not too cool

[g unis]

we are slowly seeing the old school. guides fade away or change their ways. as for stopping the boat its impractical at times. a larger boat with several folks on board its more sensible to net and de-hook if needed on board. then the fish is held boatside at a crawl forward holding the fish into the water. one hand under the jaw the other holding the tail. when shes ready she lets you know. . the mouth is closed with water going over her so she can breathe., not like some with bogas. the fishes mouth needs to be closed. i have had a flawless release pattern this way with all fish swimming away strongly. for junior or fish hooked lightly they are de-hooked boatside never taken out of the water. as in the past i have stated i dis-like bogas, and picture ops.. all of my fish are back in released properly and as we educate others coming into the sport things will change, or should i saythings are changing rapidly.. musky fishermen only actually compromise 18% of sportfishers here. thats where the weaknesses lay. its been a long road but the changes have brought st clair to the excellent fishery it is. there was a 45.5lber caught this fall. so the guys are doing things right.. yes the 45 was released.






5

[JimmyBuffett]

there was a 45.5lber caught this fall. so the guys are doing things right.. yes the 45 was released.

Curious how the weight of the fish was calculated?? If it is an estimate... which I hope it is drop the .5

As for "B.I" I think the guide is at fault completely(J.F) I have seen this lad over the years on many many different shows doing the same torpedo... should be Illegal IMO...

As for CHronzy they should change the show name to Going Killing... funny though I did see him once on a show where he was concerned about a prompt release.... It was on his own private lake

Lets hope someone of a bigger power gives these "torpedo fancy fisherman" a couple of slaps in the face

Cheers,

Rich

[g unis]

hi. evidently the fish was reported weighed in the net them calculated with the net weight removed. some guys have even gone thru the expense of installing huge release wells with aeration to get recovery from the battle fish ready to be released. at 1500 bucks for this setup.. as for mr. chronzeys affiliation with the guide i would be parting my ways if it were me.. todays good release is tommorows trophies

[1MoreCast]

I saw that show also, my wife thought I was nuts when I was yelling at the TV. I wrote down the information from the side boat that there were on and the show number to send them an e-mail. I unfortunatley misplaced the note. I have held big muskies in the water for over 5 minutes till it was ready to go, so just torpedoing them does just seem correct in any way.

[steve-hamilton]

i've seen drifter charters working the thames with six rods out (albeit legal amount) ... those who have fished the thames can imagine what a boat does to the river with six lines out....

[JimmyBuffett]

i've seen drifter charters working the thames with six rods out (albeit legal amount) ... those who have fished the thames can imagine what a boat does to the river with six lines out....

How is this lad still in business??? Regardless of landing mad amounts of fish do none of his clients care about the fisheries in which they are fishing?? Not only that but the guy(JF) obviously gets lots of business due to the amount of shows he's done, a real hurtin' situation that obviously should be dealt with... hope he doesn't "Drift" over this way

Rich

[g unis]

sadly some will never learn. as for running 6 -or 10 rods legally the thames river is fished heavily from out of towners to locals. a good guide would realize its important in putting back insuring a future fishery. the belle river chapter of m.c.i. put on a can-am yearly with approx. 100 participants. the fish are released on site immediately. they also do cops for kids outing and have done youth seminars on how to. this is to help insure youth properly taught on release and the ways of sportsmanship. . its all about education

[Mr. T.]

I use to watch Bill Saiff's Rod and Reel on PBS when I was younger and that's what he would do with lake trout and salmon caught (30 pounders)from Lake Ontario, torpedo them back into the water.

His reason being that they were pulled from deep within the lake and by torpedoing them in, they would go back to the depths they came from.

[Trophymuskie]

Off topic for a second.

It is a St-Clair issue as it only happens there, now with the extra legal number of rods I don't see it deminishing (sp) but rather an increase in the barberic method. I've spent four days on St-Clair this spring and every single one of those days I saw more floating dead muskies then 14 years of muskie fishing elsewhere.

