Are You Better Than A Bucket Fisherman? 2024
Lund Explorer reply :
How many times have we heard someone state that they have never kept a largemouth bass?
How many times have we heard someone berate the bucket fisherman who kills the fish he catches?
Now read the linked study on the mortality rate of released bass and try to answer the question of who kills more bass. A bucket fisherman may catch his/her five bass limit and goes home. Using the average mortality rates from the study, how many fish can you release before you have possibly killed your five bass limit?
How many bass die when the C&R angler brags of having a 100 fish day? A 50 fish day?
Is it ethical to catch and then release more bass than what the averages say puts you over what the bucket fisherman takes home?
http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/resources/factsheets/catch_release.htm
zip pow reply :
I'm not any better than any other angler simply put its a resource for each type of fishermen to enjoy in there own way and it's a sustainable resource. Most states DNR will tell you that a certain amount of kill fishing is good for the fishery. Thats why we have creel limits. I have seen the big 7,8,9 pound fish floating by the weigh in on gville if you went around to all the ramps it would make your heart hurt. So i am no better.At least they use what they kill instead of letting it float and rot away.
K_Mac reply :
I am a big supporter of catch and release. I have no illusions that all released fish survive though, and understand that selective harvest of fish is a good thing on many bodies of water. I get tired of the derisive comments about people who keep fish. Fishing is a blood sport, and while I think education regarding catch and release, and enforcement of creel limits is important to maintain healthy fisheries, I accept the reality that some fish die as a result of my catching them. As I said in the other "bucket fisherman" thread, within the limits of the law, "they" have every right to keep their catch. It is the revenue generated by fishermen that supports stocking and management of public waters.
Crestliner2008 reply :
Regardless of what any study says, if you keep "all" your fish, "all" your fish will die. If you release all your fish, "some" of your fish will die. Common sense. I don't need a "study" to tell me that. I also have nothing against fishermen that keep some fish for food, if they like that. And I'm certainly not suggesting that either case is "better" than the other.
Personally for me, no freshwater fish can hold a candle to just about any saltwater species, when it comes to flavor. Which is the main reason I practice CPR. 
Bob C reply :
I usually keep 2 or 3 legal bass each time out for catch and fry. 
Nice_Bass reply :
no.
grimlin reply :
I still dream of 50-100 bass days......It hasn't happened yet for me...LOL
I don't feel I'm any better than them. However many of them don't follow the law either....Those are the ones I DO have a problem with.
Michigan has Bass and walleye seasons as you should know....This year DNR is having a big problem because of warm weather more people are already fishing for them out of season. A lot of people are getting caught and ticketed.
Hi Salenity reply :
I fish at a lake that has an 18'' limit to keep a fish. I wish it was the other way around anything over 18'' must be put back. $.02
J Francho reply :
QuoteRegardless of what any study says, if you keep "all" your fish, "all" your fish will die.
Show me a study that shows me that catch and release fishing damages the fishery.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
I don't agree with the study done at all, i've caught many of bass with hooks still in their throats and all i do is cut the barb and gently pull the hook out in a u motion the hook being metal has already detererated and it's much easier, I could see if the bass swallow most of the plastic and the plastic not beig digested, but I don't believe the rate is high on catch and release. On the other hand I do think that if you deep hook a bass in the throat or in the gill the bass decease rate is higher. Also the catch and release method has been provin that it does work and numbers of bass have gone up.
mschaefer reply :
I can't recall where I read the study, but I believe it has been proven that deep hooked fish with the hook left in have a high rate of death from infection. Good reason for even live bait fishermen to use circle hooks.
tomustang reply :
I would be more inclined to take the article more seriously if it wasn't a private lake and they provided information that matters besides the eye catching "%" figures.
ww2farmer reply :
Am I better than a bucket fisherman? No...........sometimes, depending on what I am fishing for, I AM A BUCKET FISHERMAN. I keep a lot of the bluegills, and other panfish I catch through the ice. Never more than a legal limit, but often more than I can use right away. I just fillet them and freeze them for future use. I don't keep bass ever, and I don't keep fish from ice out, till ice up. What I , or anyone else is doing, with in the law, is none of your concern. Bass fisherman take a holier than thou approach to keeping and harvesting fish that is nonsense, and ofen borderline hypocritical. Some people who would see you hanged in the town square for keeping a limit of small keeper bass, are the same idiots who toss used plastics, or cigg butts over board like it's perfectly harmless.
