Hard water Pike

[Mikey topaz]

Just a heads up guy since i was the first one there this year along with FE on jan 7th we have seen alot of dead pike and pickerl not as worse as the great dealware river catfish massacre of 2015 but pretty close!!!

[UglyStick]

The ice pike slaughter makes me wonder the impact it will have on the spring trap netting NJ F&W does in order to get the brood stock to make the 2016 pike...

[Delawareriver]

Originally Posted by Esox Luciano

Soo, after reading more proper handling threads and responses given, had to come back here. This guy is a veteran, so there is NO EXCUSE!!

True Mikey...but he was seen releasing these fish after gaffing them out. How many more went belly up is a good question. As Mr. Delawareriver stated,there is blood in all these pics! If the numbers given by Mr. Merchant are correct,(hope they're not for the lake's sake), than a lot of pike died that day.
I search the Web a lot and seen more than a few pics of Mr. Merchant with fish in hand. With no ownership being shown...are we to expect every fish eligible for "that glory shot" was mishandled & possibly dead? With no response from o.p., I have to say yes.
You got caught out there dude. Pull up on your fishing etiquette!

Said it for awhile, just reading reports by Zach on different pages and websites they always came off to me about publicity and glory shots. Just like this thread started he had a good day on budd, wanted everyone to know but hasn't posted since. Being a good angler is much more then just being able to catch fish. I will also say he was fishing with the owner of behre bait and tackle on the day I saw them on budd, which really surprised me of all guys not to show some common sense.

[FASTEDDIE29]

FLAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEEZE PRACTICE CATCH AND RELEASE!!! Protect our PRECIOUS RESOURCE!!!

[zmerchant7]

Ok guys, so since all of you drama queens seem to like to act like you're still in high school, I guess I have some facts to clear up here.... first of all, yes, SOME fish were gaffed, and no they were NOT released... and by some fish, I mean a total of 4. The fish that were kept were put back down a hole ON A STRINGER so they didn't get wind burn. And before any of you guys start saying "oh, but you can't keep that many" just let me say that there were 4 of us fishing, and I'm assuming you guys can do the math on that.... as far as the observation of "there's blood in all the pics" that all of you forensic investigators seem to have made, none of you seem to mention the fact that "all of those pictures" are only of two different fish; one of which was indeed gaffed and is currently sitting at the taxidermist, and the other which was NOT gaffed, but instead got hooked in the gill and was kept because of the excessive bleeding. I hope that clears some of your assumptions of a "fish massacre" up, since you all seem to be experts on events that you weren't even there for and start s**t based on inaccurate observatons from a third party. Now that that's cleared up, onto the subject of you people out there that are accusing me of fishing for "glory shots" and having "poor fishing ediquitte"...... I'd like to point out that each and everyone one of you that has been saying that about me, has either never met me in person, or has only met me briefly, and either way have never even fished with me before. So how can you know why I take pictures with fish, or how I supposedly have "poor fish handling" skills? The fact is; you can't and don't know.... and both of those accusations couldn't be farther from the truth. Anybody that has ever fished with me before can vouch for me 110% that I take the best possible care for any fish that I plan on releasing, and that I am extremely responsible with what fish I do harvest to say the least. So if any of you little high school girls decide to start making accusations and rumors, whatever you want to call them, based on pictures of me in which I am clearly doing nothing wrong, either fishing ediquitte wise, or legally in the eyes of NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife; you should learn to grow the f**k up and keep your comments and thoughts to yourself, instead of bad mouthing someone you've never even met just because you "get that vibe" from them. And if you ask me, that's some of the poorest fishing etiquette you can have. If there ever comes a time where i am indeed doing something wrong, or in "poor fishing etiquette", by all means call me out on it and talk all the s**t you want about me, though i know that time will never come so you guys should learn to keep your mouths shut and your rude comments and assumptions to yourselves. Some of you may think I'm an a**hole for saying a lot of this, but it had to be said and I couldn't care less.

[zmerchant7]

P.S. thank you to the very few people on this thread that were able to keep their comments mature and didn't jump to conclusions

[RyanMac14]

Sorry that you had to go through explaining yourself even though no one had any proof of anything. Good to hear the real story.

[jrock]

Damnnnnnnnn that was great zmerchant. You know what's funny is that there are animal rights activists that feel fishing for fun in any shape or form is a cruel act. Putting a hook through any fish and risking killing them even with the best handling for ones own pleasure is a vile act according to them. And they have been known to blast regular anglers online the same way you were blasted because of their apposing views. Now my point isn't that I agree with them just pointing out that many poeple have different opinions. That being said there are a bunch of great guys on here with boatloads of fishing knowledge. Please don't let this one incident turn you off. You put some great reports up here and the round valley Facebook page. As long as you follow fish and game laws, all the other oppinnions are just that oppinnions. Check out my previous posts and you will see I've had knuckleheads comment on my post several times. Like I said looking past those I was able to meet some great guys on this site. Just remember fellows we all share the same love of the outdoors here. We should all be on the same team.

[Jigman13]

Prob a good time to lock this here thread up... seems like it has reached an unneeded precipice. Legally kept fish... not much else to say.

[liveitup1.75liter]

It was just getting good!!! 1 more thing.. if u see something going down go say something.. jus walking away doesn't do s***t.. Be advised..this only pertains to fishing tho!!!