Friday Fishy News - June 1

[Flattieman]

Epic battle for 25-pound trout

Madras man wears himself out landing whopper

By Henry Miller

Statesman Journal

Oregon, USA

May 27

Oscar Hoffman Jr. of Madras holds up the 25-pound brown trout he landed May 19 in the Deschutes Arm of the Wickiup Reservoir.

Joie Frazee doesn't impress easily.

"You know what, I see so many fish, and I was raised in a taxidermy shop," said the owner of Twin Lakes Resort in Central Oregon.

Then Oscar Hoffman Jr. came over.

"I flat out had goose bumps," Frazee said about the fish that Hoffman was holding. "It's the size of a salmon."

In an epic battle May 19 that lasted more than an hour, Hoffman had wrestled a 25-pound, 1-ounce brown trout out of the Deschutes River arm of Wickiup Reservoir.

It wasn't exactly what the Madras angler was expecting when he and about a half-dozen fishing buddies set up shop on the bank.

"We were fishing off the beach kind of like you do with salmon, and I had a little bell on there, and I was half asleep when the bell started dinging," Hoffman recalled.

Most of the others had gone off to cut firewood, leaving Hoffman and Bob Edwards of Tumalo to fish.

"And they had reeled in and left the night crawlers hanging on their hooks," Hoffman said, adding with a chuckle. "So they were a little bit air-dried.

"So I pulled one off and threaded it on my hook, and then I took the other one and threaded it on there and just flung it out into the crick."

After the alarm bell alertted him, Hoffman ran down and picked up the rod.

"As soon as it felt the hook, it just shot out of there and ran about 75, 80 yards of line right off," he said. "I had about 150 yards of line on there, and it was pulling it off pretty good.

"I told him (Edwards) 'I guess it's time to get in the boat."

Then the fish came out of the water right in front of the pair.

"It came up and rolled and did a tail splash," Hoffman said. "And I turned around to him and said, 'I don't have a big enough net.' "

Hoffman climbed aboard his 17-foot Tracker Johnboat and lit out after the fish.

"There's an island out there that comes up out of the water when the water goes down, and there's some big stumps out there," he said. "And my experience with these big fish is that they know where they all are, and they'll run right into a tree root or stump or a downed tree and get tangled up and get off."

So, battling a stiff wind and the fish, Hoffman tried to coax the massive brown into the deeper channel.

"I'd get back 10, 15 yards of line, then she'd go straight back down to the bottom and rip it right off," he said. "And we went back and forth for, oh, probably 40 minutes that way."

Then the huge brown would sit and sulk.

"There's any number of ways when it wasn't moving, and I was going 'oh, no, it didn't get tangled with something on the bottom.'

"So I put a little more pressure on it, and I could tell she was still swimming down there, and I said 'ah, that's good.' "

As the see-saw battle raged, the wood-cutting party returned, and were enjoying the show in front of them, alternately encouraging and laughing.

After an hour, the thought that his net -- for kokanee; think suitable for pool-skimming -- was too small.

"I got her nose in there, and she wiffled and just came out of there like a big salmon," Hoffman said. "And I went 'oh, man.'

"And I got the idea that the only way I'm going to get her is when I get the nose in there, I'm going to get down in there with my arm hooked underneath her tail and just give her a big heave over the side."

It worked.

"And she just laid there in the bottom of the boat. And I just took my hat off," to the fish, Hoffman said.

Fatigue quickly replaced the adrenaline surge.

"Oh, my shoulders were ... what's that they call it, the lactic acid?" Hoffman said. "It was in my arms and my shoulders and my neck."

The monster is headed for a Portland taxidermist, who was recommended by Frazee, now suitably impressed.

Fish goes boying

By Doug Smith

Star Tribune

Minnesota, USA

May 30

Muskies have razor-sharp teeth and a bad disposition.

Paris Copeland loves to swim. Well, the 9-year-old did love to swim -- until a big fish mistook his ankle for a meal as the boy splashed in Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis this week.

"My poor son," moaned his mother, Westy Copeland. "He adores swimming. Now he claims he's never going back in."

