2 Fish Tales

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GanjaGuru

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I hiked many area's in SoCal's mountains and canyons.
I took a hike one summer weekday afternoon. The trail criss-crossed a stream for about a mile, then it went up and around as the stream went over a series of waterfalls.
As I started the hike I could tell there would be no fish, at least none worth catching.
It was the 3rd year into one of SoCal's frequent droughts, and the stream flow was little more than a trickle.
There were small ponds, but the flow of water was too slow (trout need oxygenated water) and shallow enough to make any trout easy prey for coons, coyote's, etc.
So I wasn't expecting to see any.
When I got to a fork in the trail I decieded to drop back down to the stream, so 2 miles in by now I take the trail to the stream bed, then back upsteam to the bottom of the waterfall.
I find a nice sitting rock next to the nice-sized pond at the bottom of the waterfall and reach into my pack for my lunch.
Even on a 4 or 5 hour hike, I bring a medium size pack. I like to bring along gadgets and goodies and one on the things that was always in my pack was a backpack fishing outfit.
It's a rod in 4 sections, a reel and also a small tackle box with hooks, sinkers, etc. It fits into a zippered case and doesn't weigh much and takes up very little room.
So I figure what the **** and take it out and assemble it.
Even though I was nearly positive there weren't any fish I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I figured I'd cast, sit on a rock and eat and see what happened.
I baited a single barbless hook with Power Bait. I cast my line, leaned the pole against a tree and took out a sandwhich.
But before I could even get the sandwhich unwrapped I had a strike!
And what a strike.
See, the trout in that pond were able to survive. The water splashing down into the pond provided oxygen, and the pond was too big and deep for animals to get 'em, so these trout just hung out, probably some for several years and got bigger and fatter. And nobody bothered to fish that area because they figured (like me) that there were no fish anywhere in the stream because of low water levels.
This ******* 'bow fought like a ******* marlin. It was leaping out of the water even. It was the most fun I ever had catching a trout.
I finally land this award-winning 18" wild native rainbow.
I carefully removed the barbless hook and let him go.
I re-bait and re-cast and BAM not more than 30 seconds later I get another strike (not the same trout). I reel it in and it's a 16" 'bow.
And this happened 4 times in a row. I stopped fishing cause I was hungry for the lunch I brought.
Anyway, I was jazzed.
I had found what all fisherman dream of finding--a secret fishing hole where the trout are big and abundant.

When I get home I call my 3 camping/fishing buddies and we make plans to camp there the upcoming weekend.

I return late Friday afternoon before my friends to set up camp. As I start the hike in I see 3 guys with backpacks & fishing gear leaving.
"Any luck?" I asked, expecting them to say "no man there's no fish there."
Instead a guy says "Dude we caught 30 fish."

When I got to the spot I had just discoverd a few days earlier my worst fears were realized.
Know how many fish me & my friends caught that weekend at that spot? One. One 6" baby.

Now those 3 guys were withing their legal "right". In Cal. the limit is 5 per day per person and they had spent the night, so they were entitled to 10 each.

But hells bells they had erased through pure greed what it had taken Nature several years to accomplish.

When I fish for fun I use single barbless hooks and practice catch-and-release. But if I'm fishing for dinner I use treble hooks. I don't fish to keep unless I'm going to eat them in the next few hours and can keep them alive until just before I'm ready to cook them.
If me and my friends were the only ones who fished there we would have only taken 1 each (a 16"--18" trout with corn on the cob rasted on the grill and a potato baked in the coals is enough per person). Over the course of a year we would have taken maybe like say 12--enough so that the existing trout population of that pond would have been able to replentish itself.

But that's not the worst case.
There was another area, "way off the beaten path", also a pond at the bottom of a waterfall. Since the outlet of that pond was wide and shallow, trout in that pond stayed there. Upon discovering this fishless (when we found it) pond we caught some trout in the main stream and carried them in a bucket to that pond and poured them in. The trout were able to thrive.
We always knew where we could catch dinner and we never took more than 6--8/year. And every time we fished there we'd empty a bunch of salmon eggs/grubs/worms/grasshoppers--whatever we were using for bait--into the pond when we left so the remaing trout would be nice and well-fed. This went on for several years.
So one day me and a friend went in for a quick overnighter.
We brought trout fixin's and side dishes cause we planned to catch our dinner.
We set up camp and hiked over to the pond.
We we got there we stared in disbelief.
Someone had caught every fish (12) in that pond and left them dead on the shore!?!?
Whoever caught them just cut the line and dumped the fish on the shore(leaving the hook in the fish), re hooked and continued until there were no more fish.
To make matters worse, when scavengers (fox/coyotes/ect.) ate the fish they'd get injured by the hook and probably die.
Grrrr.

Good thing for whoever did that that I never caught em doing it. I would have broken their fishing pole, at least.

To this day I can't figure out why someone would catch fish and leave them dead on the shore.
 
Man those are very cool stories. Atleast the wildness of the pond, not the guys murdering the trout population in a small unstocked pond. I used to fish alot and now I do it less but I still enjoy it. I just wanted to commend you for your respect of nature and life. If only everyone were more like you, there would be fishing for everyone. Keep up the good work!
 
whats up GG. bad karma will come back on those who left the fish you can count on that. great story.
 
i would sell the wife and move in with sam. SAM IS HOT!!!!:D
 
Hey Hick, wasn't there a country song about your situation.

Brad Paisley "I'm gonna miss her" (the fishing song). :D
 
Yep mutt. There is...a "Parody of my life"..;) it is.

Ever been ..."Too drunk to fish??" :p
 
Catfishing, Jose Cuervo, middle of a lake. (you know how hard it is to tread water when drunk on tequila, while waiting for your freind to stop laughing to get you back into the boat). hahahahahaha (Damn that water was cold)
 
mutt..Me 'n Jose' have an understanding. "I don't go to his house and mess with him, and in turn. He don't come to my house, messin' me up"..:D
 
Hick said:
mutt..Me 'n Jose' have an understanding. "I don't go to his house and mess with him, and in turn. He don't come to my house, messin' me up"..:D
I only drink on two occasions; When I'm alone or with somebody.

Jose stays at my house. I don't screw around with the pretty stuff, I just put it all in the glass with the salt and stir it up! Bartenders always look at me weird when I tell em to make it that way. Damn salt bothers me on the rim.

Moderation I'm told, is the key to proper drinking. Now that takes all the interesting shit out if it.

My doc told me to think about quitting drinking booze. I told her I did think about it over a drink last night. Decided not to.

She told me booze could kill me. She's 40 and I'm more than 70. I asked her when it was most likely to happen?

I'm told booze makes people silly. Hey, I like silly people. I act just like one when I'm drunk!

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