what is backing up and why do fisher men do this
Answers
Step-by-step explanation:
For me there might be several reasons.
Maybe I know the fish are biting and I want some fun but just don’t feel like cleaning fish that evening.
Maybe I am catching a species that is “catch and release” only by law. I don’t want a ticket and my fishing license revoked.
Maybe my freezer already has more fish than our family can consume in a reasonable amount of time. Some fish freeze/store well but others need to be consumed fresh or almost fresh or they get much less palatable. There is a reason people are called sport fishermen.
It could be I am catching a lot of undersized fish. This is not unusual. You get into some large schools of small fish. You are hoping to find some larger fish but it isn’t happening. The action is fun but if you keep them it is a violation. Same thing happens for slot limits. A fish can be either too big or too small to legally keep. I actually don’t like eating some of the larger fish, especially the striped bass in my home state. Anything larger than 12 lbs goes back in the water to make more fish. The larger fish are not as palatable and also have time to bioaccumulate more PCP.
Maybe I am fishing away and catching species of fish that I just don’t want to eat. Skates, toad fish, sand sharks, you name it. While I like eating eels I am rarely in the mood to handle and clean the slimy rascals. They all go back unless the law mandates you keep them (like snake heads where I live…but I personally like eating snake heads…they are doomed to the table).
Maybe my cooler already has a limit of a certain species of fish in it but I am enjoying the sport so much I elect to keep fishing on a catch and release basis.
Perhaps everything is legal but I know there aren’t many of a certain species in that location so I want encourage population growth.
Or any combination of the above.
I have had long term fishing buddies who never kept a fish. If they were catching a lot fish and I was getting skunked they might just rub it in and ask if I wanted to keep the next one they caught.
Friends do that kind of stuff to each other. One time a friend and I were fishing with my son. My friend was catching fish, I was catching fish and my son was sitting on zero. Same rigs, same bait, same boat. The next time my friend caught a fish he unhooked it and rubbed it down the back side of my son’s leg. My son jumped and said “why’d you do that?” My friend said that “me and you’re Daddy smell like fish from catching so many…I figured you might need to smell that way too to catch one”. Within a minute my son had one on