Eddie Munster

+1. Dan good job there.

That video was highly offensive Eddie. Did you see how they laid that fish on the ground? Guess you're the camera man, shore.

Nice un.

To quote Steve Irwin: 'Awwww, she's a beaut!'

Thanks man. I'll stand down. Me a tree hugger..............wow. Just wow. ;D

Hey Muddy, just found a video of you and your buddies fishing. Don't need to worry about lip landing these ones.

Eddie, shortsided and lazy I'm not. I personally have produced 378 pages of water testing results and water surveys fighting polution dumped by a Canadian paper mill into Sam Rayburn lake. It took three years and many trips to Austin speaking out against corp. greed trying to protect the water we drink and enjoy on a daily basis. So until you have walked the walk you need to be careful who you call lazy. Yes I tournament fish, but that does not give you the right to judge someone unless you would like to walk in my shoes, fight the polution of our waters along side me and all the others that were instrumental in getting the mill shut down. You are more than welcome to join us in fighting for clean water. First of all, fish you are choosing to be offended. I did not call direct that 'shortsighted and/or lazy' comment at you because I don't know you from Adam. I do appreciate the work you've done to make waters cleaner; keep it up. Look at my trying to pass on information about the proper handling of fish in the same way. I'm trying to help. You of all people should embrace that concept. What I don't understand is how this morphed into 'Is this a PETA thread' or that I'm somehow a dang tree hugger. I want what most people here want; to be able to continue fishing AND catching fish for years to come. The logic expressed is pretty simple. If you're releasing the fish, take a second or two extra to handle the fish properly. If people have the knowledge that handling fish a certain may lead to it's death AND refuse to change the way they're handling fish then well, yes they are either shortsighted or lazy. Also, thanks BassBrat.

:Ahhh, tournament anglers. Susky, you sir hit the nail on the head.

Been a couple days since I checked the forums........ PETA huh? :-? Seriously guys, some of you've missed the whole point of my post. Let me try and break it down a little for you. See if you can follow the logic here. 1. We are fishermen here, right? 2. We use hooks to attach the fish to the line which is attached to the rod we are holding, right? 3. We thus reel in said line to land said fish, right? 4. About 85-90% of the people here practice catch and release fishing, right? 5. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo, if we're putting these fish back into the lake/pond/stream why not do so in a way that MINIMIZES the damage we inflict on them? It has nothing to do with killing a fish that you're gonna eat; if you're gonna eat it, who cares. Or a fish that's gotten loose and is flopping around in the bottom of the boat; that's an accident. The point was why not take a little better care of the fish that you hope to catch again when it gets bigger? Let's say a fish swallows the plastic worm and hook of a lure you're using. Most people here would cut the hook down as far as they could so the fish stands a better chance to survive, right? Well, the crowd that doesn't care how they handle the fish would seem to have no problem just ripping the hook out of the fish because 'it's just a bloodsport or wild animal'. You wouldn't do that I'm sure but there's a reason you cut that hook down and all I'm saying is apply that to how you handle the fish that you plan on letting go. As with much of today's society, shortsighted and/or lazy people not interested or concerned about tomorrow only today and themselves.

:

Years ago I used Producto Tournament Black Grape that smelled sweet too. Used to tear em up in Pennsylvania. I recently ordered a couple 20 count bags of their 6" ones. Can't wait to try them these days.

Great writeup Paul as always. Question if you don't mind: I'm definitely going to pull the trigger and buy one but which one would you recommend? In other words, if you had just one, which one would you choose and which type; male bluegill or female?

Thanks bud. I agree that some guys are going a little over board berating people for laying fish on the ground. There is a right way and a wrong way to try to change people's habits. I have been guilty of layin' them down too but will not do it anymore. Burley_Cuyler, mishandling a fish (unnecessarily) and using hooks to catch fish are not comparable. You may think there is hypocrisy there but we're all fishermen here. My post was just trying to raise awareness of better ways to treat the fish that bring us enjoyment. Guess until I learn to use 'the force' to get the bass in the boat, I'll keep mistreating them by using hooks. :

Holding them vertical does not damage their jaws but, holding horizontal by the lip is bad. Exactly. And as far as pics go do like I did for the pic in my avatar. Use a cellphone or digital camera, take a pic then look at it to make sure you got the fish.

Thanks fellas! 8-)

Thanks Sam. I plan on paying better attention to all the fish I boat from now on, especially the big ones (crosses fingers). I've also been guilty of kind of being careless letting the smaller ones go but the article also addressed easing the bass back in the water; not dropping them back in.

Sorry for your loss. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family and yours.

Like spinnerbait blades/skirts, treble hooks, slip rings, etc.... Priced some at BPS online and I'm not paying $5.00 for 3 spinnerbait blades. Any help is greatly appreciated. And yes by best place I do in fact mean the best value.

Reformed golfer here who's pretty cheap to boot. I take my 12' telescoping golf ball retriever with me to unsnag my lures. The end of it has a little metal question mark on it (not a coil) that slides down the line and I can get free pretty easy if the snag doesn't come out.

Nice story Chris. The title of your post had me chuckling to myself. I used to find myself asking 'What are the chances (odds) of that happening?!!!' when something either pretty cool or pretty crappy happened. It got me thinking one day that since it did indeed happen, I guess the odds were pretty good right then, right?! I have since stopped asking that question when something strange occurs. 8-)

Another thing that gets me is laying the fish down on the ground next to their rod for scale or something. I'm pretty sure that can't be good for the fish either.

Not sure if this had been covered before but I was reading an article from 'Largemouth Bass; An In-fisherman Handbook of Strategies'. The article tells of a theory of David Campbell a biologist who's in charge of spawning the 13 pound plus lunkers donated by anglers to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. He's received several bass with damaged or dislocated jaws so bad that the fish cannot even eat. The fish starved to death after awhile. :'( The article goes into how it's not okay to force a LMB's jaw fully open ESPECIALLY if it's a lunker and ESPECIALLY if you're not supporting the tail at the same time. It says do NOT use the jaw as leverage to hold the fish which forces the jaws wide open. I normally don't do this anyway but I have seen several members here display pictures of fish they've caught using the fish's lower jaw just as the article says not to. Even if it's a little bit hyped up, it's still disturbing to know that those toads we brag about releasing could starve to death because we've damaged their jaws. We all know those fish have big mouths, so there's no need to prove it with a picture of them with their mouth jammed open. Let's hold them correctly and guarantee they'll be there next year waiting for us to catch them again.

Shift worker here with a subdivision lake at my disposal and a wife that's involved with a couple ministries at church. I also have a couple ponds I can hit so at least once a week mostly twice though. There are times when I could get in a couple hours here and there 3-4 times a week.

You can say that again. 8-)

8.1 lbs