Part one...
I was out just so recently in the Blind Casting BlueFish Bonnanza at the end of my street (you really can catch 'em blindfolded and I'm gonna do that next year
) and I wanted a quick fix. Knowing I had a good shot at getting a couple fish in 15 minutes before my wife knows I'm even gone (hi honey) I run down to where people tend to wait until the fish are ON TOP of the water before casting instead of looking at how the bait is being pushed or odd waves rolling across the otherwise calm water (sometimes you can see the V wakes and these guys DON'T GET IT!!!!). There have been so few bass out there, probably 95 blues for every bass in my area. Well, this guy 20 feet to my right hooks into a small schoolie, probably 22 - 23 inches or so, spends a miserable amount of time working the plug out of it's mouth ( note to self, remember to crush barbs and cut off 2 hooks of rear trebble on plastic poppers for easy release of bass and safe - to me - release of blues). He then leaves the fish at his feet in all of 2 inches of water.
I asked him when he planned to release the fish. He said why should he so I told him that it was an obviously short fish, not even close to keeper size. He didn't give me any real flack, just mildly disappointed then he shrugged his shoulders and released (sorta) the fish. As he releases this schoolie, it drops in between the concrete ties of the old launch ramp and it's half stuck, half floating on it's side, so he nudges it with his foot and after about 4 mild kicks it's out of his range.
That fish was out of the water for probably 5 minutes. Four minutes and 30 seconds longer than what was really necessary.
Moral of this story? This fella has probably been buying Atoms & Striper Swipers from Benny's for 10 years and the rare time he get's bait at a tackle shop, he still doesn't care to know or learn the rules and the better ways of keeping or releasing fish...
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