K_Mac reply :
On 4/13/2012 at 10:48 PM, Hi Salenity said:I fish at a lake that has an 18'' limit to keep a fish. I wish it was the other way around anything over 18'' must be put back. $.02
My favorite lake has a slot limit that allows anglers to keep 5 fish under 14" and one over 18". It has a very healthy bass population and we catch many fish over 18". I would be OK with not allowing any bigger fish to be kept, but the slot limit seems to be working fine.
Hooligan reply :
No, I am not. I do not live in their shoes. They bleed red just like I do.
I'm proud of who and where I am, but I'm not so conceited to see that there's little difference between us in the end. So long as they are legal in their pursuits, I have no issue. I have more issue with someone that breaks a state record with no valid license, kills a great fish over it, and it will not be recognized.
Edit: For the record, brown fish are some of the very best eating for shore lunch. BWCA meals consist of many fillets of smallmouth and walleyesaurus-rex. And I'm not too proud to admit it.
Bassn Blvd reply :
On 4/13/2012 at 11:09 PM, J Francho said:Show me a study that shows me that catch and release fishing damages the fishery.
I think the link to the study is in the original post.
J Francho reply :
Do you release your bass into a cage kept at 20 FOW for 72 hours? You don't think that's a little unnatural? The study is bunk.
Catt reply :
Yes I'm better because I practice selevtive harvesting, belonhg to every lake association I fish, attend Wildlife & Fisheries meetings associated with the lakes I fish, and actively teach my childern & students to participate.
Lund Explorer reply :
It's interesting to read all of the responses here. I expected to see some members respond such as K_Mac did. Open minded as always, understanding that there are many ways different fishermen partake and enjoy the sport.
I also expected that some members would disagree with the point I was trying to make and/or the results of the study. It didn't surprise me at all that nobody offered links to show that this study was wrong. Perhaps it is because there are a number of other studies that show the same basic results of the one I offered.
I chose to provide the study I did because it was written in a little more "user friendly" format. It covered a wide variety of fishing methods from live bait to artificials, as well as looking into mortality based on where the fish was hooked. I was somewhat surprised that plastic worms were the number one reason (above live bait) for throat hooked fish.
I think the study shows that the truth of the matter is that catch and release fishing does lead to a certain amount of delayed mortality. These are fish that have been removed from the resource just the same as if they were released into hot grease. The percentage of fish that die due to being caught may change from location to location, or season by season, but the bottom line is the same. So my other questions remain relevant.
If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?
On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!
tugsandpulls reply :
when i use the term bucket fishermen i mean the ones that take every fish they catch big small and lots of them way over the legal limit so yes im way bettter then them and half of them dont even have a fishing license so they are illegal and a pain in my side to be nice no never mind being nice i simply hate them
BassfisherMass reply :
i keep one fish a year to fry up other than that they all go back for another day
NBR reply :
As long as the "Bucket Fisherman" obeys the rules he is at least as good as I am, maybe better. I started selective harvest (thanks In-Fisherman for the terminology) long before Ray Scott started B.A.S.S. and also before CR was popularized. If I hook a fish deep and I think it is likely to die I might bring it home for a meal but I am sure it will die if I fillet it.
No doubt some released fish will die but then so will some fish that were never hooked. That is why we have state and provencial fisheries managment to protect the resource from over kill. If I see a bucket or any fisherman violate the rules my cell phone is going to be used.
grimlin reply :
On 4/14/2012 at 5:25 PM, Lund Explorer said:It's interesting to read all of the responses here. I expected to see some members respond such as K_Mac did. Open minded as always, understanding that there are many ways different fishermen partake and enjoy the sport.
I also expected that some members would disagree with the point I was trying to make and/or the results of the study. It didn't surprise me at all that nobody offered links to show that this study was wrong. Perhaps it is because there are a number of other studies that show the same basic results of the one I offered.
I chose to provide the study I did because it was written in a little more "user friendly" format. It covered a wide variety of fishing methods from live bait to artificials, as well as looking into mortality based on where the fish was hooked. I was somewhat surprised that plastic worms were the number one reason (above live bait) for throat hooked fish.
I think the study shows that the truth of the matter is that catch and release fishing does lead to a certain amount of delayed mortality. These are fish that have been removed from the resource just the same as if they were released into hot grease. The percentage of fish that die due to being caught may change from location to location, or season by season, but the bottom line is the same. So my other questions remain relevant.
If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?
On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!
I can see the article's point. But like J Francho said it's a little bit of unethical study. A caged up wild animal is prone to stress which could have something to do with a higher mortally rate that they documented. No doubt we could be killing a fish here and there specially if deep hooked. Any angler worth his salt usually knows if a fish will survive.I only deep hooked 2 fish last year I kept.It is a blood sport I'm well aware of it. They also know how to safely release the fish with minimal harm for higher chances of success of survival.
