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Combat Fishing

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 11:58 -- jmaslar

I happened across an article in reviewjournal.com that mentioned Doug Nielsen's experience with combat fishing after the waters of Boulder Harbor were stocked.  The article was written by Freelance writer Doug Nielsen who is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.  It seems that Doug arrived at the Harbor just after the fish stocking truck had finished the stocking of trout.  Here is Doug's comment "The fishing pier already was packed with anglers who were casting assorted hardware and other trout baits. Many were stacked up at the end of the pier, while others were spread out between there and the shoreline."

I could not help but laugh as I have experienced "Combat Fishing" several times over the past several years.  The first time that I saw it was at Stone Mountain State Park in North Carolina.  As the truck drove along the road, it would stop to stock the rainbows at the larger convenient pools.  Right behind the stocking truck were a few car loads of fishermen who must have been aware of the stocking schedule.  As fast at the trout hit the water, the men were lined up elbow to elbow fishing with spinning rods and dough balls.  After they had their limit of hungry rainbows they left.  Some were some trout that survived until the next day and then the pools were empty once again.

My second experience with "Combat Fishing" came while I was in the Kenai River in Alaska just in time for the Silver Salmon to run.  We took our place next to about 100 other fishermen who were jockeying for space.  Soon, I became discouraged since I never had combat training, and the trout were viewed with disdain because the big thing was the Silvers. We soon left to pursue and capture some nice rainbows from the Russian River.