Recent catches

[WhistlingBadger]

Badgerling caught a grayling on a worm, and I "caught" a bunch of carp with an arrow! We let the grayling go--they aren't that good to eat, and anyway they're so beautiful it would feel like eating the Mona Lisa. As for the carp, well, just doing my part to control invasive species, because I'm all about environmental stewardship and all that.

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[Slaphppy7]

Nice!....looks like it was a fun day on the water

[RiversGirl]

Badgerling is adorable, as always! She looks so delighted with her skills. Y'all are making wonderful memories.


'Hunting' fish with your bow and arrow... now that's impressive.

My husband and I showed the kids the movie Cast Away (on a fittingly rainy, stormy evening) a couple of nights ago. You'd do alright, should you ever find yourself stranded someplace.

Me? I'd never be able to get that fire going.

[WhistlingBadger]

Nice!....looks like it was a fun day on the water

It was great. :)

'Hunting' fish with your bow and arrow... now that's impressive.

It's called bowfishing. One straps a reel onto the front of one's bow, then attaches the string to the arrow with a little sliding ring. The arrow is made of indestructible fiberglass, with a point like a harpoon. Once the carp is perforated, one puts one's bow down and pulls it in on the line. One of the more redneck things i've done, which is saying something. Great fun! And removing these critters really is good for the environment. Win-win!

[RiversGirl]

Interesting. Thanks for explaining the sport!

[mermaidwannabe]

I'm wondering what the survival success rate is for caught and released fish such as that Grayling, once they've been hooked and are put back into the water, wounded? It would probably depend on how deeply the hook went into them, how carefully it was dislodged, or if the line was cut with the hook still in -- the chances of that causing infection that would later kill the released fish -- I'm just wondering if it isn't better, once a fish is caught, to go ahead and keep it and eat it? What are your ideas on that?

[WhistlingBadger]

I'm wondering what the survival success rate is for caught and released fish such as that Grayling, once they've been hooked and are put back into the water, wounded? It would probably depend on how deeply the hook went into them, how carefully it was dislodged, or if the line was cut with the hook still in -- the chances of that causing infection that would later kill the released fish -- I'm just wondering if it isn't better, once a fish is caught, to go ahead and keep it and eat it? What are your ideas on that?

Good question. A lot of it depends on how the fish is hooked, and for cold-water fish like trout and grayling, how warm it is. With fly fishing, the survival rate tends to be very high, because fly-caught fish usually get off with just a pierced lip and nothing more. However, if it's really warm, the oxygen in the water is lower. Even though the actual damage is minimal, the fight can exhaust the fish to the point where it is unable recover. This is especially true with the light tackle most fly fishermen favor, where the fish has to be played and tired out, rather than just horsed right out of the water.

With bait it's harder to let them go, because the fish tend to swallow the hook rather than just get hooked in the corner of the mouth. Badgerling's fish was lucky and the hook popped right out. However, the water was fairly warm, and I had to swish it back and forth in the water for a while before it revived enough to swim away on its own power. That didn't feel too good, so we quit fishing after that and looked for crawdads and water bugs instead.

[WhistlingBadger]

(the survival rate for arrowed carp is quite low, no matter what the water temperature is)

[Slaphppy7]

[WhistlingBadger]

Today's trophy.
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