big fishie

[The Austrian]

How much would it cost to stuff a pin whiting

whiting.PNG

seems to be a demand for that, here a few examples for sea fish preparations: http://www.praeparator.com/int/

[dexfab]

so we kill them to eat them,he kills it to stuff it.whats the difference?the fish is dead either way!!

In my opinion: if the fish is eaten, then it has served its original purpose. To stuff it is wasting this.

This is especially given that it was bound to be national news and therefore chanced across by a lot of non-anglers. An opportunity missed to make a point to the general public about the attitudes, priorities and motivations of most anglers.

Very true. Don't think they should have mentioned the stuffing bit in the article anyways as it makes it worse.

Fair play to the angler for catching an amazing fish. In my opinion, questionable decision about what he made of his fish of a lifetime.

[The Austrian]

In my opinion: if the fish is eaten, then it has served its original purpose. To stuff it is wasting this.

you can still eat your fish if you wanted to, only the skin and other inedible parts have to be saved for the preparation of the trophy, so in fact you are not really wasting anything at all.

fish treatment before preservation.PNG

Not saying I would do it myself though but it is possible.

[AG]

all take up tournament casting no fish were harmed whilst wanging

[Rampent Wreckfish]

all take up tournament casting no fish were harmed whilst wanging

What about the slugs and snails and other creepy crawley`s are they quick enough to avoid five ounces of lead flying at them at 150miles an hour.

[AG]

all take up tournament casting no fish were harmed whilst wanging

What about the slugs and snails and other creepy crawley`s are they quick enough to avoid five ounces of lead flying at them at 150miles an hour.

its over to quickly for them they dont even see it coming

[Rampent Wreckfish]

all take up tournament casting no fish were harmed whilst wanging

What about the slugs and snails and other creepy crawley`s are they quick enough to avoid five ounces of lead flying at them at 150miles an hour.

its over to quickly for them they dont even see it coming

[dbrock]

its ok jipsie the lads use flurescent shock and line so they can see it coming,

[gd]

He caught the fish so he can do what he wants its up to him at the end of the day,

everyone too their own.

[Aurelien]

What a great fish ... I personaly release 99.99% of my fish as I don't eat fish (except smoked salmon )...
On the C&R debate, I am conviced that more fish are released unharmed the better it is, should they be big or small, salt or freshwater ...

On the fish stuffing debate, as an ex taxidermist, I can tell you that you don't need to kill fish nowadays ... What is wonderfull with technology and all the different chemicals and resin, is that with some good photos for the color and lengh and girth measurments, you end up with a very fine reproduction (better looking than the real one stuffed) of the fish and this one can continue to spawn. This process of molding comes from the US where specimen hunting and C&R is going at the same time (google "fish reproduction in resin").

I have stuffed and mold a lot of fish myself for customers like pike, trout, bass, gilthead bream, tuna and spearfish heads.

I can tell you that most of the time, it's not the glory stuff, it's having something "real" to remember what can be a lifetime moment.

Like hunters who bring for stuffing a superb pintail, wigeon or woodcock. This is called a "trophy". The only difference is with fish now you can have the trophy and release it.

I have seen, here in Ireland, a lot of stunning fish stuffed (most of them unfortunately badly stuffed) in a lot of pubs through the country. A wonderfull 36lbs salmon caught in 1997 in a pub on Achill Island, some very big pikes and trouts in different places.

Well, I respect everybody's choice until it is not out of the law. But certainly people who keep buckets of juvenile fishes are doing more damages than this angler. I remember in the South of France, people in summer keeping buckets of gilthead bream of 10cm ... This really contributes to empty seas

I just know what will I do with an incredible fish like this one ...

[gfkelly1969]

every time a big fish is caught the catch and release debate starts which i am sick of now,

Well Mister kelly I dont see anyone forcing you to read/post on these threads so if you are sick of it just ignore the debates.

I see a good debate as healthy thing. Lots of anglers fish for lots of different reasons and have many different views on all aspects of the sport. This, I think is why angling discussions are so interesting. People are not going to agree all the time.

