# What is wrong with people?



## TeamPlaker (Jul 5, 2006)

This is going to sound like an angry rant.... and it is. A friend of mine once said, "You like fish more than people, you never go out anywhere but you always go to the river." Yeah, that's true and this is good reason why.
A friend of mine told me via PM about a spot on (location removed) where the locals caught a muskie the other day... so I headed up there after work to check it out. I didn't catch any, but made a gruesome discovery that prompted me to pack up my gear and head home... completely disgusted.
My fishin' buddy found a muskie that SHOULD'VE been about 24-27 inches had he not had his flippin' head cut off. Yes... some jack #*&$ was lucky enough to catch one and rewarded himself by taking the fish's head, leaving the body to rot.
First off, I don't like anyone taking a muskie... period. Not for a trophy, not for food. If you want a trophy, win the Superbowl. If you're hungry... Kroger sells fish.
Second, a 24ish inch muskie isn't even a trophy... so WTF?!?! The only reason I could see for this is a trophy or someone is purposely killing these hard to find fish for what? Because they eat other fish like smallmouth?!?! This is a good argument to me why I should never share a spot with another person unless they save my life. People do stupid things, this ranks high up there.
Maybe I'm being silly, after all, it's just a fish.... but it's also stupidity at it's finest. I just see no good reason to do something like this and it's probably a good thing I didn't witness it as I would've certainly had a few choice words for the offender. If someone could explain this to me... I'm all ears.
Here is the pic, try not to vomit......


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## Weatherby (May 27, 2005)

It does make me sick. I have seen enough of this stuff to last a lifetime.

We had this discussion with Elmer and Scott up in Columbus. It IS against the law and we were told to report it. 


They may not be able to do something about this fish but may be able to stop it from happening in the future.


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## jimnrg (Aug 6, 2008)

I felt the same way seeing that pike taken couple of weeks ago. It's too bad people have no respect for our dwindling natural resources. As we talked about on Sunday these fish are not going to be replenished in that area in the foreseeable future.


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

I don't get it man..... What would make someone do that?


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## AEFISHING (Apr 25, 2004)

How do you know it was a person?


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## labman (Sep 13, 2008)

that was just wrong ,the person who done that needs to be taking out back and horse whiped.if your not going to eat it throw it back,i have released several pike over 40 in,take photoes and get a replecia.so about where on todds fork i have fished it a few times i live in lebanon


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## Ajax (May 16, 2008)

This is horrible. I would love to see some Conservation officers in this area. But I doubt one CO has visited Todds Fork in November. Who else can stop unethical sportsmen? I would love for some stiff fines handed out for this behavior. Maybe they would think again.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

Totally understand the rant... Stuff like this and blue plastic worm containers left all along the water just drive me nuts. Ignorant inbred hillbillies!


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

a227986 said:


> How do you know it was a person?


If an animal would have done it, it would have eaten more than just its head.

It disgusts me to see that to a muskie. One of the greatest fish swimming in the water, and someone treated it with no respect. I am 100&#37; catch and release on muskie and thats how it should be. The fact that someone would just cut its head off or cut its gills and then just leave it to rot is plain wrong. 

Muskie don't eat any more smallmouths than any other fish does. People always say that the muskie are eating all their walleye, but in reality walleye probably eat more of their own than a muskie does.

Just wrong!!


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## Still_Waters... (Aug 13, 2008)

It doesn't make any sense to me in the least, and the fact that they left it there... well, that's no sportsman/women at all, I don't care what valid excuse they thought they had for such a gruesome act, there's no excuse for it, it's not a trophy, it wasn't eaten, and if it was for something stupid like the love of a smallmouth then they are more ignorant than they should be given credit for, because it's predators like this that ensure the best strain wins out, that only the fish that can survive with these NATURAL controls win out, I bet if they only caught a mass of dink smallies they'd be up in arms about "conservation" when they have no idea what real conservation is about, all I can say is that sometimes I regret the fact that people are so far up on the evolutionary chain that we don't have a control like that, sometimes it would be nice to not have to deal with stupid people ruining everything for the rest of us who truly care about what's going on, as you may be able to tell Plaker, I'm not much of a people person myself, but even though I choose to only associate with a few people it seems we all have to pay for the mistakes of a select few, I guess that's just a few thousand more casts that this newbie will have to make next year when I get my gear... @#$!%$# idiots...


