Thread: Going after spawning fish?

What is your opinion on this? Would you go after rainbows in their spawning beds? Or do you leave them be and try and catch trout in usual locations? My uncle was telling me that this past weekend he was on the North Platte up way of Casper and, standing on a ridge, could count 40 or 50 LARGE rainbows in a flat that was about a foot or so deep. Personally I would probably not want to disturb them, but I bet looking into the water and seeing 40 or 50 20-30 inchers would be hard to pass up. Like throwing in a big streamer or something to make them think it was going after the eggs to get them to hit it.

Ehhh.. That's bad practice as a sport fisher/hunter if you ask me.

For survival and if it is your primary source of food, it's all good. But doing that for sport fishing just hurts fish populations on down the road.

Bad form. Half the fun is finding where the fish "hang out" away from the wife and kids. It's to easy in the spawning holes. Leave em for the tourists.

bad practice for sure
let them be

similar to using a salmon egg type fly right after you know a river has been stocked with hatchery fish. it sure as hell works, but its just not really good practice.

Big no-no in my book. Anglers should respect the fact that spawning fish, at the very least, should be left alone to produce more fish.

I saw around 10-15 larger rainbows on a redd a few days ago, and of course the thought enters your mind. But its just as cool to sit and watch em do their thing.

You could always tie on an egg pattern, toss it downstream of the redd, searching for the big browns that love rainbow eggs. Still a bit of a cheap shot, but can be very productive.

I am mixed on this. Catching (and keeping) a fish a month before it spawns doesn't seem to different than catching it a week or a day before it spawns. Either way it is not spawning. I have often thought about this as the trout opener in CA coresponds to many spawning cycles for the rainbows in mid elevation level lakes. Also, any studies on whether bows will still successfully spawn after being released? For me I am all about CPR but some of the people I fish with keep them all...

Leave spawnersm alone. There are plenty of fish to fish to waiting for eggs!

Originally Posted by schwerty

Leave spawnersm alone. There are plenty of fish to fish to waiting for eggs!

ding ding ding, we have a winner.

fish below the spawning beds with egg patterns. the fish on the spawning beds dont usually eat, maybe you can get them to hit something out of agression, but not often. but the hawgs down below will munch on pretty much anything that looks like a trout egg.

hmm, i think i need to get up to Hauser Dam soon.

I am really mixed on this as well. I will try and catch spawning bass but I do release them where they were caught. Unless it is in a tournament, then they are released at the ramp. I don't think that catching the females off the bed really hurts anything, once they lay the eggs they leave. I don't know about catching the male though. They protect the nest from predators.

Catching spawners is something that happens regularly here and I don't think it has hurt the bass population. What has hurt it is seeing people come in and catch coolers full (well above the daily limit) and take them home to fillet. Bass are really not that good, but they are fun to catch.

I don't know about trout as I don't fish for them much, so I don't know what their process is.

Take a week off and leave the spawners alone. Then watch where you walk, don't tramp through the beds (ie: gravel and small rock) when you fish. If you see someone walking through likely spawning beds, inform them of the beds, what to look for, etc. MN and WI have mostly browns that spawn in the fall after the season closes so not much of a problem here, the only targets we get to hit for a spring spawn are steelhead.

Good Luck
Jay

Originally Posted by fez

ding ding ding, we have a winner.

fish below the spawning beds with egg patterns. the fish on the spawning beds dont usually eat, maybe you can get them to hit something out of agression, but not often. but the hawgs down below will munch on pretty much anything that looks like a trout egg.

hmm, i think i need to get up to Hauser Dam soon.

3rded......If they are on a redd leave em' alone. The problem with fly fishing is; during the spawn is one of the few times you can access large fish effectively. It’s a double edged sword but people need to think about the future by leaving the actively spawning fish alone. Hauser is a prime example. Here in CO the Dream Stream is the equivalent, but the fish are starting to learn to spawn at night and head back to lake during the day (much smaller water than Hauser) cuz they have been picked on so much. Now if we could just get the friggin’ Denver Water board to let some water out when the fish are spawning………

Originally Posted by mnflyfish

Take a week off and leave the spawners alone. Then watch where you walk, don't tramp through the beds (ie: gravel and small rock) when you fish. If you see someone walking through likely spawning beds, inform them of the beds, what to look for, etc. MN and WI have mostly browns that spawn in the fall after the season closes so not much of a problem here, the only targets we get to hit for a spring spawn are steelhead.

Good Luck
Jay

I usually cast at them until I hook-em and then reel them back out of the area. Works pretty well.

Grange - just drag a big treble hook through the redds with heavy line and yank 'em out of the water so you don't disturb the others. A rifle works well too.

They fight better when you hook em' in the tail.

What is your opinion on this?

NYET

Catching any spawning fish is bad form and certainly not good for the longevity of your favorite fishing hole

Noooo. In Idaho we close the season from April 1 to late May, just in case yer tempted.
With browns it's a little different. I usually make a trip to the Madison and Jeff in October because the browns have moved in and are active. We float and throw big streamers all day. You can't see the redds, but if you hook up it may be that you have thrown over one.

depends, are they running up rivers like salmon and steelhead, if so yup I'm after em (untill they start digging redds) if they are digging reds I'm fishing behind them with a bead