This has been something I've struggled with over the past 10 years, especially since for many years I've considered myself both a fly fisher and a Zen Buddhist. I actually stopped fly fishing several times in my life because of this issue. Right noow I'm back to fishing.
This year I had a fish die on me at Rocky Ford which started the inner struggle again. The fish had totally inhaled my scud and somehow ended up bleeding from the gills, not sure if it was the fly or the leader that cut into him. I got the fish upright and recovered as well as he could get but he was bleeding. The next day I saw the fish dead just down from where I caught him. I'm sure this fish isn't the only one either that has died as a result of me catching it all season long, mortality rate is something like 5-10% from what I've read. I've taken to horsing fish in quite a bit of the time which leads to many LDRs but if it is an average fish on the Yak then that is fine with me. I too try to get the fish off the hook without touching the fish if at all possible or try to handle the fish only in my net if I need to net them to be able to unhook them. I think this helps quite a bit. I toyed with busting off hook points and just raising fish but that just isn't satisfying to me yet, old conditioning that a fish isn't 'caught' unless you release it at hand (better than the old definition which included konking the fish on the head). I think John Betts had even made special hooks for this type of fishing at one point along with his extensive use of synthetic materials to promote a more ethical style of fly fishing. Tim -----Original Message----- From: Gary Meyers [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 11:02 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: P E T A Well, I'm probably going to creamed on this one, but... Let's be honest. The fact is, we DO torture and maim and wound fish. And with C&R techniques, repeatedly. I'm personally convinced, particularly in heavily-fished waters, that we contribute to early mortality rates. We've all seen released "floaters." Not to mention we raise and kill specific animals for their fur and feathers so we can fool, catch, and release more fish more often. Fly fishermen, as a whole, tend to be a little sanctimonious about our conservation and preservation sensibilities. We cloak fly fishing in poetry and mystical Norman McClean-shadow-casting-kumbaya. But it doesn't change what we are fundamentally doing in the water. I think we're a bit hypocritical. Myself? Yeah, I enjoy fishing. A lot. I love hammering 'em. Do I recognize that my enjoyment of same is may at the expense of another of God's creatures suffering? Yes. Am I a hypocrite? Likely. But, I'm personally fine with it. My teenage daughter is a PETA member. I see the propaganda that comes into the house. And the fact is, much of what they espouse makes sense. There IS horrid mistreatment of animals around the world. Much of it institutional. C'mon, can you really be against taking a look at the abuses prevalent in areas such as poultry-farming and livestock production? Does PETA opine a bunch of fringe nonsense, as well? (E.g., banning fishing in parks?). In my opinion, most definitely. Of course, that's the stuff that makes headlines. And that's why they do it. GreenPeace did the same thing. Extreme positions make news. It generates publicity. It's effective PR. But to think they are really going to get sport fishing banned anywhere is in my opinion, ludicrous. It ain't gonna happen. Rip lips Gary Meyers Kirkland
