[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:I care ......These fish have a 2 year life cycle, at the end of which they spawn and then die, so who cares if they get snagged. Supposedly delicious smoked... :-)
so do many others........ Having been involved with ten years of battle to get New York State to remove legalized snagging from the sport fishing regulations, I have seen the damage that setting a precedent like this can do.....
Don't get me wrong..... I have no qualms whatsoever about utilizing a resource..... whether they will die or not is not an issue, really..... It becomes a question of ethics and a "fisherman's" system of values....
I draw the line thusly: in order for a fish procurement method to be considered "sport" it must involved the enticement of fish to strike or eat or consume the offering. If not, it is not sport fishing.
The best way for me to describe snagging is Harvesting, not fishing.... (incidentally, in the area in question, they used to use pitch forks to collect the "they just gonna die salmon").... gill netting, purse netting, and fish traps and the like are not considered sport fishing either... they are commercial fishing techniques and harvesting methods.
again, I have no issue with the harvesting of a resource (managed of course) at all. But call a spade a spade.
When the state of New York (and some other states, from my understanding) set up regulations for the harvesting of fish by snagging under the guise of sport fishing, they created a monster......
Although we have finally gotten the "legalized" stipulation for snagging off the books, the damage has been done... two generations worth..... the practice is still pursued, and we have at least two generations of what could have been ethical fishermen who have been taught by their fathers that ripping a weighted hook (or whatever device the current regulations will allow them to get away with using) with a jerking motion, into the bodies of fish , and dragging them upon shore in disgrace is what constitutes the sport and ethical enjoyment of fishing....
This practice and lack of ethical fishing not only spread across generations of fisherman in the state (and neighboring states who came to partake), but across the species and across the water systems....
These so called fishermen now deploy these harvesting methods indiscriminately to steelhead, trout, walleyes, any species , and do so in any body of water and in any situation.
It has been one of the most negative impacts to sport fishing in recent history.
so, you see , I care. They
are delicious smoked, but some carry the bitter aftertaste
of this behavior called snagging.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Splinta'