I look at it this way,even if they do die it's balancing out the weak fish which becomes some other animal's meal down the line. It's harvesting in it's own sense.
Look how many times Dottie was caught and released only to be caught again. Yes it did die....but look how long it lived also.
Crestliner2008 reply :
On 4/14/2012 at 5:25 PM, Lund Explorer said:If you are practicing C&R, how many fish can you release before you have killed your legal limit of fish? If you exceed that number, are you in some way worse (for the resource) than the angler who kills the first five fish before quitting?
On a side note, I'm happy to see that no one has suggested throwing the C&R angler into the lake instead of the fish!
Crestliner2008 reply :
You're kidding, right? Again - if you keep everything, you kill everything. If you C&R everything you kill ONLY some of what you release. My goodness, is that hard to understand?
Basspastor reply :
Under normal circumstances I would guess I end up unintentionally killing about 3-10% of that I catch. When I am have had a 50 to 100 fish day, I would guess that it's closer to 3% and could be as low as 0%. Those days tend to come early in the season. I would say most of the time I'm not dealing with water temps you would find in August down in Texas.
grimlin reply :
On 4/14/2012 at 11:25 PM, Crestliner2008 said:You're kidding, right? Again - if you keep everything, you kill everything. If you C&R everything you kill ONLY some of what you release. My goodness, is that hard to understand?
What the article is saying how do you know your catch will survive? Do you follow your fish in the water after it's been released? Catching 50-100 bass and then releasing them what is the survival rate? How would one know? Personally I don't think anybody could really know that...but for all we could know is 10-15 fish are dieing for every 100 fish we caught.Again there's really no solid proof.
Where a Meat eater/bucketman would catch and keep it's 5 and call it a day.
It's just something to think about.
On 4/14/2012 at 11:28 PM, Basspastor said:Under normal circumstances I would guess I end up unintentionally killing about 3-10% of that I catch. When I am have had a 50 to 100 fish day, I would guess that it's closer to 3% and could be as low as 0%. Those days tend to come early in the season. I would say most of the time I'm not dealing with water temps you would find in August down in Texas.
Again it's a guess....nobody follows it's catch after we release it. They may not die right away either,it could be 24 hours late they would die and we'd never know it.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
There is really no other studies published that is a newer study that I can find, I do believe that everyone one does have their OP whenit comes to this topic, it's a great topic and does need to be addressed to most of the states wildlife biologist. You have to take into play also studies that you won't see publically unless there is a major problem is that when most researchers and biologist do there study they use a hydroelectric shock, sending most of the fish in the area into a paralized state, the researchers then conduct there test, including diseases and the age of the bass. Some researchers also tag the bass with chips to conduct their patterns and how long they survive.
Crestliner2008 reply :
Grimlin - you are operating on the assumption that all C&R fish are dead, no matter what. That's unbelievable on any scale. Come on now. Get real.
Bassn Blvd reply :
On 4/14/2012 at 11:37 AM, J Francho said:Do you release your bass into a cage kept at 20 FOW for 72 hours? You don't think that's a little unnatural? The study is bunk.
Haha, I didn't say it was a GOOD study. I thought the same thing though, about the cage. I wonder why they didn't tag the fish and just return them to their natural habitat. They could have tracked the fish with GPS? Perhaps it would have been too costly.
grimlin reply :
On 4/15/2012 at 3:00 AM, Crestliner2008 said:Grimlin - you are operating on the assumption that all C&R fish are dead, no matter what. That's unbelievable on any scale. Come on now. Get real.
Not necessary,I'm just running on the assumption that an angler catching 50-100 fish,not all of them are gonna live. if 6 or more of them die...then that's one more(or plus) than the average bucketman who keeps only 5 fish to eat and call it a day.
There's really no proof though....I don't agree with the experiment in the article either.
Catt reply :
Scientific Bias: also called "experimenter bias", is a process where the scientist performing the research influence the results, in order to portray a certain outcome.
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
All I know is that C&R has been proven to the specific waterway, to increase the numbers of bass and it has been proven that C&R does work.
Caver reply :
OP also suggests that "bucket fishermen" stop fishing after they've caught their limit. I think that's a stretch. Just because you catch your limit, doesn't mean you stop fishing. I've seen people catch their limit in the first 10 min of the day and then do C&R for another 2+ hrs. No way around it that person kills more fish in a day than someone who does solely C&R. So yes, in response to your original post, C&R fishermen kill less fish. Are they better people? No. But they do use less of the resource. On a side note did they use a control for this experiment? Meaning did they put the same number of fish not caught on a hook in line in the cage and check mortality rates on them?
