Why practice Catch and Release fishing? The fish population, and the size of the fish caught, have been on a steady decline for a number of years. This is due to the advancement of ice fishing technologies. Gadgets and advancements to other ice fishing equipment are making it much easier to catch fish in everyday ice fishing spots. However, we are seeing more and more anglers returning the majority of their catch to the water. While no one can deny the fact that a nice hot fish dinner after an ice fishing trip is very rewarding, most fishers are enjoying fishing for the sport, not for the food.

Another common practice used in combination with catch and release is called ‘selective harvest.’ This is the practice of minimizing the waste of fish, and providing a diverse opportunity for fishing while preserving fish conservation. The easiest way to do this is to practice catch and release. Only keep what you will definitely use. While catching and keeping the fish as a prize can bring you great joy, so can the release of the fish. This ensures that there will be fish for you to catch in the future. Releasing smaller fish also helps ensure there will be large fish in the water for spawning. Using the catch and release techniques means the fish will be in peak physical condition, and size, when you decide to keep a catch for food in the future.

All fishermen should keep the conservation of fish at the tops of their minds. Whether you fish for food, pure recreation, or for sport, when the fish are gone, there’s no more fishing. And with an increasing number of anglers reaching both highly accessible and more remote areas, conservation is becoming increasingly important.

There are also some more exact reasons to practice catch and release. Many water bodies now require you to catch and release. Also, as mentioned, physical conditions of the fish caught play a role. There is no reason to keep small fish, as these fish will grow, and ultimately produce more fish. There are also regulations in place for catch limits, zero catch limits and season restrictions which demand the use of catch and release.

Catch and release, and selective harvesting of fish guarantees the continued growth of fish populations and your continued enjoyment of fishing.

Find fishing information on a wide variety of subjects at Fishing-Source.net, including; habitats, fish spec sheets, fishing equipment and more.

Why is it that so many fishermen are so secretive? Whether they’re bass fisherman, fly fisherman, or trout fisherman, it’s always the same, they’re just keeping all the secrets between them and they’re friends. They very rarely reveal any of their little dirty fishing secrets to anyone else. For years, I was literally out on my little aluminum boat probably developing skin cancer from being out on the lake so long and not catching anything except one fish if I were lucky.

Fishing isn’t easy! At least that’s what I thought during all my fishing trips the past ten or so years. Only recently did I discover I was doing just about everything wrong. About a year ago I came across a fellow who knew just about every bass fishing secret there was in the book. He was a true pro to bass fishing.

I met this fellow while cruising around my favorite fishing lake in Florida. We noticed each other when we saw we had almost identical Alumacraft boats. We had the same red stripe on the side and everything. What a day it was. It was a day which took my little fishing hobby to a whole new level.

Besides trading stories about our little boats, we talked about bass fishing, and how the lake we were on was easy to fish on. There are bass fish just about everywhere in this lake. Shockingly, he told me that the lake we were on had only small amounts of large bass. He only fished here for catching and releasing fish when he wasn’t out competing in and winning fishing tournaments. I was in shock. I didn’t even want to believe what he was saying! Was I really fishing in the darn lake catching small fish? I thought a five pound bass was a great size for dinner for me and my wife! Okay, so he was only joking. He then told me that during this specific time of day was when there were only smaller fish out and about. The bigger fish come out when… oh, wait it’s a secret!

Anyway, meeting this pro was a life changing event. For the wrest of the day on the lake he revealed secret after secret to me. This guy happened to have just about every type of fishing lure you could imagine. I had quiet a collection myself. The weird thing was that he only used about three types of lures, in only a few different colors. These were specifically for bass fishing. This guy really had it down. He had been catching so many fish in his free time he already had found his own secret lures that were guaranteed to catch a bass. These were lures you could buy at any fishing shop, nothing that wasn’t available to the public.

There’s now secret guide to Bass Fishing out. Most of the pro’s don’t know about it yet, and the pro’s who have discovered it literally want it gotten rid of! It literally gives away the secrets these pro’s use during tournaments to catch their record breaking catches. These are the same secrets my friend told me. In fact, this guide reveals so much more!

Aaron Brandon’s hobby was catching one lousy Bass in a single day until he learned all the secrets only the pro fisherman knew about! Several of the secrets are now revealed in this secret bass fishing guide located at http://www.revealed-secrets.com/BassFishing.html.

To this day I can’t explain why I am still alive. I should be dead. My mother and I were visiting my grandmother and uncle, during my summer vacation. I was about 10 years old . They lived in a very rural area. The valley where they lived was quite narrow, running north to south. It might have taken 5 minutes to drive from one side to the other and both sides of this valley, were heavily forested. The western mountain side, very green and wet and the eastern side a bit drier.

A creek snaked its way along the length of the valley. It was fed by the melting snow and ice from the nearby towering mountains. In spring time the creek became a raging torrent of water, several times its summer time width. Very often it would flood the bottom of the valley, where the fertile farm land was located. Grandmother’s farm was often flooded in spring time, if the weather suddenly became hot. This would cause rapid snow melt, feeding the creek, making it turn into a huge monstrous torrent of ever expanding water.

By summer time the creek settled down, to a fraction of its spring time size. There was a highway lane size, main current area, flanked by side pools fed by streamlets. These side pools had been dug by the spring flood waters. A lot of the river bank was undermined by the same water power, that had dredged the side pools.

It was a hot summer day. My mother and I set out to go fishing at the creek. We trekked across a field, then through some brush, to gain access to the creek. I was carrying a fishing rod and a can of worms, to be used as fishing bait. There was a rough trail at the edge of the creek, leading towards where one of the fishing pools sparkled. We walked near the edge of the bank and could see that the flood waters had eaten away the bank a bit, weakening its stability. I had been warned to be careful not to walk too close to the edge, since it could be unstable.

What I recall next is a bit like a series of snapshots or flashes. I sort of remember the bank below me suddenly breaking away. I sensed that falling panicky feeling. There was a mad grab for the creek bank. I recall flashes of trying to grab roots sticking out of the creek’s bank. All these flashes happening in a blink of an eye. And then click. I was sleeping. I was dreaming. That warm fuzzy sleep feeling you get, when you are in the most comfortable bed and are only half awake. I was suddenly surrounded by a pastel light green haze. No more awareness of any thing else. Just floating, dreaming, and comfortable, in my own little green nirvana.

The next thing I remember was my mother pulling me up the bank by the arm. I was all wet, cold and muddy. I have no real memory of what was going on in the real world, outside me, during my time in the fishing pool.

From what my mother told me, I understand that she couldn’t get to me. She didn’t know how to swim herself. All she could do was yell to me to kick or tread water. She also told me to raise my arm so she could pull me up the creek bank. I don’t recall any of that. It’s all blank.

I remember taking a nice hot bath later, to warm up. The water in the tub was just fine. Any thing deeper is not for me.

That event taught me a healthy respect for warnings about river banks, which could cave in. I have since gone fishing in a boat, but never by a creek again.

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Fishing
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