2/20/16 In Spite of It All

I usually don't post these kinds of things but a few things happened this past weekend that really made me pretty upset. I was fishing a local river for Pike and not having much luck with it. It was a beautiful day out and the river was in really good shape, the clearest it has been while I was fishing. The sand and rock bottom was clearly visible. Unfortunately all sorts of junk that somehow found it's way into the river was also right there on display. I decided to paddle up to a dam to see if fish were running upstream and stacking up below the dam yet. There were a few people fishing from the bank. From across the way it looked like they were fishing on the bottom with cut bait and each had a bobber out with a minnow on it. After a little bit one of the guys caught a small fish. I couldn't tell exactly what it was but it looked like a Pike, maybe a 16''er. He unhooked it and stood there with it for a minute. I was watching, wondering if he was going to release it. He then turned and threw the fish as far as he could onto the bank. It bounced off of the concrete and came to a stop. I don't care if people want to take a few fish home to eat and I often take fish home to eat myself. I didn't think too much of it other than I was positive that the fish was too small to keep if it actually was a Pike. I went back to fishing. I tried pretty much everything I could think of to no avail. After a couple of hours went by, the guys on the bank were packing up to leave. The guy that caught the fish earlier waved me over. Out of curiosity, I went over to see what he wanted. When I got over to him he told me that the Pike usually stack up right by the bank where he was standing and that if I was after Pike I should try near the bank where he was standing. I asked him if he caught a Pike earlier. This is where things got weird. Here is how the conversation went:

Him: Yeah I got a small Pike earlier.
Me: Oh ok. You're taking him home to eat then?
Him: No I don't eat 'em, but we never throw 'em back.
Me: Why don't you throw them back?
Him: If you throw 'em back they come right back and bite again. So we leave 'em on the bank till we're done.
Me: So you killed that fish for no reason?
Him: Oh no he ain't dead. They can live a long time without being in the water this time of year.
Me: Yeah right. There is no way that fish is still alive.
Him: Sure he is. If I put him back in the water he'll swim right away!
Me: Yeah I really doubt that and even if he does he will probably die later.
Him: Here I'll show you! (goes to look for fish)
Him: (after a lot of looking around) I guess he musta got back to the water. They know where the water is.

I can't imagine a fish being thrown on concrete and then being left out of water for several hours would be fine afterwards. I tried to explain this to him but you could tell it was no use. He explained to me that he had been fishing this dam for over 40 years and knew a lot more about fishing than I did. I have no doubt that this guy believes he knows what he is talking about, but damn. If he does this every time he fishes he could really be hurting the fishery that I am here to enjoy. After he left, I got out of my kayak and looked around to see if I could find the Pike. I also did not find it so maybe it did get back to the water. The other thing that really bugged me was when I was out of my kayak, I was truly appalled by how much garbage was on the bank. Paper, plastic, glass bottles, styrofoam containers, fishing line, and the filleted carcass of a Largemouth Bass littered the shore. I am not saying that it is just fishermen leaving all this crap behind, but why can't people in general pick up after themselves? What the hell is wrong with the human race? I'm really not sure how other animals survive on this planet with us. In spite of it all there is still good fishing in this river. I'm really not sure how.