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Re: NFC: suckers - Really Good!
At 3:53 PM -0500 8/21/00, Ty_Hall at eFunds_Com wrote:
>My brother and I where out catfishing last night and he hooked into a
>fairly large sucker. The fish was probably around 12 - 15 inches long and
>we released it. It got me to thinking, I know that Carp can be detrimental
>to a watershed but what about Suckers? I have heard that they are bad and
>know of people that will kill them, if they catch them. But was wondering
>what's the truth. Are they good, bad or does it depend? Any comments?
Yes, suckers, gar, bowfin - trash fish! That has to be one of the most
ignorant statements to ever leave a person's mouth (Nothing against you,
Ty!). I guess it's a kind of prejudice - "Those aren't the kind of fish we
like. We like bass, bluegill, walleye, musky, grrrr!" If you can find
any solid data that suggest that native non-game species are detrimental to
the ecosystem, I _really_ would like to see it. You can find lots of
hearsay and opinions that "rough" fish somehow damage the sport fishery,
but I don't know of any scientific data that show that. On the contrary,
the non-game fish provide prey for the game fish. The healthiest most
productive systmes have the widest diversity of species. Destruction of
habitat and the ecological bases of the systems are what lead to the
decline of the game fish. That's why they are stocked so aggressively by
states. The natural systems have been broken down and turned into dead
ponds with no structure or diversity. Bring back the swamps!
Mark Binkley
Columbus Ohio USA <))><
mbinkley at earthling_net
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