Handling Fish

[falcon1]

I just saw a post that made me remember something I witnessed from the summer. At elk lake, my dad and I were fishing at the fishing dock alonside a bunch of other guys. Someone hooked into a huge rainbow. If there are any rivers that a steelhead could get in through then that must have been what it was. At least 5lbs, maybe pushing 7. The guy who caught it handled it terribly. Im not talking about the fight, he handled it like an expert. So the first thing where he went wrong is not wetting his hands before picking it up. Then he posed while a friend took a half dozen pictures, during which the fish was dropped 4' to the dock where a bunch of scales were rubbed off, and the fish nearly knocked unconcious. But he wasn't done, oh no. He spent a good 30 seconds measuring it, as if accuracy was that important. To finish it of, a nice drop over the edge of the railing into the water. Another 4' drop. The poor fish is bleeding, beaten silly on the dock and about to die. My dad managed to revive it over a period of a good two minutes. The whole ordeal made us I kind of upset. Alright, fine, if he was gonna eat it then it doesn't really matter, but as I said, it was probably a steelhead, and they are not doing well as a species. And a trout that size is capable of laying, or fertiizing a ton of eggs. Wonder what the heck they were thinking.

Thank you for reading my rant on how not to handle fish. Don't be that guy.

 

[Big Green Machine]

What river goes from the Elk to the Ocean?

 

[Red Carey]

Colquitz Creek.

The hatchery used to dump excess steel fry into the lake. You could always tell when you had one as they were shaped like a chrome torpedo. They haven't stocked them for a long while.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

Nothing odd about a 5 pounder in Elk! Some people i've talked to seem to think that trout are stocked so miss handling them doesen't matter! WRONG!

 

[falcon1]

BGM: I have never seen a raindow that large before, and it showed some steelhead charcteristics so I just assumed. I believe I have also heard talk of sea run cutthroats being in there so that was just what I thought. Red pointed out that there was a river, running to the ocean so I still stand by it being a steelhead.

Karma: I know right? But this fish was magnificent. If it was hatchery, then it was an outstanding specimen. I also was unaware trout that big were not uncommon.