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## Cincyghosthunter (Jun 4, 2008)

> a227986: How do you know it was a person?


An animal (non human) would have started on the softest tissues first, eyes, underbelly, etc not taking off the whole head which is bony and hard. I was the one who found the fish dumped in a small "puddle", belly up and had to roll it over to get a positive ID, it was then removed from the water for the photo.  

Labman, I was thinking more along the lines of a single loop of spider wire around the idiots neck that did this with one end tied to a bumper of a car...kinda return the favor they perpetrated upon that ski


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## jacmec (Sep 28, 2008)

What would one even do with the head of a muskie? Really uncalled for, sorry you had the misfortune of finding that.


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## 1badmthrfisher (Apr 4, 2005)

All, 

I am a very strong believer in catch and release and would hope someone would not do this by ALL MEANS..

BUT, look at the separation....If someone was going to cut off the head it would be a straight line.. That does not look like a knife... Looks to me like a snapping turtle.. I have seen several lb catfish brought in dead on troutlines in TN with their entire heads bitten off from snapping turtles (Basically the head was all that was left)..... Just food for thought..

Glad to see so many people passionate about C&R Though!!!!!!


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## TeamPlaker (Jul 5, 2006)

a227986 said:


> How do you know it was a person?


The cuts were obviously made with a blade of some sort. Any animal would've gone straight to the body where the bulk of the meat is.

If it were a snapping turtle (which I rarely see) it would've had to be gigantic and i'd be more concerned about my legs while wading. Trust me, the cuts were made with a knife.. it is a possiblity something fed on it after the fact.


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## gulfvet (Apr 14, 2004)

About 2 years ago I heard a guy at a local tackle shop say he was going to do this very sort of thing to muskies from now on. It seems he had been trying to win a bass tourney on CC using big, expensive crankbaits and he lost 3 baits to the muskies in one afternoon. Some folks just don't have the brains that God gave a gopher, or so it seems.


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## cantsleep (Jul 25, 2007)

The sad part to me, well one sad part, it that with the growing assault on all types of outdoor activities, we have to fight just as hard against ourselves. Now I don't consider whoever did this to be a sportsman,(and I'm positve most if not all of the members here don't) but this is the crap that gives ammunition to those who want to curtail or even ban the activities that we love.
Littering and waste are our biggest threats. IMO


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## KATKING (Jun 10, 2006)

I myself havent been lucky enough to catch a muskie yet and to see some jack @$$ would do something like that makes me sick


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## Ol'Bassman (Sep 9, 2008)

What a shame! Do you think whoever did this was just going to mount the head? That's what I think. I doubt it was a turtle. Not that there are not big turtles in this river system. I remember seeing one that was about 30" in diameter and its head was 5" wide but it was in the Ohio river. Besides if it had been a turtle it wouldn't have left the fish up on the bank and it wouldn't have stopped with the head. 

My guess is the person who did this is just ignorant. At least I hope so, because I would hate to think that someone would do this just out of meaness.
________
GLASS BUBBLERS


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

This is one of the reasons I don't even mention Todd's Fork on here anymore. This is my favorite smallmouth stream and every time it gets some attention then people flood to it. Trash starts showing up and the fish seem to be more scarce. This is not a big stream. I've fished it for 33 yrs and have never caught a musky from there. I know they are there though. All I can say is be very careful on saying WHERE you like to fish. I try to stick to how I catch my fish, not where.


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## Red The Fisherman (Oct 1, 2006)

SConner said:


> . Ignorant inbred hillbillies!


Please don't insult hillbillies like this, they are much smarter than the idiot who did this.


