saturday on the trout stream people were snagging trout and keeping the illegal suckerfish that are rare in that river i admit i caught one on accident but let him go unharmed some people just need to be taght a lesson :wallbash:

[smfisher 0]

It's the idiots in the world that make the rest of us look so smart, so I guess in some ways they serve a purpose. :drunk: I seen this played out numerous times where I live and it is nothing short of a shame. It's one thing to take fish home to eat and entirely another to just kill something for no reason. JMO

[Steeldrifter 0]

What it all boils down to is how people respect nature. It really doesn't matter if it's legal to snag them, illegal to snag them, or if I flew over the river in a helicopter, jumped out the door onto the back of a giant gar with a 10" bowie knife and jammed it right between his eyes while yellin' "Sic semper tyrannis!" What does matter is respect for nature.

 

Killing ANY fish for absolutly no reason at all is simply ridiculous and in my opinion a flagrant dissregard for what makes the outdoors so great. But people have to decide what is important to them on their own.

 

Let me quickly go back a ways here. I'm 37 yrs old now and my father (god rest his soul) taught me the ways of the outdoors from an early age. BUT back as a kid growing up in the late 70's and early 80's I remember many times myself, or dad or grandpa catching a big dogfish (bowfin) and taking a fillet knife to it to kill it. Because ""they're a trash fish that eats all the good panfish" as the ol' timers would all tell us kids. So growing up I killed a lot of bowfin until I started becoming my own man and releasing them. Because if you think about it, doesn't a big pike, big walleye or other big predator fish kill just as many panfish? yes. So just because its not a "sportfish" then why kill it?

 

Same thing goes for suckers. I can;t tell you how many guys I see on the Au Sable throwing suckers up on the bank to die while they are steelheading. If I see them do it (and you can ask any friends that have steelhead fished with me) I will (and have numerous times) walked right up to the guys and put the suckers they tossed back in the water right in front of them. Being 6'6" 335lbs I can get away with doing that without even any words uttered to me most times but that's just the way I am now. Not that I like suckers :sick: but my belielf now are...if your not going to make use of a living thing by killing it then don't kill it.

 

Point is these guys that did it...rather than being poachers or having disregard for the law (if its illegal or not) or rather than even having disregard for the river there, they might not only not know better.. but they might actually even think that they are "helping" the river by ridding it of those "Panfish eating trash fish". trust me I don't agree with that thinking now, but just pointing out that these boys that are doing it might actually think what they did was a good thing for the river even though IMO its not.

 

Then again they could just be some drunkin' Jerry Springer watchin' losers with nothing better to do with their time than go around playin' O.J Simpson on a bunch of gar. Who knows....that's the scary part about society.

 

Steve

[Arkansas Mike 0]

I watched an elderly couple some months ago sit on the lake bank in their lawnchairs all day fishing (with crickets and worms!). When they finally got up to leave, they hoisted their fish basket out of the water, took out the two catfish, and dumped about 20 bluegills/sunfish over into a dry ditch about thirty feet away! Outraged, I caught up with them as they were heading for their car and told them my brother was with the Arkansas Game & Fish (I lied. I don't have a brother ) and that I would call him if they didn't go back and return all the fish back into the water. After a bit of grunting and groaning, the man did, complaining about how the lake was overstocked with "perch" and how he couldn't catch any catfish because the pesky "perch" kept getting his bait. I'm a bit of a "tree-hugger" I suppose, but one man's nuisance is one little kids prize. Plus...have you ever caught one of those little suckers on a fly rod! Wow!

[JSzymczyk 0]

here ya go Big Daddy-

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?sho...c=3324&st=0

[BigDaddyHub 0]

as long as he isn't leaving the carcass to rot....NO PROB!!

[TheBigLost 0]

Please don't put the word MURDER in your headline unless you are speaking about a human.

You can't murder animals....let's get it straight.

I shoot carp with my bow every spring, I catch them on my rod every summer, and I ride them in my avatar pic all year long.

All are fun.

None are murder.

 

 

[BigDaddyHub 0]

speaking of the term "murder"....take a moment and view the below link...just one of hundreds under my direct supervision...

 

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=...amp;format=html

[getholdofjoru 0]

Just curious, are there other species of gamefish in that section? Could it be someone views these gar as "trash fish" that prey on some other coveted gamefish? Just trying to understand the motive and that's the only one that makes some sense. Not saying it's right, as I would never do that either.

 

Mike

 

 

I see this all the time in Kentucky and on the Ohio River. Its an old belief by hillbillies that they are "trash fish." Simple as that, no other reason.

[smfisher 0]

Just curious, are there other species of gamefish in that section? Could it be someone views these gar as "trash fish" that prey on some other coveted gamefish? Just trying to understand the motive and that's the only one that makes some sense. Not saying it's right, as I would never do that either.

 

Mike

 

 

I see this all the time in Kentucky and on the Ohio River. Its an old belief by hillbillies that they are "trash fish." Simple as that, no other reason.

Whats a "HILLBILLIE'?????

 

[rich5665 0]

Whats a "HILLBILLIE'?????

 

Definition of a Hill Billie: Mythical American figure who knows the land, the animals and rivers better than any City Boy could ever dream of. Often thought of as illiterate, but this is in actuality a ploy to confound his city dwelling cousins. As most "Hill Billies" have a natural born sense and intelligence concerning nature. Hill Billies should not be confused with Red Necks; Red Necks are prone to do stupid things that most often end badly. Hill Billies are also believed to have a very bad temper and a very long memory, yet are known to be down right hospitable; just stay away from their daughters :gunsmilie: (See entry regarding Redneck). Hill Billies also make some of the best grain beverages known to man :drunk: Who else would come up with a drink that could power an automobile and remove paint at the same time. Not a City Dwelling EggHead