Back to the topic.

I believe that TV show hosts must make sure that they portrait the best C&R methods as they are teachers just like us guides. E-mails should be sent to the TV show as well as the guide/charter service if it is known.

[Kpin]

Not playing devils advocate here because I really have no great love for Chronzy (sp), or some of his past and sadly present antics....

but...

someone posted that he said, "if the fish is mortally wounded /will likely die, either way. It should be consumed.

Now, aren't we as anglers held accountable, encouraged and can even be charged by the MNR for not consuming it and letting it spoil? slot sizes aside, seasons aside, isn't that the basic rule in the VERY large grey area of MNR regs?

that's my understanding, please set me straight if I'm wrong about the basic rule itself, and aside from most of us being saddened by a muskie made into a meal....if the fish were to die anyhow, didn't he actually say the proper thing?

[GetTheNet!!!]

Hey Kpin,

You make a good argument, and I recognize that you may just be playing devils advocate, but I believe that large predators (Like big muskies) should be returned to the lake weather we as anglers believe that they're going to live or not.
First off, just because a fish appears particularly stressed or injured, does not mean that the fish is not going to survive. In years of guiding pike fishing, I've seen guests catch many notherns (Which are physiologically similar to 'skys) that are so battered that it's surprising that they're still breathing (Let alone actively feeding). Missing gill covers, entire gills, pieces of lower jaw, these things keep swimming and feeding. These species have evolved to take a beating and are remarkably resiliant. I'm NOT justifying improper release or treatment in the boat, but I would NEVER assume that an esox was 'not going to make it'. You've gotta give 'em a chance.
Even if the fish doesn't make it, (which happens even with properly handled and released fish) these fish represent a huge amount of biomass and when you remove that mass you're removing a percentage of the productivity of the water you're fishing.
Do everything you can not to stress the fish, revive it slowly, if for some reason the fish doesn't make it, it'll feed a pile of crayfish, that'll feed a pile of smallies, that'll feed another musky...That hopefully won't feed Chronzy...

Matt "GetTheNet!!!" Garvin

[Big Jim]

Must say I am surprised here as I have NEVER had a fish I released in this manner come back up ?? that I have ever seen anyway... but I can say that it definatley gets em headed the right direction and water moving over the gills.

I am not talking about throwing them back in the water like garbage or trying to see how far you can toss em' either....simply and fluidly inserting them in the water with a bit of momentum. I think it sort of wakes them up so to speak.

Gave Dr. Bruce Tufts a call at home this evening and he stated "as long as the fish aren't mistreated or abused..the old GENTLE torpedo move does no harm what so ever to a fish....and in fact may help with water movement over the gills which is crucial".

Remember..we are not playing musky lawn darts here.

BIG JIM

[g unis]

i also spoke to dr. tufts at the musky odesseye 2 years ago. he made the same statement to myself. i am sure his biology on muskies far eceeds mine . i still personally release all as stated in my post. has there ever been a study?

[Trophymuskie]

I'm sure if done properly a gentle torpedo release can't be that bad. But the problem mentioned here is because the St-Clair guides use large boats and the fish is skipped across the surface and then brought onboard to flop on the floor a while then hooks removed and then a photo session. I don't think all that extra abuse goes away from a torpedo release. I've seen it myself, they don't stick around to see the fish struggling on the surface but us trolling behind then do. And when we saw that, it was with a rather small high 30's fish and it's time out of water had to be closer to 5 minutes then 2.

I am sure if Dr. Tufts saw the mentioned TV show he may tell you that everything in the supposed C&R of those fish adds to the potential death of the fish.

Dr.Tufts will be the first to tell you time out of water must be keeped to a minimum.

[BrettM]

I remember watching an episode where Bob Izumi tried to torpedo a muskie (i think it was in St. Clair) and it hit the back of the boat or the motor, most likely killing it. He was looking down behind the boat for a while and never touched the muskie again, just sorta was like... "OK.. lets get another one"