I dont see the point in stuffing fish for the wall. It is definitly a legacy from game/pike anglers as i have rearly seen a sea fish mounted on a wall.

i see a lot of the anglers that preach catch and release still kill fish for bait,if they are so worried about fish why are they killing loads of mackerel as bait why don't they release the mackerel as well,to me that is being two faced

one good thing about the news of the salmon being caught is that it will draw extra anglers to the Kilkenny area and create much needed revenue for the area

living near a town on the shores of lough corrib for 40 years i have talked to loads of anglers who come back every year in the hope that they will catch a salmon or a pike the size of the ones they see stuffed in the pubs,the stuffed fish are not wasted when they help bring much needed money to the area,if you are living in galway Rampent i am sure you can see how much is spent in the galway area by the anglers that come to vist

the last time anyone called me Mister kelly they were wearing white curly wigs

[davyp]

the last time anyone called me Mister kelly they were wearing white curly wigs

[Dave Jolly]

Superb Salmon, 32lbs, one of the biggest caught in the last 20 yrs, well done that man.
Now the problems as I see them.
The salmon had been in the river for weeks because of the low rainfall, and in the pictures you can see it was in full spawning colour, and its edible qualities would have been almost nil.
If you wanted to mount it a good quality picture and measurements would have been enough.
I have no problem with someone taking salmon to eat, and its their right, but in this case its a shame that the angler in question did not release this fish, there was no reason whatsoever to kill it except for ego, and that's a pity.
I was on a boat on Sunday last where 3 ballan wrasse of 5-6lbs were caught, well over the specimen weight, and we prob caught 200 wrasse that day, so there is no population problem (unlike atlantic salmon).
Were any of them killed to register a specimen ??
No,
Why ?
"Whats the point of killing it if you are not going to eat it ?"
"I couldn't kill something that beautiful looking"
"it must be 20 yrs old, why kill it for a piece of paper ?"
they were the quotes of the 3 anglers who caught the fish......... some difference in attitude
Catching the fish, playing it, landing it, weighing it and getting the picture was 99% of the job, why kill it for the other 1% ??
But I guess it is the anglers own choice..
Dave

[Davy Murdoch]

maybe the angler didn`t know you could have a reproduction of the fish made to hang on the wall!!!
i know i didn`t its given me a few ideas

[Dave Jolly]

Looking forward to seeing that 14lb mullet on your wall Davy...

[Davy Murdoch]

Looking forward to seeing that 14lb mullet on your wall Davy...

so am i i might need to lie about the measurements tho

[Aurelien]

Can give more ideas of fish repro ...

http://www.advancedtaxidermy.com/galler ... llery.html

[PaddyB]

I totally agree with the comments made about people with buckets of 3" fish on our piers. There is a non national who seems to fish regularly on Culdaf pier. The last time I was there he had a bucket of wee juvenile Coalies and Pollack, I asked him what was he going to do with them, he said they were for his cat. I was fukin rippin, I got €2 out of my pocket and told him to go and buy cat food with it, he sort of nodded and smiled, and carried on fishing, I said 'im f'n serious, cat food is about 40 cents, go and buy cat food and put the fish back! To my amazment he lifted his bucket and poured the wee fish back in and cleared off shortly after that.
I know I was wrong for gettin wound up, and the guy was probably back the next day doing the same thing, but Jez do these people have no cop on at all?

[petekd]

Sorry Paddy, I empathise but can't help laughing at what the poor lad must have thought with you waving €2 at him and gesturing at his bucket whilst going purple in the face and hopping from one foot to the other.... Fair play though.

[nullpointer]

paddyB I think you were dead right actually, and I think that this makes a good argument for education and information rather than legislation that will be very hard to enforce and will perhaps drive a wedge between us.

Not defending the guy, but many of these fellows do not realise that the ecology of the Atlantic is different from, say, the Black Sea. In the BS, a fish of 6 inches is a good fish as although it's a very fertile sea, it is very low in salinity and can only support smaller species like gobies and scad. Even the wrasse there (even the ballan wrasse) don't grow to more than about 8 oz, but they are everywhere - I go there every year and am guaranteed to fill a bucket with gobies in an hour, having thrown back probably 20 or 30 wrasse to boot.
That's normal there and will have virtually no impact on the stocks as the number of fish per square meter of bottom is enormous. The shoreline of the Baltic is the same, and a lot (not all!) of their freshwaters are similar - filled to bursting with stunted fish as they are too polluted to support the larger species.

Anyway, the point of the above is that if we can teach these guys that they don't NEED to use the small tackle to catch the little fish, that they CAN use heavier gear and fish further out and get stuck into the bigger fish, then they'll do it. sure, there will be retards who continue to fill buckets with tiddlers, but I really believe the vast majority of them will cop on. After all, it's easier to prepare two decent whiting or pollack than to have to gut 50 fingerlings!!