Pink in the Campbell

[westcoaster222]

Fished at my lunch hour today. Lots of fish around and aggressive. Mostly coloured and males are humpy, but apparently there were silver fish to be had first thing. Got 6 fish and released all of them. Most satisfying moment was walking up beside two people fishing gear, setting up my 6 wt and bam first cast into a fish. Got some annoyed looks.

Cheers.

 

[Reaper]

if one was to comment they would say typical fly fishing flosser
but who am I to comment on how one fishes

 

[JuBy]

fishing is fishing now matter what gear you use. I hate how some fly fisherman look down on gear fisherman and vice versa, whatever you choose to use to catch fish fairly and follows the regulations is fine by me.

 

[Reaper]

yup i agree but there is die hards in here that swear up and down that us gear guys floss
and there is die hards that will swear up and down the fly guys floss

 

[westcoaster222]

yup i agree but there is die hards in here that swear up and down that us gear guys floss
and there is die hards that will swear up and down the fly guys floss

I fish both ways and enjoy each for its own reasons, and agree who cares how someone fishes as long as its legal and ethical.

Pardon my ignorance, but how can I control whether the fish has been flossed or not. Perhaps the fish I caught was flossed, or perhaps it bit the fly on its own accord.

 

[kimbyote]

I am not saying that one method is better than another, I personally fly, centerpin, levelwind and spin. All have it's merits. But the magic word here is Ethical. I mean , foul hooking happens, it's the nature of the beast, but watching someone yanking their line when they don't have a bite to snag fish is not ethical. There's so many fish in the system, there's really no need to fish like a moron. I mentioned a telephone poll, because he was fishing a hali rod and drifting into a pool, then ripping his line in the pool to snag a fish. Out of the 12 he caught in an hour, 2 were in the mouth. I watched him keep one that wasn't, but he was hoping no one noticed as he was only releasing the snagged ones ppl noticed, but before I could say something, he bonked the fish and went on his merry way. But he was chucking and kicking the fish back into the water as that was his preferred choice to quickly release fish. I have a problem with this because there are ppl trying to catch a fish and wonder why they aren't catching as many as this guy. Is this really what we want to introduce to new anglers?

 

[Big Green Machine]

I fish both ways and enjoy each for its own reasons, and agree who cares how someone fishes as long as its legal and ethical.

Pardon my ignorance, but how can I control whether the fish has been flossed or not. Perhaps the fish I caught was flossed, or perhaps it bit the fly on its own accord.

You definitely can control whether you floss or not. It is the anglers intent that determines whether they are flossing, not the gear. You can floss with fly gear, float fishing or drift fishing. How can you tell if a fish has been flossed? The vast majority of the fish are hooked on the outside of the mouth.

Have look at this Sockeye, it is a great photo of a flossed fish.

 

[westcoaster222]

You definitely can control whether you floss or not. It is the anglers intent that determines whether they are flossing, not the gear. You can floss with fly gear, float fishing or drift fishing. How can you tell if a fish has been flossed? The vast majority of the fish are hooked on the outside of the mouth.

Have look at this Sockeye, it is a great photo of a flossed fish.

That is a great picture and explanation of the term! Thanks

 

[westcoaster222]

I am not saying that one method is better than another, I personally fly, centerpin, levelwind and spin. All have it's merits. But the magic word here is Ethical. I mean , foul hooking happens, it's the nature of the beast, but watching someone yanking their line when they don't have a bite to snag fish is not ethical. There's so many fish in the system, there's really no need to fish like a moron. I mentioned a telephone poll, because he was fishing a hali rod and drifting into a pool, then ripping his line in the pool to snag a fish. Out of the 12 he caught in an hour, 2 were in the mouth. I watched him keep one that wasn't, but he was hoping no one noticed as he was only releasing the snagged ones ppl noticed, but before I could say something, he bonked the fish and went on his merry way. But he was chucking and kicking the fish back into the water as that was his preferred choice to quickly release fish. I have a problem with this because there are ppl trying to catch a fish and wonder why they aren't catching as many as this guy. Is this really what we want to introduce to new anglers?

I am wondering if this is the same fellow I saw. Flipping the gear out and jerking through the pool. In one of the runs just bellow the Quin. I was fishing wool short rigged under a float and he said to me "you really need 10 more feet of leader and jerk the bait through the pool to entice them to bite." 95% of his fish were fouled in the body or side of mouth. Flossing or not aside my issue with him was his release technique. He would either let the fish run then apply hard pressure until the hook ripped out or let them flop in the sand and rocks and literally kick them back to the river. When I left I said to him "you really need to work on your catch and release methods. If they are foul hooked as often as yours are, just pop the hook off while they are in the water. Then they can spawn and make more fish to catch." All he did was give me a dirty look and went back to fishing his same way.

Anyways of to fish the beach on Quadra tonight where we will be all alone

 

[kimbyote]

I am wondering if this is the same fellow I saw. Flipping the gear out and jerking through the pool. In one of the runs just bellow the Quin. I was fishing wool short rigged under a float and he said to me "you really need 10 more feet of leader and jerk the bait through the pool to entice them to bite." 95% of his fish were fouled in the body or side of mouth. Flossing or not aside my issue with him was his release technique. He would either let the fish run then apply hard pressure until the hook ripped out or let them flop in the sand and rocks and literally kick them back to the river. When I left I said to him "you really need to work on your catch and release methods. If they are foul hooked as often as yours are, just pop the hook off while they are in the water. Then they can spawn and make more fish to catch." All he did was give me a dirty look and went back to fishing his same way.

Anyways of to fish the beach on Quadra tonight where we will be all alone

Probably, the gent I am talking about was fishing by the bridge and was pretty old. His set up was wool, with a 1oz weight about 6 inches from the hook, then 8-10ft of line to the float. Noticed quite a few ppl using this rig to fish. I mean I understand pinks ride pretty close to the bottom, but that setup is pretty much a bottom bouncing rig with a indicator, which explained why he was snagging so many fish when he ripped his line in a pool. I personally have my heaviest weight under the float, then the weights get lighter and lighter going down the line leaving at least 12" from the fly or wool. But even then, make sure my fly isn't bouncing off the bottom. Difference, I only fouled hook 1 fish out of 5 pinks along with a couple cutties and by no means did I catch the most fish, but at least I knew I tried my best to fish ethically. A really clear indicator if your flossing or snagging, whether intentionally or unintentionally is to observe your catch ratio. If your fouled hook ratio is greater then your properly hooked ratio, you may want to consider tweaking your rig. Or if your fishing a pool with too many fish that you can't properly attract a fish, then consider fishing another pool with fewer fish.

But your absolutely right about focusing on how one releases a fish. Really need to be gentle with them. I really wished there was laws in place on how a fish are released if it isn't being retained. It would probably improve the survival rate of a released fish. Can't remember where I read it, but there was a report done a couple years back on the survival rate of a C & R fish. It wasn't very high, main culprits was the length of the fight and infections of the gills. Need to remember not to touch or get mud or sand in the gills and try to land the fish ASAP.

Anyways, Good luck.