Taking bream to eat

[Ravin]

Hi everyone I was wondering how may here take a fish or 2 for a feed. I release most of the fish I catch but I take a couple here & there for a meal. What about the rest of you??

[beefaman]

I will take a couple to feed the family. No harm in doing that, as long as they aren't breeding females during their season. I think in moderation it is no probs at all!!:)

[LakeConjolaFish]

G'Day Ravin,

My wife loves fresh fish and I do but not to the same extent.

I would have to say that I roughly release around 90% of legal sized fish.
I do this with great care as well and I love my new environet as it makes this less pain free for both myself and the fish.

I do feel a pang when I slit the throat of a beautiful healthy silvery coloured bream, matter of fact its a BIG pang and the older I get (40 now) the harder it is to do it.

I have fished and shot all my life and the Bambi syndrome is probably getting to me.
:)

[Bear]

I haven't taken a blackie to eat in over 7 years. I have made a conscious decision to make bream fishing my SPORT. As such, ALL blackies go back to fight another day.

If I want fish to eat I fish off the beach or do a charter. I also do not eat red meat, so fish is a big part of my diet.

[eeJoT]

i've only ever taken one bream home and that was years ago.. pretty much the only fish i'll take home are a couple of tailor.. or depending on my mood, maybe something else that's tasty ;)

but i let virtually everything i catch go

[Bear]

I do eat another relation to the blackie though :D

[beefaman]

In moderation is the key, and as long as they are legal size!!!:D

[pw-bream]

I will take enough for a meal when they are around in numbers.

[Craig H]

Very rarely do I keep the Bream I catch. If I know that mum isn't cooking :rolleyes: (usually on the weekend), then I'll take one home that's between 27-30cm for myself. Anything over 30cm, I automatically put back without hesitation... with of course the undersize fish! :)

[torvic]

Yah if it was for myself I wouldnt' be keeping any bream at all as I reckon the flesh can be abit soft sometimes. But my parents love steamed bream so I take home the odd couple.

The hardest thing though is killing the damn thing...It looks such a majestic fish killing a bream doesnt seem quite right.

[LakeConjolaFish]

I agree with you Torvic its pretty out of it cutting a breams throat, its just like it deserves better.

But I suppose thats life and I'm not a vegetarian and enjoy red meat, so instead of hiring someone else to do my slaughtering for me, fishing sometimes allows me to have a sense of "real life" and that not everything comes prepacked from Coles.
I also enjoy baked rabbit and make a wonderful rabbit curry.
I dont mind duck either. We raise chickens and eat them too.
And I knock over a few roo's for dog food.

Its just that I feel with fish that they have a hard time when it comes to man, we DohDohDohDoh in there enviroment, dump our rubbish in it, have poor farming techniques, poison it in a 101 different ways and net the living crap out of estauries and the ocean.

Whats the most FERAL species walking the planet ?

I dont think its too hard to guess.:(

[Ravin]

They must be put out of it quick guys you are dead right. Applies to all fish. Brain spike is very quick & effective.

[Mattj]

I very rarely take a bream home (or anything for that matter unless its gonna die anyway), like others its a sport more so than hunting, the primeval urges to hunt dissappeared when HJ's come along with the other fast food s..t. Though I did take home 3 when camping in the bush over summer (only cause the steaks went green). Photos last a life time, a meal lasts until the next one.

[Bear]

>Photos last a life time, a meal lasts until the next one.

Nicely put Matt.

[bluefin]

I went through an era where you went out to catch as many fish as possible! I fished comps where you won on the highest weight!!!!No legal length fish was returned! A lot were thrown away!!!!!!!!!

Then I went on to Sports Fishing where you kept only the biggest, again dead!!!! and often waisted!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I took my son (11) out to try soft plastics for the first time, my first fish on a soft plastic was a 1.5 kg Bass!!
My best ever!!!!!!!!! I told him about the importance of large fish like this as breeding stock, posed for 2 photo's, then released it,

I got so much pleasure out of that :) :) :)

I love eating fish but now only take what I need for a feed!!!!!

