My home town has a fantastic river running through the middle of it, called the White River. Pure water, high enough that they have several canoe liveries renting canoes to various length trips. Great fishing, it connects to Lake Michigan, which allows both Salmon in the fall, and Steelhead runs in the spring. Plus many other types of fish that are both delicious and plentiful. They planted a trout called Skamania,onetime,about 10 inches long. I would catch them, on a super light rod and line in the summer,for fun,and always released them. The DNR said that once they got to be 15-20 pounds,you would have a hard time landing one in the river,because they were such fighters. The several years they tried to plant them must not have worked out,because after a short time, I quit finding any to catch. I suspect that some of our people were netting them and taking them home. I am sure they were really good eating fish. But after getting ahold of a 12 inch or so skamania,and the right it put up, I actually respected the fish too much to take it home and eat such an honorable fish. I at least wanted to give them a chance to grow up and see what they could be,if they got to maximum size. I once caught a 16 inch small mouth bass in that river, on a simple night crawler, while fishing for the bottom feeding suckers that run in the spring. It was almost a week early,but I was younger, and I had never caught a bass of that size,anywhere. So I took that fish home. I usually tried to not violate the sportsman laws, but on occasions did mess up. Some of the time,I was fishing to feed my family,or hunting white tail deer to feed my young family, and while I felt bad for doing it,I also knew that I was willing to pay the penalty if caught. If I caught a salmon by foul hooking it, on purpose, I didn't stay there, but left with the fish and took it home, and then would go back to continue fishing. They fine you so much per pound, for every fish you caught. And my parents knew enough to either process them and freeze them, right away,or to hide them until I got home and cleaned them myself. We caught hundreds of Salmon in the fall,feeding my family when I was still in school, and selling them and their eggs to the drunks at our town bar, for 2 or 3 dollars apiece for the fish, and 50 cents a pound for the eggs.
My home town has a fantastic river running through the middle of it, called the White River. Pure water, high enough that they have several canoe liveries renting canoes to various length trips. Great fishing, it connects to Lake Michigan, which allows both Salmon in the fall, and Steelhead runs in the spring. Plus many other types of fish that are both delicious and plentiful.
ReplyDeleteThey planted a trout called Skamania,onetime,about 10 inches long. I would catch them, on a super light rod and line in the summer,for fun,and always released them. The DNR said that once they got to be 15-20 pounds,you would have a hard time landing one in the river,because they were such fighters. The several years they tried to plant them must not have worked out,because after a short time, I quit finding any to catch. I suspect that some of our people were netting them and taking them home. I am sure they were really good eating fish. But after getting ahold of a 12 inch or so skamania,and the right it put up, I actually respected the fish too much to take it home and eat such an honorable fish. I at least wanted to give them a chance to grow up and see what they could be,if they got to maximum size.
I once caught a 16 inch small mouth bass in that river, on a simple night crawler, while fishing for the bottom feeding suckers that run in the spring. It was almost a week early,but I was younger, and I had never caught a bass of that size,anywhere. So I took that fish home. I usually tried to not violate the sportsman laws, but on occasions did mess up.
Some of the time,I was fishing to feed my family,or hunting white tail deer to feed my young family, and while I felt bad for doing it,I also knew that I was willing to pay the penalty if caught. If I caught a salmon by foul hooking it, on purpose, I didn't stay there, but left with the fish and took it home, and then would go back to continue fishing. They fine you so much per pound, for every fish you caught. And my parents knew enough to either process them and freeze them, right away,or to hide them until I got home and cleaned them myself.
We caught hundreds of Salmon in the fall,feeding my family when I was still in school, and selling them and their eggs to the drunks at our town bar, for 2 or 3 dollars apiece for the fish, and 50 cents a pound for the eggs.
pigpen51