Throw it back?

[5Paulie4]

It happens enough to pose this question. You're trolling or casting when a smallish walleye grabs your lure. As you reel him towards your boat, one of those monster Canadian northerns emerges from the deep and grabs your fish. Off he swims with your walleye and your lure in his face. It's you're lucky day, however, because he gets himself hooked well enough so that you end up boating the pike. You place the big fish in your cooler and start dreaming of how great the trophy will look mounted in your den. Later that day, a DNR officer pulls up, sees your huge pike and asks how you caught him. Will the truth set you free or will the truth place you firmly in a pile of deep doo-doo? And in the name of ethical sportsmanship, should you have thrown the fish back?


Thunderstick

Its an illegal fish. It's up to you how you handle the questions. It's a perfect mount though with the small walleye in his chops and your lure there as well.

Photo, measure, release and get a fiberglass mount.

[czy42strokes]

With the quality of replica mounts I don't understand why a sportsman would want to keep a Trophy fish, I am in the photo, measure length, girth and release camp.

You put it on the wall to impress yourself. You put it back in the water carefully so that it can contribute to the gene pool so your grandkids can be impressed with what they catch. Your call as to what is more important to you. Catch and release on all trophies is the way to keep fishing improving.

"Its not what we accomplish, but how we accomplish it that your remembered for.

IA Walley

I have to agree with the Catch and Release/Replica Mount crowd but am curious about what makes it illegal? If they're both legal size fish, where's the infraction?

The argument is that the pike was caught using a gamefish, i.e., the walleye, and it's illegal to use a gamefish as bait.

[Smitty]

Technically, the walleye was your bait (which is illegal).

[Go_Fish]

I can't understand why you would keep the fish.....don't replicas look as good as skin mounts? Especially when you can say to your kids that the big one is still out there for them to catch.

Go_Fish

I'm sure someone will put me in my place here (won't be the first time), but I call BS on the illegal issue. You weren't fishing with a gamefish. You didn't hook the walleye to your hook with the intention of fishing for a pike. Had you been using the walleye for bait you would have been in violation. This is really no different than catching a musky prior to the opener when your fishing for pike....no harm no foul. There isn't an MNR officer in Ontario that would right you a ticket for such an occurance.