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

[beefaman]

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

[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 (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!!!!!