I was walking around my favorite fishing lake this evening when I came up apon a man and his son fishing.  I watched them for a few minutes, when all of the sudden the man's son caught a small Grass Pickerel (probably about 10 inches).  I was filled with awe, as I had never seen a Grass Pickerel in that particular lake and I've been fishing there for over a decade.  The man then instructed his son to put it into a plastic shopping bag so they could take it home and eat it.  This wouldn't be a bad thing if there was more pickerel in the lake.  Catches like that are unheard-of in that lake.  I've talked to my friends who also fish that lake and they say they've heard of anything like that either.  I just wish they would have released it.

That is too bad. That's why I am such a strong believer in catch and release. There are exceptions of course. I fish a couple lakes that are annually stocked with trout and when my dad and I fish them we keep most of our trout to eat for dinner. But it's not like these trout are rare or endangered! I catch and release all of my bass. I have only kept one in my whole life and it was a trophy sized bass. I figured I have caught and released so many over the years, I am going to keep my biggest bass ever and take him home! I get upset when I see these hillbilly anglers in my area walking away from the lake with a stringer of 20 tiny smallmouth bass. They fillet a small piece of meat off the bass then throw them away. No wonder the fishing is dead by the end of the summer! I say catch and release so other people have a chance to catch them! Well, enough ranting for me! I wish they would have released that fish to fisherfanatic! Too bad.

Fisherfanatic. does the DWR in your state have a stocking report on their website? it would be interesting to see if they happened to stock that lake with Pickeral.

Brian

I guess its up to you to discover just how good the Pickeral fishing is in this particular lake. start targeting them and keep a log!

Also, I forgot to include a small detail...

THEY CAUGHT THE FISH OFF CORN NIBLETS!

I'm sure you're scratching your head as much as I am, as I thought pike and pickerel were carnivores, and I'm sure you did, too.  I know for a fact that they ARE almost exclusively carnivores, but why did it take the guy's corn.  That's just freakin weird.

You never know what's going to happen when you go fishing!

if they released the fish with corn still in it the fish would die so...