Any good places on the northwest side?

[mistahoo]

Yup

[moganman]

Don't use the cast net to catch gamefish. There's a new rule now that you can pay a little extra to buy a fishing license that lasts a full calendar year instead of until August 31 each year. Earthworms work for most species, dough bait or wheat bread (excellent for tilapia) works for most of the rest that wont take the earthworms.

[moganman]

Also using cast nets removes slime and scales at times. A fish can recover from a small hole in the mouth faster than recovering from the slime lost.

[mistahoo]

Don't use the cast net to catch gamefish. There's a new rule now that you can pay a little extra to buy a fishing license that lasts a full calendar year instead of until August 31 each year. Earthworms work for most species, dough bait or wheat bread (excellent for tilapia) works for most of the rest that wont take the earthworms.

You can use a cast net if you'd like. It's not the damage to the fish I would be worried about. It's the junk in the waters that I would worry about. It's not a "new rule" per say. It's another option when purchasing a fishing license. There's also a lifetime one. One payment and no worries for the rest of your life.

I don't use dough, wheat, or any of that stuff. I'm a shrimp person. Been raised to use shrimp to catch fish for most of my life and it works. The smellier the shrimp the better!

[mistahoo]

Also, some of the fish don't see food in a while so they like to dart at the bait you put in. If you're using small hooks, sometimes the hook ends up lodged in their gills or past it. Once it gets there, it's game over for the fish.

[moganman]

I probably have more experience with anyone on here with this. Trust me. I did four and a half years in wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M. The entire time I did field research. I have been to south and central America. Africa and europe collecting fish. I have had papers published. I have been fishing since age 3 and im good at it. Whenever we wanted to collect live specimen to breed we always used hook and line. Of course there's a chance that a fish will get caught in the gills, especially if you suck at fishing. Whenever we only wanted tissue samples which sometimes required death of the fish, we used gill nets and cast nets because of the survival rate. Whenever we only wanted measurements including length and girth, we used seine nets with very fine mesh. I have caught 200+ pound alligator far and fish as ssmall as less than an inch to study. Do what you want, but if you don't want to harm the fish too much use a barbless hook, preferably circle as the chances that it will be harmed will be a lot lower.

[moganman]

I'm not the best at equipment and all of lingo but I pride myself in being able to catch fish and the best methods for what you want. Don't believe me? Take me and i'll show you.

[mistahoo]

I probably have more experience with anyone on here with this. Trust me. I did four and a half years in wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M. The entire time I did field research. I have been to south and central America. Africa and europe collecting fish. I have had papers published. I have been fishing since age 3 and im good at it. Whenever we wanted to collect live specimen to breed we always used hook and line. Of course there's a chance that a fish will get caught in the gills, especially if you suck at fishing. Whenever we only wanted tissue samples which sometimes required death of the fish, we used gill nets and cast nets because of the survival rate. Whenever we only wanted measurements including length and girth, we used seine nets with very fine mesh. I have caught 200+ pound alligator far and fish as ssmall as less than an inch to study. Do what you want, but if you don't want to harm the fish too much use a barbless hook, preferably circle as the chances that it will be harmed will be a lot lower.

Not necessarily. Once a fish is on a hook, you can't choose where it'll end up (even if you're the best fisher in the world or the worst fisher in the world). There's a high chance of a "small" hook getting lodged in their gills unless the fish is like 3". I never had a fish injured when using a cast net or a dipnet. The only way that could happen is if you somehow get the fish entangled in the net.

[moganman]

I highly disagree. You can control where the hook ends up by the timing of the hook set and by the hooks engineered to set in the corner of a fish's mouth. Although you may have never had fish injured by a cast net, I have worked alongside experts who know more than any member on here about the anatomy of a fish.

[mistahoo]

I highly disagree. You can control where the hook ends up by the timing of the hook set and by the hooks engineered to set in the corner of a fish's mouth. Although you may have never had fish injured by a cast net, I have worked alongside experts who know more than any member on here about the anatomy of a fish.

I'd also have to disagree with you there. UNLESS you are using some sort of device to see the fish before they bite the hook, the hook can potentially end up anywhere on the fish. If I've never injured a fish by using a cast net, then I don't need to worry about all that expert mumbo jumbo. I could care less if they know more about a fish than I do. There's always someone who knows more than you. There's billions of people on this earth. That's life bro.

[moganman]

The discussion is between you and I. First of all, collecting certain specimen in a cast net is illegal. Second of all, some fish like buffalo and catfish have hard fins that makes it extremely hard to remove from nets. That in itself causes stress. Like you said, you have never injured fish in a cast net, I have. Many times. One time I killed about 20 fish because of this. And have you ever used a circle hook? I can post 100 pictures of a slaughter of fish. How many can you?

[mistahoo]

The discussion is between you and I. First of all, collecting certain specimen in a cast net is illegal. Second of all, some fish like buffalo and catfish have hard fins that makes it extremely hard to remove from nets. That in itself causes stress. Like you said, you have never injured fish in a cast net, I have. Many times. One time I killed about 20 fish because of this. And have you ever used a circle hook? I can post 100 pictures of a slaughter of fish. How many can you?

Which species? I've never knew that, but collecting any specimens in a cast net on any private owned body of water isn't illegal. I have used a circle hook. I'm not saying you can't catch a fish with a hook and keep it alive, I've done it several times. I'm just saying there's that high chance for them to get the hook trapped in their gills. I don't take pictures of fish slaughtered or not. I catch them to eat them. That is all.

[HawgHunter]

I might know a 'few' places to go native.

Shoot me your email address and I'll send you some google earth images with instructions on how to get to some of them and what to be looking for. Files are to big to post on here.

Speaking of....I know an awesome place to catch common pleco's....BIG ones. If anyone is interested

[moganman]

Bass particularly can't be caught with anything other than rod and reel. Less than 14' in diameter for cast netting. Sometimes the only way to collect a fish is by cast net but when you can avoid it, I use barbless circle hooks. The tackle companies have invested a lot of money manufacturing these types of hooks for the catch and release angler. I have only had a handful of fish get the circle hook past their gills out of the many years I've been fishing.

[HawgHunter]

How many can you?

1000's....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y627QeaACcI

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HawgHunter74&oq=HawgHunter74&gs_l=youtube.3...3875.7203.0.7375.14.12.0.0.0.0.359.1376.0j1j2j2.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.jwDVxKeB1gg