BassAssassin726 reply :
Why yes, yes I am. 
Lund Explorer reply :
Junk Scientific Bias: Whenever a fantasy is threatened, make claims that aren't backed up with any proof.
Sounds like more than a few people are worried their halos don't shine as brightly as they think they do!
tomustang reply :
On 4/16/2012 at 2:36 AM, Lund Explorer said:Sounds like more than a few people are worried their halos don't shine as brightly as they think they do!
Won't be long til the majority gets too sensitive for the subject and they want it locked.
Nonetheless, when you fish, there's still a chance they die. No matter how well you try to keep them alive.
Sunnydays reply :
In Minnesota we have possession limits. You can only have a certain number of fish at any given time. That means that if the limit is six and you have three in the freezer you can only keep 3 more. I wonder what percentage of our anglers understand this and comply with the law?
http://fishingbw.com/
Big-O reply :
Great topic and I have no problem with bucket folks or anyone else keeping fish to eat especially on large bodies of water and they abide by the laws. I also agree that we harm the resource much more than we actually intend to during the standard tournament environments.
C and IR (Catch and Immediate Release) for tournaments is a Dream for MANY at this point but will most likely be a reality in some of your lifetimes. Take a look at one of the NEW Shows "Major League Fishing" where the fish are released where caught immediately after the weight is recorded. IF... the previously noted study is correct, this change alone improves the mortality figures for five fish that would normally have been placed in livewells and kept thru weigh-in by some 2,900% and improves the culled fish mortality by some 1050%. The quantitative values on that would be interesting to figure out.
Again, assuming that this study is relatively accurate, and I have no reason to believe that it isn't, our best practice is an approximate 1.3% mortality for managing the resource to it's highest level and improving the future of competitive Bass Fishing. At the same time, it will most likely improve catch rates substantially for everyone. Dream... yes, Goal... hopefully!
Please don't misunderstand my comments as saying that we're intentionally abusing our resources, but moreover that we can and will find a way to do better. If there were no such thing as dishonesty and/or cheating, we would already be there because I believe that we all basically agree on this basic issue.
Someone could do well financially when they design a fool proof system to do exactly this. Maybe it will be one of you... Step up and make a difference, I believe that one of you can do it 
www.ragetail.com
Sherlock 60 reply :
My personal preference is to always throw them back. I believe in catch and release but I also just don't like cleaning 'em.
I have a lake neighbor who I sometimes share with because he loves to eat fish, and I have absolutely no problem with anybody harvesting legal fish as long as they are eaten. He's one of those guys who will clean a 3" bluegill.
Bob C reply :
It's just a fish. How did a bass get appointed to some sort of saint hood? If you don't want to damage them, then don't catch them. You have no problem gut hooking them or ripping their faces half off dragging them through weeds and other structure as long as you release them. What a crock of bs. 
WookieeJedi reply :
Keep in mind, that bucket fisherman's motivation for fishing. He doesn't have a boat, probably because he can't afford one. Fishing is his hobby of choice because it produces food for him and his family. He is fishing for the original reason that any human started fishing: peace, quiet, and food. I used to catch gar down at the spillway of the lake where I used to live. I started doing it for fun, and gave all my fish away to other fishers there on the bank. You could tell that for some of them, it really made a difference in their daily lives. A 10 pund gar will definitely help feed a family. After a while, it wasn't just for fun. When folks would see me come down, they would send one of their kids over to keep me company. Sometimes I had 5 kids sitting there waiting for me to deliver meat. I got to where I felt a little guilty if I didn't go down there at least once a week. No gar were released.
hatrix reply :
So I read that little study and I'm calling total BS on those numbers. As for the death rate of fish caught for a tourney I have no evidence to dispute that figure. I think we all know there is a good chance any fish will die in that situation. As for just fun fishing and immediate catch and release the death rate is extremely low from what I see every day. Unless you really got it good and you know it's hurt it's a very slim chance of death. I live on a 10 acre pond that I fish all the time and in the 4 years I had this house I have seen 3 dead bass. I have caught thousands of fish from my house over that time and I never EVER see a dead fish. Almost every day I check out the lake be it fishing or riding around with the dogs on the boat after work. Take into consideration animals will grab dead fish at night and I never see them but I also throw 100% of all catfish I catch on the bank and sometimes it takes 2 even 3 days for it to be gone so think about that.
