I Feel bad

[Dan S]

Last weekend I was driving on the aqueduct approx. 60 miles South of San Luis Resevoir when a whole family of raccoons came up out of the duct and crossed the road in front of me. I couldn't stop and definitely couldn't swerve and all I heard was thud, thud, thud.

Now last night I went fishing on the duct again and I had caught about fifteen stripers up to five pounds when I nailed a solid fish. You know the kind that when you hook them they don't do all that shaking, they just go about their business as usual. Anyway, the fish was strong, made two or three good runs, before I edged it to the side of the duct.

Beauty of a fish, I estimated about 25 lbs. Okay, I wanted to get him back in the water fast so I go to getting the treble hooks out of him. I had left my needle nose in the truck and after a minute or two I had to run to the truck and get them. I finally got the hooks out,now to get the fished revived.

The duct was flowing pretty fast and I was on the edge and I couldn't keep the fish turned upstream to get water through its gills, so I tried pushing and pulling him and finally he kicked a couple of times and I pushed him off.

Dang, it went belly up and was floating away from me. I thought it might make it, so I let it go. After about 5 minutes I was wondering if the fish made it so I crossed the duct and walked about a half mile down and didn't see the fish. I decided to go a little further and there was the fish floating dead about 5 feet from the edge and drifting downstream with the current. I didn't take my pole so I found a stick and tried to move it closer to me, but I accidentially pushed it further out. The wind changed or something and it started drifting out to the middle. I walked with it a long way, finally realizing the fish may not drift to the edge for hours. It was half a mile to my rod and reel and I figured I'd never find it again. I release almost all my big fish, but usually they swim off well. I guess it is now a part of the food chain. Me and animals aren't getting along recently.

Hey Winch, I caught it on a solid black one. You know the lure. You got any more of those laying around you want to get rid of?

[Winch]

Dan, don't beat your self up over the fish. But running over those raccoons sure gave you some good luck! see if you can get a skunk family the next time!

We all must face it sometimes in situations when you want to release fish you get a fish that will probably won't make it.

As soon as you thought about walking back to your car to grab your pliers you should of just kept the fish. To me as a catch and release guy I know that a few fish won't make it. Those are the fish that I keep. To me it is a far better way of practicing catch and release. Some guys think that if they release all big fish and only keep a small one once in a while is better But to me there is nothing that bums me out as seeing one of my fish go belly up. Size should not matter in catch and release, instead it should be the survivable chances of each fish. If he is stuck in the gill, stuck in an eye or fin or if kept out of the water too long that is when you should think. "Will this fish live after I release it."

Anyway good to hear your into fish. I still have that package I need to send you. I'll check my stash and see if I have any of "the lure" left. If you have beat up ones let me know. You can send them to me and I will refurbish them. You'll get custom colors that way.

 

Last weekend I was driving on the aqueduct approx. 60 miles South of San Luis Resevoir when a whole family of raccoons came up out of the duct and crossed the road in front of me. I couldn't stop and definitely couldn't swerve and all I heard was thud, thud, thud.

Now last night I went fishing on the duct again and I had caught about fifteen stripers up to five pounds when I nailed a solid fish. You know the kind that when you hook them they don't do all that shaking, they just go about their business as usual. Anyway, the fish was strong, made two or three good runs, before I edged it to the side of the duct.

Beauty of a fish, I estimated about 25 lbs. Okay, I wanted to get him back in the water fast so I go to getting the treble hooks out of him. I had left my needle nose in the truck and after a minute or two I had to run to the truck and get them. I finally got the hooks out,now to get the fished revived.

The duct was flowing pretty fast and I was on the edge and I couldn't keep the fish turned upstream to get water through its gills, so I tried pushing and pulling him and finally he kicked a couple of times and I pushed him off.

Dang, it went belly up and was floating away from me. I thought it might make it, so I let it go. After about 5 minutes I was wondering if the fish made it so I crossed the duct and walked about a half mile down and didn't see the fish. I decided to go a little further and there was the fish floating dead about 5 feet from the edge and drifting downstream with the current. I didn't take my pole so I found a stick and tried to move it closer to me, but I accidentially pushed it further out. The wind changed or something and it started drifting out to the middle. I walked with it a long way, finally realizing the fish may not drift to the edge for hours. It was half a mile to my rod and reel and I figured I'd never find it again. I release almost all my big fish, but usually they swim off well. I guess it is now a part of the food chain. Me and animals aren't getting along recently.

Hey Winch, I caught it on a solid black one. You know the lure. You got any more of those laying around you want to get rid of?

 

 

[put_em_back]

A friend ran over a raccoon with his Mustang about 2 months ago on the way home over hwy 17. About 2 weeks later he is riding his motorcycle over hwy 17 and a raccoon runs out in front of the car in front of him on a curve. The car brakes hard and my friend had to lay the bike down. Lots of road rash, but nothing broken...... karma catching up.

[Inclinejj]

There used to be a couple guys in Pacifica who would come out and trap the Raccoons..I always thought the guy would set them free up in the hills above town..Turns up the guy used to have the Raccoon fest and eat them..

 

The guy used to always laugh and say..Y'all ain'ts from the south you dont's know what your missin'

 

[SCsurfcaster]

Wow so a car breaked hard on 17 to avoid a raccoon and almost killed your friend. I would be so pissed if I was riding a bike and had to lay it down bc someone breaked/swurved to miss an animal on a highway especially like 17.

 

 

people>animals?

[23Piscator]

Hindsight is 20/20 eh? Could've been a 100+lb deer which really would have put a damper on things. You've heard stories about people hitting deer & then having them flip up over the hood & land on your lap. No bueno. As for the fish...it's happened to us all, well, it's happened to me so I feel you on that. Here's to your clear(er) conscious

[SCsurfcaster]

I was coming back from Pacifica one night going to SJ. We were in a small Honda Civic hatchback. We hit a deer and that thing flew off to the side of the road. It musta been on the smaller side, as the damage was a bent bumper and hood. We were lucky the deer bounced off and went to the right instead of hitting it square on and having it roll on top of the hood. THat would of been way worse.

[put_em_back]

Driving from San Jose to Santa Cruz to fish, I saw a deer standing on the side of the road while my dad was driving. As we drove by, it jumped in the air right in front of us and we caught it with the drivers side headlight. It pushed the front fender back about 1/4 inch and wedged in the door.

 

The deer went flying in the air at least 3 or 4ft above eve level so I assume we caught it as it was trying to jump out of the way. We didn't see the deer again, but we at least scared the crap out of it as it was smeared down part of the fender/headlight.

[crashq]

While driving up to 280 to Half Moon Bay early one morning, I watched a motorist a couple of lanes over narrowly miss a deer. As I mentioned to my buddy that the driver was lucky, the deer suddenly did a 180 and ran straight for my truck. I couldn't swerve or jam on the brakes because I was towing my boat. The darn thing ran straight into my driver's side door with his head and horns. He his so hard that his hindquarters swung around and crushed the fender. Then, he got up and ran off.

[Surf Hunter]

Dan, I know how you feel, a few years ago Shannon and I were fishing the Klamath, it was the year they had zero take on salmon over 22" on certain days of the week.

Well, all we had been catching the week so far was jacks and steelhead. Wouldn't you know it, I hook into a nice chromer salmon, fought it for about 10 minutes or so and tailed it, big female fish. Went to revive her and she kept rolling over. I worked with that fish for literally 45 minutes holding its face upstream so water would flow over her gills and nothing. She died in my hands and i had to let her go in the river as you could not keep adults on that particular day.

I felt like total **** after after that. the olnly thing that helped a bit was that Tommy from Little Ray's tackle was there and saw the whole thing. He came over, shook my hand and said i gave it more than anyone he has seen and should be commended.

 

For what it is worth, it happens, on the bright side, you were trying your best to release the fish for you.

 

Tom

[SurfFisher08]

My buddy was driving up in Ben Lomand and hit a doe broadside with his Bronco after coming around a bend. His front end was completely damaged and the deer was laid out in the street still grunting and kicking. They then heard some rustling in the bushes and a fawn poked his head up out of the bushes. Talk about feeling like complete S***, he still feels horrible about orphaning that little fawn and murdering his mother right in front of him. Pretty rough...