Proving that Point

Just to let everyone know that I do practice what I preach, last Sunday I fished my favorite spot . Arrived late, no one around. Caught seven fish (three rainbows, three brook and one brown) and lost four more. Total time fished starting with pulling on my waders and ending when two other anglers were in shouting distance fifty five minutes. Caught plenty of fish and the fish stopped taking my offerings. Stopped for the day and went home. The coffee was still hot in the pot!

So I can hear the skeptics out there and you know who you are! " What would you have done if you caught none?" I probably would have moved to another spot  after a half an hour and my max for no fish is around two hours in total. But I did surrender the spot to the first anglers who showed up and would I have done that if I just started, no. But, I would have shared it for awhile. Oh by the way total invasive fish killed-zero. Native fish released safely.

Well as you all know that is a sore spot with old Art. Seems that all fish are native and introduced in the same way. After the Indian's and colonist caught their limit (who's kidding who they fished for food and if the fishing was good unlimited numbers), the resource was gone! Stocking did a good service restoring populations. The evils of "non-native fish" is that they eat not the brook trout but the little native minnows.  The USGS actually has a policy to eradicate Trout. Yes an official government policy. To save the snail darter and silverside whatever and a whole host of forage fish, browns, rainbows and even the sacred brookies are listed for eradication on some streams somewhere.

The USGS is a group of "scientist" who amongst other things study earthquakes, volcanos, and make topo maps. So why the hell are they messing with fisheries? They along with the likes of Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service are part of the Department of Interior the same group that sells off our National Forest mineral rights, timber and gas reserves to mega corporations for big bucks. Seems like they have a mixed mission, preserve and destroy in the same department. But it is the federal government and like everything else seems a little skewed!

All I know is that I like to catch a few fish and the billions sportsmen spend in this country they should have a few fish available on streams with clean water shaded by trees with no quakes from fracking.