[SWANK-E]

in regards to 'brain spike' or 'iki jimi' method of killing, i tried it the other time but i am not sure if i got the correct spot for the bream (1 eye's width behind the eye and little bit higher than the centre line of the eye). after i have spiked that location (and many other around it to make sure), the fish had nerve twitches, which is normal, relaxes, which is normal again, but the mouth and gills keeps moving for a whole 30sec to a minute afterwards as if it was trying to breath.... THAT WAS NOT NICE TO SEE! is that normal? is the fish dead and just some nerve twitching that's causing the mouth to 'breath'?

[LakeConjolaFish]

Jeez, that sounded pretty bloody bad mate !

Give me the old cut the throat and bend the head back method any day :)

[SWANK-E]

iki jimi or brain spike is meant to be the most humane way to kill a fish as it is instant death

[LakeConjolaFish]

Well your description sure didn't sound like instant death.

[Ravin]

The mouth & gills do keep on for a little while after you hit the right spot but that is just nerves. If your in doubt as to the right spot cut the throat & break the neck as well.

[SWANK-E]

as long as it is instant death and that the fish is not suffering, that's fine.

i just wanted to make sure.

[johno13]

I keep enough fish for a couple of meals if i catch any
for health reasons i eat mainly fish and chicken and not much red meat
I only keep enough for a couple of meals

John

[Bream Master]

It's great to see how you guys have found your own moral ground when it comes to Bream fishing.

Running a bream sportsfishing website, I often feel like asking the question re. taking a fish for a feed. I haven't kept a bream for over 12 months now, but wouldn't feel ashamed to keep one fish when we go for our annual trip down to the blackwood. Whether I could actually kill it remains to be seen, and I must admit to becoming attached to the cute little buggers.

When you consider how many we put back, I think that as an angling community we would be more entitled to keep a fish than any other bream anglers out there. I've personally put back about 100 fish in the last twelve months. Multiply that by the number of us partaking in this sport Australia wide and the figures will make you warm inside.

Perhaps even more than a feed of fresh bream would...LOL

That being said, I don't begrudge anyone who regularly puts bream back from taking the odd fish for a feed. Compare this to the arseholes who take 5 x 40cm fish home and freeze them, and you'll begin to see where we are coming from as a group.

Cheers

Warren.

[AtomicGrant]

I used to be a one of the keep all fishermen (not that a catched a lot) but since sport fishing for bream I ahve only keeped two and they were tonight for my mate's mate who is on holidays and wanted some local fish for a feed. We also released 8 legal sized bream and kept two at 33cm. Felt guilty but the amount we have put back it is a very good result.

I used to like eating bream (still do) but I no longer catch them for a feed :)

Grqant

[SWANK-E]

i guess i am still a newbie to this sport and i only fish 1 or 1.5 hours at a time, so i have only been catching 1 each time around sunset. so i am the murderer who keeps all (which is only one) of my legal catch and eat them.
i am the asshole here.... sorry
but i guess when i get better at it, or if i catch more, the novelty and the amount needed for fresh steamed bream will decrease.

[Craig_S]

SWANKEE, dont fell guilty about keeping the odd one here and there. The massage being put across by Breammaster, FishingWA, the BREAM comps etc etc is one of responsibility not abstinence.

It is fine, at least by me, to keep a fresh fish for a feed. It is not fine to just go on the pillage and kill everything that swims.

[Bear]

Nothing wrong at all.

Still, to me there are a lot better tasting fish in the see.

See pic :D

[Craig_S]

Yep fair enough too Bear. At a guess my last bream (from the Swan) was a year ago or more and it wasnt that great on the table.

Stuff like:

Fresh tailor
KG
Flounder

all rate way above bream as an eating fish anyway.

And my local fish n chip shop does a super grilled snapper for $4 that is way more cost effective than my luring for bream anyway.

[Mickb]

took one home for a taste about 6 years ago but have let all others go back home since. untill last week when i caught a whopper at 41cm's and 1.3kg.(my biggest to date) tried to release it for about 5 mins but it would not swim away when i let it go. held it in water for another good 5 mins but it wasn't having any of it so i had to do the deed and ended up, eating under sufferance, and not really enjoying, bbq blackie.:( :( :(

[Mickb]

took one home for a taste about 6 years ago but have let all others go back home since. untill last week when i caught a whopper at 41cm's and 1.3kg.(my biggest to date) tried to release it for about 5 mins but it would not swim away when i let it go. held it in water for another good 5 mins but it wasn't having any of it so i had to do the deed and ended up, eating under sufferance, and not really enjoying, bbq blackie.:( :( :(

