Confession is good for the soul, so here goes.
I love to fish. I also love seafood. And I enjoy eating what I catch, so I guess that makes me a meat fisherman. Having confessed that, I also practice catch and release, just not exclusively. And yes, I’ll say that I’m a meat eater as a matter of pride, not of shame.
Catch and release, rightfully so, has become the norm, necessity or the law in most fisheries, both fresh and salt. You name it, tarpon in Florida, billfish in the offshore canyons, largemouth bass and freshwater trout across the country. Catch and release is the high road in angling. That doesn’t mean that legally catching and keeping fish is the low road, but I think sometimes catch and release purists may view it that way.
The striped bass fishery is the epitome of what one might view as rather snobbish thinking. One bright November morning a few years ago, my son Tom, who had a striped bass bonus tag, took a 27-incher, as was his legal right. Another surf fisherman approached him and asked Tom if he was aware of the striper fishing regulations. “I sure am,” Tom responded. “I have a bonus tag for that fish.” The stranger drove his beach buggy off in a huff, but not before taking a picture of Tom’s beach buggy.
On a hunch, Tom checked some social media websites and sure enough, that stranger slammed him for taking that fish, as if it were illegal if not immoral. Tom defended himself, posting a picture of the legally tagged fish next to a tape measure. He received a few bravos from other like-minded anglers before the administrator took the original offensive post down.
As a retired Deputy Sheriff, my lodestar in taking fish has always been the law. I obsessively follow the law to the letter, and insist my fishing companions do the same. So, as an unabashed meat fisherman, if I want to legally take a fish home for dinner, please don’t try to push your uncompromising personal values on me. I fully respect your decisions and opinion – as long as they’re legal – but you’ve got to respect mine in return. There’s room for all of us.
The aforementioned striped bass bonus tag, courtesy of the New Jersey Striped Bass Bonus Program, is an excellent program for both the catch and release angler as well as the old-school meat fisherman. For the meat eater, it spices up the possibility of legally taking a 24- to less than 28-incher home for dinner; and to the inveterate catch and release fisherman, it provides a chance to use a badly hooked, undersized fish that will most likely die.
The meticulous requirements to obtain and keep a bonus tag are challenging, yet satisfying: you must properly submit reports and logs, even if you catch no stripers. You are contributing valuable, aggregate information to New Jersey’s striped bass fishery. And the more information our collective fisheries managers receive, the better the fishery.
Counterintuitive as it may seem to some, today’s true “meat fisherman” loves their fishery as much as the diehard catch and releaser. We’re all in this together, and we all want enough fish to survive and thrive for tomorrow’s catch – or meal. For me, legally catching, keeping and cooking a fish brings home one inexorable fact: whatever we eat was alive at one time. We should think that about all of the food that we eat.
Eating what I legally catch is not just some atavistic, wild man orchestration, but is instead a ritual that feeds both body and soul. A healthful, wholesome, homemade fish dinner helps me re-live a good fishing trip all over again, and keeps the fish alive in my memory. The meal punctuates why man started fishing – feeding himself and his loved ones. I know where the fish came from and how it got to my plate. It satisfies an instinct as natural as hunger itself.
Plus, a striped bass filet, pan-seared in butter and garlic with a touch of Old Bay Seasoning, just tastes so darn good!