Paris and his mom, along with dad Jonathan and 16-month-old sister Mireille -- were at Calhoun's main beach on Memorial Day "with 8 billion other people," Westy Copeland said, when Paris felt something strike his ankle.

"All of a sudden he comes running up on the beach, not crying but very concerned, saying 'Mom, something bit me.'

"Blood was just gushing."

The child's leg had an inch-long gash and three teeth marks.

Paris said he didn't see what bit him.

"I just felt a ton of pain," he said Wednesday as he sat on the front steps of his family's south Minneapolis home.

The family later was told that the likely culprit was a muskellunge or a tiger muskie -- a muskie-northern hybrid.

Metro lakes contain muskies

Both species grow large -- 3 to 4 feet or longer -- have mouths jammed with razor-sharp teeth, a reputation for being aggressive and have long been stocked in Lake Calhoun and other metro lakes.

Fish bites are very rare, but not unheard of. In 1995, a 13-pound, 38-inch-long muskie bit a youth swimming in Lake Rebecca in western Hennepin County.

The fish believed to be the culprit in that incident was later captured in the enclosed swimming area and moved.

But Paris probably could swim in Calhoun for the rest of his life and never get bitten by a fish again.

"For all of the muskie lakes we have, and the number of people and amount of swimming that goes on, we sure don't get many reports [of serious fish bites]," said Daryl Ellison, DNR regional fisheries manager.

Operation Fish and Microchips

Tagging is Latest Weapon Against Poachers

thisislondon - UK

31 May

Freshwater fish are being micro-chipped in an effort to deter poachers.

The project – dubbed "chips for fish" – involves hundreds of carp, pike and perch in private fisheries. They will be injected with the electronic tags to help identify them if they are stolen.

As with micro-chipping a cat or dog, the tiny chip is registered to a national database which stores information on the owner.

The devices mean that a thief who eats a fish and its chip can be traced – as long as the culprit is found in time for his stomach to be scanned.

Carp rustling is a growing problem in the angling world and costs fisheries and farms tens of thousands of pounds a year.

Thieves hook prize fish, place them in water tanks in cars and sell them to rival fisheries. A top-of-the-range 30lb carp can be worth as much as £2,500.

Recent years have seen the added problem of eastern Europeans plundering the lakes to take fish for the dinner table.

Although we don't eat coarse fish in this country, in Poland and Russia they are part of the staple diet.

The scheme has been launched by a company called Chips4Fish based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Its owner, Tony Loveless, has already chipped hundreds of fish in the South-East and hopes to roll out the scheme across the country.

He said: "We are doing this to primarily help venues keep their fish and defeat those who steal them for financial gain.

"Large specimen carp are always the likely target of thieves, both from garden ponds and from commercial fisheries and fish farms. They are quite valuable. To put a 30lbs carp in your lake will cost you several thousands of pounds because it generates more business as anglers want to catch them.

"But we are aware there has been a problem of some immigrants removing coarse fish and taking them home for the dinner table.

"They will probably detect the chip just like a fish bone but the tags would still work if they were eaten."

Mr Loveless admitted there were some drawbacks. "If somebody is determined to steal a fish either to sell or eat then they are going to do it. You have got to know where the fish has gone to or for somebody to find it for it to be scanned and then it can be returned to its rightful owner."

David de Vere, owner of Temple Lake fishery near Dorking in Surrey, has had all his fish tagged already.

"It is a great fishery management tool," he said. "But it helps with security as well. If a fish was stolen and cropped up elsewhere there will be no debate as to who owns it."

Anglers must take care when releasing fish: DPI

ABC Online (Australia)

May 31

A study into the survival rates of released reef fish has called on Queensland anglers to take further precautions.

Fish who are brought rapidly to the surface may suffer from the condition barotrauma, a swelling of the body that makes it difficult for fish to swim down from the surface after release.

Dr Ian Brown from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries says the study found decompressing or 'venting' the fish has provided the best results.

"Venting is a fairly widely recognised method, which involves releasing the gas from the swim bladder or from the body cavity by carefully inserting a needle, a hollow needle or something like that into the side of the fish," he said.

Flattieman.

[Guest rzep]

That is one huge trout

[mark*]

what a trout that fish is huge. would love to have a fight with a trout

that size.

regards mark