Seasonal Affective Disorder

An old one I wrote for sexyloops.com 

It's that time of year again, a time of cheer and goodwill to all men and, unfortunately, for the redd caught browns to start showing up on intagram. It took a bit longer than last year for me to notice. Probably because most of the higher profile culprits have blocked me for calling it out over the last few years.

I don't think people will ever completely stop fishing for spawning fish and kelts, whether because of ignorance or greed. It is something that can be reduced though, I'm sure a lot of inexperienced angler's who catch fish on redds don't realise what they're doing and if given the opportunity to learn, would change their behaviour.  Some in the States try to justify it by saying browns are invasives, but that's bullshit. If they cared about that they'd be killing the fish and backing a removal programme.

 The thing is, when you see these posts online you'll also see comments of encouragement from the big fishing companies and/or media outlets. What's even is worse some of the people posting the photos are "prostaffers", actually employed by these companies or guides-the guy who most recently blocked me was a guide in Hokkaido. Admittedly the social media employee for, say Simms, might not really be that much of a fishing person but when they're all over the posts supporting the behaviour it just provides positive reinforcement which encourages more people to target them. Spawning browns look amazing, or they would if they weren't covered in spawning damage, but it doesn't matter, all the fish should be left alone to breed regardless of the opportunity to make a popular social media post. The industry really must do better on this front.

 

The POD is a  snipped image from social media, I've only shown the tail but the fish was covered in the usual fin damage and bite marks around the head.