Today’s Angling: Part 1 

Let’s be honest — we fisherman have an amazing plethora of technology at our disposal, a far cry from the early days of fishing technology. Remember the flasher sonar and weighted thermometers attached to the end of the revolutionary monofilament line?

Now, the proliferation of technology has put incredible fish finding and catching power at our fingertips. Sonars now utilize GPS, multi-directional transducers, down imaging, waypoints, course mapping, not to mention downloadable lake maps. This is just a thumbnail of what is available electronically.

On the hardware end, we have super skinny lines, ultra strong and sensitive rods matched with sophisticated reals. Hologram image lures, chemical-trigger infused baits and ultra sharp hooks take it one step further. To round it all out, it is now easier than ever to exchange information with one another about our fish catching. We have become much more successful catching fish as a result of these things.

Bow Narrows guest Darryl Hamer releasing a 43-inch pike.

In response to how much easier it is to catch many fish, resource management experts have adjusted possession/daily limits for both size and quantity. Catch and release, as well as catch/photo/release (CPR), are routinely practiced. All this is helping greatly to sustain our fisheries.

In summary, we are catching more fish and then releasing more fish than ever. We need to take a look at how we angle and handle our fish with the same enthusiasm as researching the latest fish-catching techniques and equipment.

In my search for information, I have found many articles and full-blown research papers on this subject, which in itself speaks to the importance of this topic.

Here are the links for you to read on this subject. One excellent article by Northland Outdoors summarized the factors we anglers need to consider such as time out of water, proper fish holding, fishing depth and more.

Photo compliments of Northland Outdoors.

A more formal, acedemic study can be found in this article by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources: