About NCCC

[Ed]

Due to recent events on this message board, I've found it neccessary to clarify our feelings on "catch & release" versus "catch, kill and eat" carp fishing. I think I'm speaking for the majority of our members here but if any of you disagree with the following, please let us know.

This club was started by Steve Gibbons and myself to promote catch & release carp angling in Northern California by having derbies and unofficial get togethers where we can combine some C & R carp fishing with socializing and telling fish stories. While it's obvious that we are not interested in killing numbers of carp in any way, we realize that a small percentage of our members might wish to occasionally take a small carp (3- 6 lbs or so) for eating purposes. I don't have a problem with that and hope that none of us do as long as it's not discussed on this board. What causes the problems with C & R anglers versus carp eaters is that just about all carp eaters that we've run into, keep all sizes of fish including the rare trophy size carp in the 20, 30 and higher pound classes. Although perfectly legal just about everywhere, it goes against everything we as C & R carp anglers stand for. Therefore it would be better for all concerned if carp eating fishermen, especially those that keep the larger fish, would refrain from accessing this message board. I imagine there are message boards out there that accept the carp killing and eating fishermen's viewpoint.

[baitbucket]

Lets say your best carp is 19lb and you wish to catch a bigger one, first you need to find a lake that contains bigger ones, you could spend a lot of time fishing places that havent got the size you are after, the bigger you want the less places there are too choose from. so you find the lake youve sifted thru all the rumours about the big fish in there, you might be lucky enough to even see one that you KNOW to be big cruising around, you start fishing the water regular you meet someone with a plausible story about a very big one that was caught and released even get to see a photo, this spurs your eforts on. truth is that could be the largest in the lake, it didn't live long enough to grow that big by not being cautious therefore its not going to be easy unless lady luck helps aswell, you might spend a couple of years pursuing this goal catching other smaller ones along the way. when one day you arrive to fish and find someone in your favoured spot fishing where you were the evening before with a thirty maybe forty pound plus carp laying dead on the ground next to them in bad condition where theyve dragged it up the bank over the rough ground, theres the goal you were trying to achieve that youve just spent 2 years trying for, you would be really pissed off and have to start all over. especially if they just took it for proof and threw it away after. there are scales, specially made wiegh slings so its not strung by the gills, and cameras these matched with HONESTY AND INTEGRITY should be all the proof required.
I know this is a hyperthetical example but i know some one who caught a mirror carp of 15lb in 1975 that fish got caught about once a year after that by various other people, it was the biggest in that lake, iwas priveliged enough to catch it in 1981 it was 10+ heavier, stood as my pb for years until i bettered it on another lake.
then a few years ago i had a spell of fishing that lake again and ended up catching it again at a larger wieght to beat the previous and is still my pb. morale being that the guy who had it in 1975 when a mere 15lbr (even then the largest in that lake) and some others since had not put it back i would never have caught it along with  some other people who could say the same, and it is still there nowplease dont get the impression it gets caught alot it usually gets plenty of time between captures.
large specimins take too long to grow to be killed for the sake of it, many people think if theres one theres more this is not allways the case sizewise.
Baitbucket.

[Steve Gibbons]

Hello everyone,

I must also echo the same sentiments as Ed with respect to this issue. As most of you are already aware, I grew up in the state of Michigan, which has more fresh water shoreline that anywhere else on this planet.

As a consequence, sport fishing is one of the most popular pasttimes in that state. Back in the 60s when I was cutting my teeth as an angler, "Carp" where regarded with the same disdain as the common rat. To put it bluntly; it was considered the sworn duty of all Michigan anglers to kill as many carp as possible, whenever or wherever  you encountered them.

And I killed my share, too. But times have changed and I'd like to think that we are all a little more "enlightened" with respect to killing for the sake of it. But what about subsistence fishing?

That's all well and good if you are in urgent need of a meal and fishing is one of your main sources to procure food for yourself and your family. Last time I checked however, none of our members are in a position where they need to kill "anything" to survive.

So the "sport" part of the equation now comes into play. Sure, I've given away a few fish in the hope to keep an eater from keeping larger adults and I've even gone so far as to trade channel cats for carp. You should have seen the look I got from the eaters when I released the carp I had just traded for right in front of them! In a way, that sent a message to those eaters and I recall not seeing a few of them nearly as often afterward as they got the hint that they (i.e. their old country ways) were not welcome in the new world of very small urban lakes that can be easily fished out by a handful of skilled anglers.

Keeping trout, carpie and other sport fish is fine providing that the species can recover from its losses. Conservation comes into play here and in small urban lakes where the fish are stocked on a regular basis you can keep whatever the legal limit is because the supply is pretty much endless.

On the other hand, carp are not stocked and are left on their own to survive. With no legal limits to prevent over harvest, any skilled angler could put a serious dent in the carp population in a small urban lake; especially if they are systematically hunting for the larger "breeding" adults.

Huge lakes such as Clear Lake are a different matter of course, but groups like the bowfishing crowd don't go after the smaller fish to "perserve" the trophy size adults. No, they go out of their way to kill the biggest adults they can find, which ultimately triggers a massive spawn and fills the swim with small carp. Just ask the SCCC guys about Lake Elsinore and several other large lakes that have had large numbers of adults taken from the environment.

The bottom line of the NCCC is Catch & Release and that's the premise the club was founded on. It is our sincere desire to preserve our sport for future generations and like the wimp mouth bass folks, we strive to promote our particular segment of sport angling by practising catch & release conservation. Having been on both sides of the fence in my lifetime, I understand the old world traditions of eaters. But they have no place in this club and if they do not wish to follow our catch & release mandate, they can go elsewhere for their social entertainment.

Best Regards,

Steve Gibbons

[LegCramp]

omg you traded catfish for anything other pure gold you got rused.......they are the Best fish in the world......lololol

Just kidding I fish for anything that fights.

[Anthony]

Due to recent events on this message board, I've found it neccessary to clarify our feelings on "catch & release" versus "catch, kill and eat" carp fishing. I think I'm speaking for the majority of our members here but if any of you disagree with the following, please let us know.

This club was started by Steve Gibbons and myself to promote catch & release carp angling in Northern California by having derbies and unofficial get togethers where we can combine some C & R carp fishing with socializing and telling fish stories. While it's obvious that we are not interested in killing numbers of carp in any way, we realize that a small percentage of our members might wish to occasionally take a small carp (3- 6 lbs or so) for eating purposes. I don't have a problem with that and hope that none of us do as long as it's not discussed on this board. What causes the problems with C & R anglers versus carp eaters is that just about all carp eaters that we've run into, keep all sizes of fish including the rare trophy size carp in the 20, 30 and higher pound classes. Although perfectly legal just about everywhere, it goes against everything we as C & R carp anglers stand for. Therefore it would be better for all concerned if carp eating fishermen, especially those that keep the larger fish, would refrain from accessing this message board. I imagine there are message boards out there that accept the carp killing and eating fishermen's viewpoint.

? 

Anthony!