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## Bluebuster6912 (Jul 30, 2007)

My Grandparents went to Canada every year for about 20 years Musky and Pike fishing. They always kept and brought back their limit they were aloud.
It became sort of a tradition of the group to take the biggest pike or musky of the trip and keep its head after they cleaned them and make ash trays out of them. Ash Trays made for a good conversation piece when people stopped by. 
In my opinion murdering any fish or animal like the one in the picture is down right childish and stupid. If your not eating them put them back in the water for someone else to catch. I really hope Karma bites people in the but who do this kind of stuff


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## monsterKAT11 (Jun 20, 2004)

gulfvet said:


> About 2 years ago I heard a guy at a local tackle shop say he was going to do this very sort of thing to muskies from now on. It seems he had been trying to win a bass tourney on CC using big, expensive crankbaits and he lost 3 baits to the muskies in one afternoon. Some folks just don't have the brains that God gave a gopher, or so it seems.



and my buddy was at CC the other day at a boat ramp, said he saw a guy put in, go around the corner start cussing up and down, came back...my buddy asked "have any luck" the guy replies with "MUSKIES!, KILLIN ALL THE DAMN BASS IN THIS PLACE, GUNNA START KILLIN EM ALL"


i would probably put my money on a basshead


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## TeamPlaker (Jul 5, 2006)

Mean Morone said:


> This is one of the reasons I don't even mention (location removed) on here anymore. This is my favorite smallmouth stream and every time it gets some attention then people flood to it. Trash starts showing up and the fish seem to be more scarce. This is not a big stream. I've fished it for 33 yrs and have never caught a musky from there. I know they are there though. All I can say is be very careful on saying WHERE you like to fish. I try to stick to how I catch my fish, not where.


I should probably specify then that (location removed) is 95&#37; private property. I am lucky enough to know 2 people who can get me access. The friend who told me about this particular spot said someone caught 1 muskie... obviously, we've seen it's fate. If people who read this post are planning on going and catching one... chances are nearly certain that they are going to be disappointed either by getting skunked or getting run off of someone's property. I have fished (location removed) several times this year for hours on end... I have caught two fish from it... one 12" smallie (give or take) and a sauger that was half the size of my lure. If someone who is reading this has had better luck, then they should keep it to themself.
This is the second time I've had someone mention to me that the location should've been kept private... in retrospect, it should have. I didn't take into consideration the fact that people will think the fishing there would be easy to come by. In my defense, I've never felt that OGF members are anything to worry about, everyone on here seems to not only pick up their trash but in most cases.. the trash left by others. In the years that I've been a member here I've only met one person who I didn't care for.
I'm just glad the weather is changing for the worse and it will keep all the yahoos indoors and away from the rivers and lakes.

I'll remove the location from my previous posts and from now on if I post anything at all... I'm just saying that I caught all my fish in the Sahara Desert. Although I doubt I'll post any kind of reports. It's a shame too because I like to share my pictures and experiences as much as I like to share in everyone elses.


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## jcustunner24 (Aug 20, 2007)

While I agree with you guys on the ridiculous behavior of the person who did it, I have a different theory on why they did it.

Here's my guess. An inexperienced fisherman, alone or with other inexperienced fishermen, hooked the muskie why fishing for smallies in the area. Because of the lack of experience, they likely didn't have a clue how to remove a hook from the mouth of a muskie, so they killed it to get their $5 crank bait back. When the length of the fish became a problem for handling and with the fish already killed, they lopped it's head off and got their lure back.

Sorry to get so Columbo on ya'll, but that's my theory on why the idiots who did this did it. Still every bit as terrible an act, just a different view on why it may have happened.

And for the record, I am 100% C&R on all public fisheries. I keep enough fish for dinner at a private lake that has very little fishing pressure, but I only keep largemouth that are in the 1 to 2 lb class. The babies and the bigguns always go back.


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## SAUGEYE HUNTER (Oct 15, 2008)

They were just scared to get their lure out of its mouth, they just killed it to get it.


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## creekwalker (May 23, 2004)

SConner said:


> ... Stuff like this and blue plastic worm containers left all along the water just drive me nuts.


I'll second that. I posted something about the worm containers on her before and someone mentioned biodegradable worm containers. I think there should be a law of some kind passed that makes all bait dealers have to use biodegradable containers. After all, who needs a worm container that will last for 50 years!? At most you'll keep it around for a week or so...cardboard or the material they make recycled egg cartons from would be fine.



