Catch and Release...

...Keep 'Em Wet.


It makes sense that fish that are played longer and held out of water longer will experience more stress, and the more stress experienced by a fish the more likely it is to die when released. To reduce stress, scientists have recommended some general guidelines for catch-and-release angling

1) Minimize angling duration (the time a fish is played and handled for hook removal) .

2) Minimize air exposure (15-20 sec) by removing hooks with the fish in water and photographing fish quickly.

3) Use barbless hooks and artificial lures/flies.

4) Use rubber nets void of knots that protect fish scales and mucous 5) avoid angling during extremes in water temperature

Many of these guidelines are already practiced by educated anglers that retrieve fish quickly, leave them in water during hook removal, use barbless hooks, and photograph fish quickly before releasing them, ultimately keeping fish out of the water for no more than 15-20 seconds.

Anglers should also limit fishing during warm summer periods when trout are stressed (management agencies sometimes close fisheries during these warm periods).

These behaviors by educated anglers have helped substantially to reduce fish stress from catch-and-release fishing, thus increasing the chance those fish will live to be caught again.

The Great Public Lands and Wildlife Heist...

Should the DC crooks get their hands on Pittman-Robinson Funds you can kiss the opportunity to photograph (watch) desert bighorn rams on public lands good-by. State wildlife agencies stand to lose millions and the first to go stands to be  managing fringe big game populations such as these. Desert bighorn tags bring big bucks but with no protections and no funds to manage they won't last long.

As the national media frets and fixates on whether or not Trump and his gang of thieves are in cahoots with Putin, he is quietly going about robbing we sportsmen and conservationists blind. Hardly a day goes by without another egregious Executive Order designed to gut every important protection which has to do with the things we hold near and dear—clean air and water, public land and water managed not for profit but for fish and wildlife; fisheries,  wildlife and public lands management based not on how the political winds blow but on sound science; assurance that moneys generated by hunting and fishing flow to the agencies mandated to protect and manage our fish and wildlife and not line the pockets of the crooks, the bottom feeders who are currently  jumping for joy every  time Trump picks up his pen. 

Clean Waters of the US...outrageous.  National Monuments... blatant Federal overreach of the antiquated Antiquities Act.  Dingell-Johnston, Pittman-Robinson Funds...outrageous waste of “tax” dollars. Grab ‘em, gut the state fish and wildlife agencies and get on with it. Here in Montana, this little review gem is estimated to cost Fish, Wildlife and Parks 20-million in lost revenue and nix any chance of purchasing the Grant Marsh WMA on the Bighorn River...”Make America Great, eh?”

And these three are just the tip of a very large iceberg. And what do most of us do? Nada, nothing, sit on our hands and keep on electing yes men like Ryan Zinke.  Insuring  a never ending supply line of self-serving  goons  to his cabinet posts, the Senate and HR.

Meanwhile we fret and fixate on that dreaded knock on the front door where the gestapo rushes in confiscates our guns...Never, I repeat NEVER giving a thought to what the hell good are the guns to us ordinary hunters if there are no public lands to hunt.

Fishin' Dog Training...

Spottin' trout for the Boss

When the fish ain't bitin' get the Boss' to toss sticks...

"OK kid, now watch me, this is how the Boss' want it  done....

That's it kick like hell, scare all the fish...

Someday Mags might make a fishin' dog but right now she is light years away. She probably ran at least 5 miles today around shore and probably half that many miles in and out the lake...The original perpetual motion machine...you  got it!!!