Humane way to keep your catch

[DFresh75]

Guys - I know we have had this conversation before but it just still bothers me when I see people throwing fish on the ice.  They just suffocate and die and that just ain't right.

I sound like my late father, but I think he raised me right by respecting nature - no reason to put fish through something like that.

Is there any way to do this better?  I was taught to string everything and put a knife through the head to make it quick when I was 6 and in the BWCA.

Am I overreacting?

[esox_magnum]

Mine go in a bucket with water till I'm home to clean them....

[bobberbill]

SERIOUS?? And stabbing a fish thru the brain is your idea of better??

[Pike Guy Matt]

Am I overreacting?

Yes 

[Silverbullet555]

Guys - I know we have had this conversation before but it just still bothers me when I see people throwing fish on the ice.  They just suffocate and die and that just ain't right.

I sound like my late father, but I think he raised me right by respecting nature - no reason to put fish through something like that.

Is there any way to do this better?  I was taught to string everything and put a knife through the head to make it quick when I was 6 and in the BWCA.

Am I overreacting?

Yes you are. IMHO. We're talking about fish and as long as they are not being wasted I am happy. I usually will cut a gill side before putting them on the stringer or on shore. I guess you could drill another hole and put them on the stringer, which isn't exactly gentle, until you get ready to leave.

[adkRoy]

If you are so worried, bring a big cooler filled with water and in goes all the fish. make sure you have a portable aerator so the water stays full of oxygen. That way they stay alive until you get ready to fillet them. Boom, done, end of discussion.

[bullpine]

Just let them all go and then you can be truly happy in life.

[Nightbird]

I knock them on the head and bleed them immediately. Seems to me they taste better, but I can't really prove that.

[kpd145]

If I do plan on keeping fish, I simply gill them and they bleed out pretty quickly.

[GCD]

Just let them all go and then you can be truly happy in life.

... even better, don't go fishing at all!

We'll take care of all the excess you'll leave by not fishing anymore... and of course you won't be needing your tackle and fishing paraphernalia, so you can just give that stuff away to the members here on the shanty.

[wyogator]

Put them in a bucket of water.  Then, when you get home, thump them on the head with your fillet knife handle and fillet them.  Not only does the water keep them alive, it keeps them from freezing.

[armentroutlucas]

don't think it matters as long as you use them...

[DAPOS]

Uh oh.............PETA's here

[DFresh75]

Figured I'd opened Pandoras box with this one, but I hardly believe thinking twice about my behavior for something I'm passionate about qualifies me as an extremist

[Icefisher40]

Carry a Glock and put 2 in the skull of every fish you plan to keep. Quick and painless with no suffering involved.

*sarcasm of course*

[Pickeralpicker91]

I actually feel better about keeping fish during ice season than during open water since they freeze so fast and their metabolism is so slow to begin with.  If it's anything like people they just "go to sleep".   Just my opinion though.

[Idahogator]

Are not fish an organism that functions on a "stimulus-response" nerve impulse ? 

Has it not been proven, they are not sentient beings ?

Scientific tests have shown they don't "feel" pain.

Do you kneel as a carrot is pulled from the ground.

Move on up the scale of life forms and this may, just may be worthy of further thought.   




                                        This can now be called a joke thread.       

[Silverbullet555]

The poor worms and maggots. Should we put a needle through their brain before we drop them in the ice cold water, to shiver on the hook until they get bit in half by a fish. It's not right!

 

[DFresh75]

Silverbullet you *****!  You just hosed my whole thought process!

[Tackle]

Keep them alive till you get home.

Then fillet them out with a semi-sharp knife. Sounds like a better way to go...

I put them in a plastic bag. Keeps the scales and what not off the shelter, no chance of them sliding back in the hole, and they aren't frozen when I am ready to fillet.

[Tackle]

I have a strange feeling you're not a deer hunter...bow hunting especially.

[Barebow]

If someones sensibilities are negatively impacted by flash freezing my catch, I would have an issue, but since one person is having an issue, any way he feels like ending it for the fish would be appropriate in my book..  I like my fish partially frozen to fillet them, much easier for me...Opinion only/  Barebow...

[panfishman13]

if it's a warmer day, then i'll give them a quick knock on the head with a fish club; but if it's cold enough to freeze them within about 5 minutes, i'll just throw them on the ice.

if hypothermia works the same way for fish as it does for people, it's a lot more painless than anything else i can think of.

honestly, i'll respect the feelings of the people i'm fishing with, as well as others. if you feel it's necessary to put a fish out of its misery as soon as possible, then that's up to you.

as long as you aren't breaking the law or ruining someone else's fun, you're fine by me.

[ToothTamer]

Might as well go drill some holes and feed them like goldfish. Fatten them up for me I like the jumbos big while they lay on the ice.

[Doitnow]

Carry a Glock and put 2 in the skull of every fish you plan to keep. Quick and painless with no suffering involved.

*sarcasm of course*

[Townie]

What about the countless fish swept up in commercial nets each day?  Who massages them to sleep? If you don't eat your catch (often by filleting them alive) then you're simply torturing them w/ C&R..  Flash freeze on the ice for me; I dont want my spot to look like a murder scene.

[Super-ice-bird]

Dfresh75, maybe if you don't like to kill the fish you could just release them! Just saying.

[fowl_language]

I would think the best way to do it if you really felt bad, would be get a 20oz CO2 tank (paintball or something) rig it up to a bubble stone (like an aquarium) put it in a cooler with water, they will go to "sleep" and expire in their "sleep".  Just watch how long you run the CO2 for you could get a really throw off the pH to the point of damaging stuff.  Then get another cooler and keep them on ice till you get home.

I throw them on the ice or snow then I pith them when I get home quick and they stop floppin.  This weekend I had fish still flopping in the bucket after a 4 hour drive and 2 hours in the garage.

[spudsaway]

Quick blow on the head I have a Club for them .. I only kill bleeders as it is.  When  it is obvious they are done I give them a good whack on the head ..   Nice home made club hardwood in my car all winter so I never forget it..

[rgfixit]

Am I overreacting?

Yes!
When they grow thumbs, I'll give their emotional suffering some consideration. Till then, they go in the bucket.

RG