PETA's New Anti-Fishing Campaign

I was checking my e-mail this afternoon and on the right-hand side in the sponsored links section (I have a G-mail account) I saw a link that said, Fishing Hurts - If you wouldn't impale a dog in the mouth, why do it to a fish?

It has been a while since PETA has gone after the angling community, but they are at it again (and putting links right in my 'in-box' without actually SPAMing me.....clever anti's) with their new fishinghurts.com website and billboards. Normally, I would add a link to my blog directly to the site, but I don't want to give this site any "authority", so if you want to see it you'll have to go directly to it.

The entire campaign is relatively benign - just another emotionally charged PETA ideal that states hooking a fish is the same as hooking a child or a dog and that catch and release fishing kills fish. I have some sour news for PETA: I have already caught and released the same fish three times this year. I know it is the same fish since it has a big slash on its side - probably from an Osprey.

Surprisingly, they don't go after fishing tournaments. They do say that a "2006 study conducted during and after a Wisconsin fishing tournament found that hundreds of fish who were caught and released had died within a few days", but that is the extent of it. Probably because the tournament trails keep records of fish mortality. Last year I fished five BFL tournaments. Now admittedly I don't remember the exact number of fish that we weighed during the season. I do remember, however, that our mortality rate was less than 5%.

Anyway, like all PETA campaigns, this one carries about as much clout as wet dish rag and will soon fade away, but in the meantime, here are a few things you can do to decrease the presence of this campaign on-line:

1. Don't click out on banner ads or sponsored links - although they ultimately have to pay for each click, it adds "authority" to their page in search engines.



2. Don't place links in blogs or anywhere else when you are discussing this campaign - again, click-outs from links add "authority" and move them up the search engine pages.

I am sure posting this around the internet only helps their cause, but I think it is important to let anglers know what the anti's are up to. Remember the old saying...Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

What The FLW ?*!@!?

As you can probably imagine, I set my DVR to record all of the FLW and BASS tournaments. Last night I sat down to watch the FLW Tour event from Lake Toho in Florida and saw Hulk Hogan flexing in a Fantasy Fishing T-shirt...What the hell is Hulk Hogan doing endorsing Fantasy Fishing? Whose ideas was that? What does a washed-up wrestler have to do with fishing? I paused the show and went to the FLW website; guess what....yep - Hulkamania is alive and well at FLW Outdoors!

Now, I don't have anything aginst "The Hulkster", but come on - the guy is a trainwreck. Have you seen his Television show? I am curious to know how FLW Outdoors came to the conclusion that he would be a good spokesman?

What about Rowdy Roddy Piper or Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka or "Nature Boy" Ric Flair? All of these guys are WWE Hall of Famers and are all probably looking for a little work. What does all this have to do with fishing? About as much as Hulk Hogan does...nothing. That being said, my vote would have been for Sgt. Slaughter with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair a close second.

Ultimate match Fishing - you are over the line!

I have watched Ultimate Match Fishing since the beginning. The format is great fun to watch: two top-notch professional anglers fish a four quarter match, each getting two quarters to fish from the front deck. If they cast over the imaginary line that runs through the center of the boat they get docked weight - heaviest bag wins. Some of the highlights for me were watching Luke Clausen school everyone from the back of the boat using a shaky head, Gerald Swindle's meltdown after being backed into the bank for a whole quarter, Kelly Jordan’s deep water clinic with a jigging spoon where he boated an estimated 18 pounds in nine minutes, and seeing Luke Clausen disqualified for his inability to count. This winter I have been watching the College Edition of UMF. First of all, I have to extend props to these collegiate anglers; They earned the privilege to fish this format. Most of them seem like good guys who have their game together and represent their schools well, but I am disappointed with some of the competitors and what UMF is allowing them to do.

The first disappointing incident was from an angler on the front deck. When his competitor hooked a fish from the back, he put the trolling motor on high and took off - making it difficult for him to boat the fish. This happened in successive matches. The second noteworthy incident was from an angler in the back of the boat. He was using his competitor’s rod and the referee, Mark Randolph, called him on it (albeit after a brief discussion with Joe Thomas). This, on top of not having a fish in the box, caused him to throw a small fit which ended with him throwing the rod a in the lake! Granted, he was holding the line and it didn't end up on the bottom, but in my opinion he should have been disqualified from the match immediately. My hat goes of to the angler in control of the boat for playing it cool. If that was me I might have lost it.

These incidents were small lapses in judgment by the anglers, but I brought them up to make a point: In a sport where we preach good sportsmanship and ethics, and professional anglers are disqualified for poor judgment in these areas, UMF has forgotten that even though these guys are not high-profile anglers, they are still very influential because the are on T.V.. These anglers should be held to the highest standards and next time should be disqualified or docked weight for their actions. So Ultimate Match Fishing...you are over the line!

Obviously this is my opinion. What do you think?

Ultimate Match Fishing