Something I struggled with

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rbacht

Sealiner
So this weekend I went to the Overberg area. Walking down the beach with my kids and the dogs I see an angler landing a small steenie. 30cm, 35 when I am being generous.

I see this as I am walking towards him. And as I see him struggling to unhook the fish, I immediately start to wonder if I will see a release....

Still about 15m from him, the fish is unhooked and dropped onto the sand. I know this fish will not swim again today.
5m from him, kids running and splashing in the waves, dogs tugging away to chase the gulls - out comes the plastic bag. Fish goes in and under the tackle bag.

What do I do. I fish this spot everytime I visit, there's not a lot of fish that comes out, but surely an undersize baby needs to live to see another day.

I've now walked passed him and my mind is spinning to the point where I am now just pissed off. Anyway - I have the kids with me and I know how this will turn out should I go and confront him. I will only be seen as 'that guy' trying to cause trouble and trying to ruin his day.

20 minutes later while walking back past him again, I see him chatting to another guy. I hear him saying he caught a small one but as he does not eat the fish, the other guy or even myself can have it if we want it!?

At this point I just shook my head and wondered if he ever heard of catch and release.

On another day if I was on my own, I would have engaged and took whatever came my way. But seriously, why put a undersize fish in the bag, when you have no intention of eating it? How does that make sense.

All I know is I failed the wider fishing community that understands what it is about.
 
L

Lee1214

New member
Jip I understand 100%, very frustrating to see undersized fish not being safely released and not being able to do much about it if you are outnumbered. Given the drastic depletion of fish stock only makes this worse and it's not a good feeling not being able to do anything about it. I Usually fish alone or my fiance fish with me and therefore i choose to rather not engage when i see this happening. I've seen this happening a few times at Hangklip, kabeljou and galjoen and i get heavily upset, even more so as i can see its seasoned fisherman that should know better, probably do but just don't care - sad,very sad!!
 
S

Spool-Song

Sealiner
I learned a tip from an ex-cop that I used to meet often on the rocks fishing. He would go up to the guys fishing and suggest that they quickly put it back, because he saw the Cape Nature patrol in the parking lot, and its a big fine if he gets caught with an undersized fish. That way they see you as trying to help, and you actually get the point across without being confrontational. I used to go the confrontational way and it would inevitably ruin both my day and that of the guilty party. But that's me. I believe that bad things happen when good people do nothing.
 
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