Don't get on me about the catfish. They take up a insane amount of weight that could go to total weight for the Bass/RES population. Not to mention the amount of food they eat. Big catfish are the apex predator not the bass and over times it's a problem that needs to be controlled.
Lund Explorer reply :
On 4/16/2012 at 6:36 AM, Big-O said:Great topic and I have no problem with bucket folks or anyone else keeping fish to eat especially on large bodies of water and they abide by the laws. I also agree that we harm the resource much more than we actually intend to during the standard tournament environments.
www.ragetail.com
Thanks for recognizing the problem. I can remember many years ago reading an article on delayed mortality associated with catch and release fishing, and I do think it is important that people understand that even though most of their released fish will survive, some will not. While I was researching this again, I found that almost all of the studies were based on bass tournaments. It was no surprise that many state's fisheries departments had conducted these types of studies along with several major universities. I also found a few news articles from media sources that discussed the topic. Unfortunately, when the news media became involved, it wasn't good news as this linked article shows.
http://ww2.somdnews....511_32215.shtml
While this may be an extreme example, it does show that problems exist that need to be addressed. It represents a public relations disaster to the non-fishing segment of our society as well as to those recreational bass fishermen who watched as a part of their fishery was destroyed. From everything I have either witnessed and read, a certain number of fish will die of delayed mortality after tournaments. While it is most likely unavoidable, tournament directors need to do everything possible to keep that number down as low as possible. If not, bass clubs could be forced to change, or in the extreme, give up their part of the sport if too many non-tournament fishermen or property owners complain loud enough.
On a positive note, I did find several articles that discussed the efforts that the Oklahoma Fish and Game Dept was making to support fishing organizations in reducing this problem. The department had developed a tournament kit that included holding and dip tanks modeled after what a few of the big professional organizations were using. They also supported the dispersal of fish away from the weigh in site after the tournament was completed.
http://www.nesportsman.com/articles/catch_release_studies/oklahoma_largemouth.html
This brings up another problem. Anyone who attended last year's BR Roadtrip got to witness first hand what happens when a large number of bass are released into a small area. The Saturday we arrived there, Moor's Resort had been the site of a tournament weigh in. By the next day, a number of Catch & Keep fishermen had arrived inside of the breakwalls to take advantage of this manmade honey hole. This happens at many tournament release sites. In other words, the catch and release crowd is actually giving an unattened helping hand to the catch and keep crowd.
However, regardless of the problems associated with tournament fishing, my reason for starting this discussion dealt with the angler who catches and then immediately releases hsi fish. My only hope was that I could make a few anglers understand that not every released fish lives on to become a lunker. An ethical angler takes this into consideration and should think about how many bass he/she has caught during an outing, and may think about hanging it up for the day when he could reasonably assume that he may have killed his limit for that day.
Hopefully, we will see continued studies done to address this problem. The more we learn, the more we consider our impact on the resource, the better we will be able to help protect the future of the sport.
Bass_Fanatic reply :
I was in a tournament last Saturday. At weigh in there were 8 dead fish weighed. Then when I went to put my boat back on the trailor, I say 3 more floating and numerous fish just kinda sitting there in the grass waiting to die. There was a total of about 100 fish caught and I would say at least 12 of them died. C&R is definatly better than catching and filleting everything. If I catch 100 fish and I fillet em all, then obvioiusly all 100 die. If I release them all, then obviously the majority of them live. THe OP point is that IF the "bucket fisherman" only catches his legal limit of 5 and then leaves, then all 5 of his fish die and he has taken 5 fish from the fishery, whereas a C&R fisherman will not stop at 5 and may continue to catch 100 and 10 of them die. Now in this situation, the C&R fisherman took 10 fish from the fishery whereas the "bucket fisherman" only took 5.
Now for my thoughts. Why get your panties all in a wad over bass. Believe me, I hate to see those dead fish floating around at the weigh in, but for goodness sakes, it just a fish. I do my best to prevent killing fish that I plan of releasing and will continue to do so because I know that our fisheries depend on it, but how can you say that your any better than a man who keeps his legal limit? Got news for you guys, bass taste good. As a matter of fact, they are my favorite fish to eat. I may keep 50 fish a year out of the few thousand that I catch and I enjoy them. WHy shouldn't I? WHy shouldn't any other "bucket fisherman" be able to enjoy them also as long as he is within his legal limit? If "bucket fisherman" are damaging fisheries, then the legal limit needs to be changed and/or some people need to be calling W&F if you see someone keeping over the limit. What good does it do to look down on a fellow fisherman when he has done nothing wrong?
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