Hatred on the "lesser" fish?

nealfish

nealfish

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Dec 20, 2011
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While fishing the little lehigh on friday with my dad and good friend i noticed a large sucker on the bank dried up and dead. I have noticed these things before, and fail to see reason in it. Im writing a report for school on preservation of nature and was wondering if i could get some opinions. It was in the fish hatchery area about 500m from the flyshop.
 
fishermen, usually "trout snobs" in their effort to "cherish" trout feel that any other fish in the creek are competing with and putting undue strain on the trouts ability to survive. This often brings them to throw trash fish on the bank.

When in fact its these trash fish tat supply an endless supply of forage through eggs and offspring.

Its one of them there conundrums.
 
Even though I don't particularly enjoy catching "trash fish" - I would never kill one just to get it out of the stream.
It's not like it would make a lot of difference anyway
 
Sounds like the under educated mindset of a typical fisherman, it's a shame.
 
Agree with the above. Trash fish (generally speaking fish from the Sucker and Minnow families) don't get a lot of love from trout anglers, or on this site, but they do serve a purpose and should be respected in their own right.

In my experience, almost without exception (I can't think of any as I type this anyway), small freestone streams that have either Chubs or Fallfish, or both, generally produce larger wild trout than do streams that are trout only. This may be in part because in extremely high gradient (and often acidic) headwater streams, Brookies are the only "catchable" size fish capable of inhabiting them, but in lower gradient, small freestoners where there's Chubs or Fallfish, there's bigger wild trout. Doesn't seem to be a coincidence IMO, and doesn't seem to matter if it's Brookies or Browns either.

I know they're not pretty to look at, but Fallfish are very aggressive and good fighters...good fun on a 4 or 5 wt, or UL spinning rod. The shame in what you saw nealfish was that whoever caught that sucker probably had a lot of fun fighting it until he/she saw what it was - assuming it was caught and thrown on the bank by an angler of course. Could always have died during higher flows and been left on the bank as the water receded too. But I'm sure that kind of stuff does go on unfortunately. You hear similar tales of sub-legal wild trout getting mishandled around opening day by guys looking to harvest stockies and thinking that the PFBC stocked "shorties."
 
Good point about the eggs.

I was on Spring last...well Spring and didn't hook a single fish in the typical locations; nor did anyone else that I talked to.

However, there were pods of suckers in the shallow riffles.So I just drifted egg patterns, or anything large and bright through the suckers and hooked a trout every other cast. Right there, out in the open. I guess food and sex are a greater motivator than safety.
 
I love chubs and suckers. Especially suckers that love my chub.

Seriously, though... if I take my 13 year old out flyfishing I purposely get him on a pod of creek chubs. He loves the dry fly action they give. And suckers.... wow. I've had those suckers on Spring Creek fight me harder than any brown trout. Good times!!
 
The biggest fish on each of my last two trips to Penns were suckers! Pretty big dissapointment when that heavy thump on the other end of the line isn't a trout, but it still gets the adrenaline going. Biodiversity in a stream is good thing. You don't go hunting for deer and kill anything that isn't a deer because its a competitor.
 
Shhh... don't say that too loud. Us rednecks up in the hinterlands shoot anything brown. Up to and including Hershey Bars. Just ask any cityslicker. They'll tell ya.
 
I hate chubs. HATE THEM.

I still don't kill them though.
 
I treat those "trash fish" as though someday I might have to eat them. Gently released just like the trout. And they have removed the skunk many times.
 
I don't like poachers. Or herons that live on small creeks.
 
I've taken several newbies fishing who had a tough time with the trout. But they were able to catch fall fish - and it prevented them from being totally frustrated. And still see what flyfishing is all about
 
Used to feed them to the racoons with no problem. Then I turned 14. Haven't killed one since, and figure anyone that does needs to stop acting like a child.
 
The people that would throw a sucker on the bank are the people that would also leave there beer cans.
 
thanks, and creekchubs are the saviors of all to many days for me. i personally dont mind them a bit.
 
The typical opening day, beer drinking, bait slingers have some twisted perspectives. I have heard some truly idiotic statements such as, " Suckers eat trout. " Another example is a story i heard about a group of idiots on Redbank Creek ( a warm water river that recieves spring stockings, no permanent trout population, or any chance of one.) These yahoo's were throwing northern pike on the bank, because they were afraid the pike would kill all of the stocked trout, makes me sick.....
 
Native northern pike, at that. I've heard stories of such nonsense at neshannock, or however yinz spell it.
 
creekchubs are the saviors of all to many days for me. i personally dont mind them a bit
Same with me. In some cases, I'd rather have a day fishing for bluegill, redeye & fallfish scattered along a creek than clusters of stocked trout which can be caught while you're standing in the water 8 feet away.
 
jayL wrote:
Native northern pike, at that. I've heard stories of such nonsense at neshannock, or however yinz spell it.

Yeah it's ridiculous. They kill the pike in hopes that they don't eat holdover trout... ...then we get a blistering hot summer that kills most of the trout anyway and the pike also take a hit.

Stupid.
 
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