First, sockeye do bite, they troll for them in Lake Washington every year and they are caught by the hundreds. I would not simply "floss" fish just because I can not make them bite. They ate something and there has to be something to get their attention to get them to bite. Chum eat krill and I can make them try to eat an orange fly ,eggs and yarn.
So called experts say a salmon does not "bite" ANYTHING anymore once they hit fresh water? If they are simply hitting out of anger or instinct from a trigger to protect their nests from egg steelers then no fish we catch "bites". Personally I don't believe a fish simply stops trying to eat just because it supposedly can not do so after doing it for 2-4 years but all the same, if it is true...............what is "ethical" now? I have SEEN Coho, Chinook and Steelhead both bite to try and eat bait AND pick up a bait to move it away from where they are and then drop it. No one will ever tell that any of them do not at least TRY to eat after entering fresh water.
They tried to change the laws here to make it from the inside out only, I will fight it with every method I know of and every fisher I can get to fight it. If a salmon hits a spinner and you just happen to hook it from the outside in does that mean it it did NOT try to eat it?
I have a fly, a casting rod, and a technique that works oh so well done so many different ways. I can fish this fly legally and hook 9/10 fish inside the mouth. I can add a little leader and add a little weight and hook 50% outside the mouth but in front of the gill plates, still legal here in Washington, the other 50% still bite it. I can also rig it up and fish it so I can hook a fish 9/10 casts if there are more than 10 fish in any given hole, some legal, most snagged.
"Flossing" is an interesting way to fish, I doubt I will ever do it but still interesting and I am referring to flossing as simply running a line through their mouth to hook them. After all there are those that get to use GILL NETS. Is like another forum I am on. There is a reservoir that you are allowed to not only snag but dip net, drop net, throw net, spears, buckets, use a line with 20+ hooks on a heavy ropes to snag as many fish as possible as fast as possible. WHY? Because the fish are so thick at one spillway that the species they need to survive can't because of everything else getting in the way. There are some species in there that are invasive but the rest are simply too prolific and need to be controlled. Maybe it would be better if fisheries simply put a big net in and netted all the fish and sold them instead of letting fishers get them to feed their families and/or friends.
Now let me add this too this subject. There is a company that designed and tested a method of catching rainbow trout in Canada so that the hook was not swallowed so deep it killed every fish you caught. The bead is rigged 4-6 inches ABOVE the hook and the fish is more often than not hooked OUTSIDE of the mouth. This is specifically done to increase survival rates of released fish. Is it "flossing"? No, the fish hit the lure/bait/egg/whatever. Just because they were hooked from the outside in doesn't change the FACT it was "FISHED" for and not snagged. If I can make this work for summer run steelhead or any other fish you can bet I will use the technique because it is still legal to keep a fish hooked outside in here and it is a lot less stress to a fish to NOT have a hook in their gullet when you cut the line to let them go. Let alone them bleeding to death because the fight tore apart their insides from a swallowed hook.
Oh, BTW, there is a canal in Eastern Washington where the last I checked it is still legal to hunt Carp with bow or crossbow. It is some of the funnest "fishing" I have ever done. The carp are collected and used to feed the next years plants.
Deer hunting with shotguns, hunting varmints with blow guns, doe/cow in heat scent while bucks/bulls are in rut, piles of salmon to bait bears, a tape of a wounded animal to draw in a cougar, so many more examples of what one might consider unethical but is legal and supported in so many other states.
If it was ever proven to me that a fish will not try to EAT my offering then I will not fish for them anymore. If I can not MAKE a fish take a swing at my lure/bait/whatever then it can go along it's merry way and propagate the species.
I agreed with Raincatcher, if you don't like it, don't do it. We live in a country where a state can make laws to fit the needs of the people who live there. If we don't like the laws enough, we move somewhere that we like them better. Yes, we sometimes think that federal laws overstep those bounds but do we want laws made for all of us based on one state and what they all think is ethical???? I DON'T!!!!!!!!!
Of course,Autofisher would have to take the wriggling critter OFF for me....
:lol:
