Re: [VFB] Environmentalist/Conservation - Coasters

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Jerry: Thanks for the info... I don't think I'd eat a fish that came from the water gunked up my line and bobber either... One of our main conserns right below the dams here is lead.. Ppl bottom fish for catfish, and just to keep the line from just washing back to the shoreline downstream, depending on how many locks are open, you have to use from 2 to 6 ounces of lead. Well, Me, My four brothers and My Momma and Daddy alone probably lost a ton of lead alone. Multiply that time the thousands of ppl who have been fishing there since the dams were built in the 50's and it woul dprobably mess up your liver etc real quick. But, behind the dam, like I said, the Paper Mills just dumped no telling what all chemicals in that part, so it is in the sediment too... I guess only time (and good conservation in the future) can ever get it back to even near normal...Oh, and talking about the croakers brings back some good fishing memories. I lived about 1/4 mile from the bay while in the Air Force in FL, and I'd go croaker fishing almost every afternoon, along with the pin fish that are too bony to eat, but fun to catch. Then I'd go "Flounder Gigging" at night.....Oh, and set out blue crab baskets too...And a Buddy of mine had a mullet boat with 1000ft of gill net, and we caught untold tons of mullet. Then, he raised hogs, and we'd catch those hard head saltwater catfish and gar in the nets too, so Toby would cook them in 55 gallon drums to make the bones tender, feed that to the hogs. Then he'd run straight corn through them for about three-four weeks to clean them out prior to butchering them, But a cpl times, he had hogs kill each other, before he had a chance to clean them out with corn. Ever ate a Fish flavored ham????? NOT good I tell ya, LOL, Chuck Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: vfb@troutnet.com Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 8:54 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Environmentalist/Conservation - Coasters Chuck:   Regional differences.  To Canadians speckled trout=brook trout.  The speckled trout you're referring to are members of the croaker family.  We have their northern cousin up here, except we call them weakfish.  As far as the rivers cleaning up around here they're not pristine, but heck of a lot better than they were when I was a kid in the late 50's.  For years there wasn't an American Shad run on the Delaware River because there was a pollution block that was basically a dead zone which prevented the fish from migrating up.  As the river has cleaned up, the shad are back, along with Striped Bass and Herring.  I live about a 2 minute walk from the Schuylkill River, and when I was a kid my dad use to take me fishing.  If you used a bobber it would have a ring of coal tar around it by the time you were finished, and you would have sticky gobs of it on your line.  I don't think the rivers around here ever caught fire, can't remember whether it was a river in Chicago or one in Cleveland that caught fire, maybe they both did.  There's still a lot of residual pollution, heavy metals, PCB's , etc., in river sediment, and we have the same type of advisories about eating too much fish.  I don't keep anything from the creeks or rivers around here.  I may keep a few crappie or bluegills if I'm lake fishing.  I'm more inclined to keep a salt water fish, like flounder, bluefish, croaker, or weakfish.  Still it's a constant battle to keep the streams at their current level, and hope that they'll still be supporting fish years from now.   Jerry C "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."