[AtomicGrant]

Yeah mick once they get a bit bigger (~35cm+) they dont taste to good. I prefer the 30cm bream but craig_s makes a good point that you can probly get a better cheap bit of fish rather than killing a bream. But keeping fresh fish for yourself is fine, no problem from my point of view :)

Grant

[Kaisemurangdai]

I was brought up on catch and release, from my father and grand father, it was a common way to fish in the UK 40 years ago. A few reasons being that

a) A lot of their fish species in rivers arn't that good eating

b) People used to pay for the right to fish stretches of water and if you were paying you want to catch fish so you hope the people before you catch and release.

C) They would often target good fighting species like carp which are not good eating.

Whatever the reasons though it is a cultural thing, the more we spread the culture the more everyone will benifit. I for one practise catch and release in all types of fishing. Even charter boat fishing. I would encourage everyone to extend catch and release culture to all types of fishing.

[Ravin]

I think it depends a lot on what type of area you get your bream in how good they taste. The fish here in the north end of the Pumicestone Passage come from clean clear fast running water & are excellent eating. I have had bream from other areas which was poor. The cost of them is right as well I reckon every bream you pull on plastic has cost about 30 bucks :D :D so the fish shop is a cost effective alternative. Thanks for the excellent responses guys its good to be able to ask the question here without getting the "your a fish murderer " nasty type responses. One of the reasons I like these forums so much :D :D

[SWANK-E]

with chinese background myself, i get very picky about how 'fresh' a fish is and therefore a fresh swimming fish straight to the steamer with soy, ginger and shallots is to me, the best way to enjoy a fish.

filleting is not preferred and yes i agree with you guys, that doesn't taste as good as other fish out there... steaming is different.

freezing them... hmm... why don't people just buy some from the supermarket instead?!

[LakeConjolaFish]

To play devils advocate I would rather see people take the odd bream or flathead or whiting than to buy fish from the fish mongers. As its the impact that professionals have on the enviroment that does the damage.

Believe me when you see what they rape and pillage out of the estuaries and the ocean what you and I would take for a feed is truly nothing.

So thats the predicament I reckon everytime you buy fish and chips (or fush and chips if your from NZ) you are promoting the pros business.

Dont forget also how bountifull our oceans are and if the supply of our fisheries was to only meet domestic consumption, the fishery would be in a great shape.

Its the export market that is the biggest single negative factor on our fish stocks per se.

Just my thoughts :)

[LakeConjolaFish]

Oh and SWANK-E you can cook some fish for me any day:)

That just sounds absolutely delicious !

And don't feel guilty taking a fish to eat.......its a totally personal descision.

[SWANK-E]

LCF... yeah sure, anytime! just give me a yell

[Dave W]

I'll buy into this......:D

I haven't taken a Bream for a while, but I've got a mate who regulary fishes with me who is a bit hard up, and hence I have no drama's with him taking a couple.

Most of the time I'll take the odd Flattie, you tend to get them as Bream by-catch anyway - and I'll only do this if I'm after a feed of fish.

Since the missus has developed bun-in-ovenitus, she has gone right off seafood in general, so I don't take anything home anymore.

After looking through the diary, I have caught more than 400 legal size Bream in the past 6 months, only 9 of which were kept for a feed - my conciense is pretty clear:D

I also have never killed a big brood fish, prefering to take fish around the 30cm mark if I have to.

It all comes back to understanding your fishery - in waters where a couple of fish is something to brag about, it is much worse to take a fish than in a place where 20+ fish per outing is the norm.

[scott]

i think outa the hundred bream ive caught, ive kept about 5. if i keep fish, i generally try to keep in the ~ 30 cm range.. No point taking the breeders and the only just size babies, well they are mostly head, not flesh, so almost stupid to take them....

[johno13]

I keep enough for a meal or two.

I have just come back from a couple of days in Jurien Bay and one evening while fishing of a jetty I saw a group of people about 5 catching small skippy (well under size ) and throwing them in their bucket.
I opened my big mouth and asked why they were not returning the undersize fish.
The reply was to say the least very pointed they told me to mind my own f###### business.
Where are the fisherie inspectors at times like this ??

John