CW


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## Ajax (May 16, 2008)

I have some local resources, so I'm going to do my best to find out who or what did this. My employer is doing some construction that crosses Todds Fork as we speak. And many of our employees are great responsible sportsmen. And they know all the locals. 95&#37; percent of the land on Todds Fork is private. So it receives far less fishing pressure than LMR. Right now Todds Fork has no water flow and the water is pooled up. I'm guessing that a bow hunter did this. Maybe they confused this with a gar and later realized his mistake. I catch and release everything except panfish and walleye (when I go to Erie) and I urge others to do the same. I would really love to see ODNR step up on regulations and put a stop to the overharvest of predator species.


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## Jackfish (Apr 15, 2004)

I've heard about this sort of stuff before, but never seen a pic.... that's so wasteful, turns my stomach to see it....


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## fshnjon (Feb 25, 2008)

The only explanation for this act is ignorance,..the cure is education ,partially what this board is about .If the person who did this saw how.e people reacted im sure they would reconsider there actions .Sharing information is education and in the long run will help people understand basic conservation.
As far as keeping locations secret like a punishment to someone, give me a break ,...I find it hard to believe people flock to posted reports and have a remote chance of duplicating the posters success. Maybe Im nieve .


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## jcustunner24 (Aug 20, 2007)

You are naive. No offense intended, but on this forum, the active users are usually 2 to 1 guests to members. If you go to the forum front page and look at the currently active users or activity from the past 24 hours, you'll almost always see nearly two times as many guests as members. Why do you think those folks keep coming back with nothing to post? It's a shame, but on the smaller waterways, you're better off posting what you caught and how you got it than where. That's why most of the people who fish the rivers don't name much more than the river when they report.

Double edged sword - you love to share info with some, and hate to seem like a selfish prick for keeping your spots secret, but the flood of people to this site per day make once secluded areas a depository for litter. I know most of the members here take the time to clean up after themselves (and in many cases others), but if the people who are too lazy to register and post outnumber the members of the forum 2 to 1, it's logical to conclude that so will the trash.

That's as succinctly as I can put it regarding my experience with that, and I'm relatively new to the forum.


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

gulfvet said:


> About 2 years ago I heard a guy at a local tackle shop say he was going to do this very sort of thing to muskies from now on. It seems he had been trying to win a bass tourney on CC using big, expensive crankbaits and he lost 3 baits to the muskies in one afternoon. Some folks just don't have the brains that God gave a gopher, or so it seems.


Well, it sounds like he won't catch any  he keeps losing em! lol. And there's no crank that's expensive enough to kill a muskie over


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

I'm thinking 1. mistook it for a gar and/or 2. wanted that cheap lure back bad. There is always the chance it was malicious, but hopefully ignorance.
I throw a lot of lures/jigs/spoons right to the bottom and hang up a lot, and lose a lot, and have come to terms with the cost. Some guys I've fished with won't fish the bottom for fear of losing a 10cent jig head with a 10 cent tail. And consequently don't catch many fish.
That being said, TP, it's a shame and a waste, especially when you're excited about such a beautiful and scarce fish like that.
I also agree that there are many more "lurkers" here than members, that DO flock to hot spots that are reported, "report chasers" that won't put the hard work in to figure out how to fish a stretch of river, in different seasons. They want you and me to do the hard work, spend the time fishing and wading and skunking and sometimes catching, so they can walk in and take the spot over and trash it up. Not all guests are like this, but many are. GUESTS, if you don't like this portrayal of your lack of participation, please register on OGF and let us get to know you, instead of gleaning the cream off the top of our posts. 
LMJ


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

Very well put jcustunner24. If any on here have no problems giving specifics on there honey hole, then I say have at it. It's not for me to tell you what to do. I chose not to give any specifics. I will tell you if it is a lake or a river or a stream, but not which lake, river or stream unless they are so big that they would never find my spots anyway. I will give conditions such as air and water temps if I know them. I will tell you if the water is clear or stained. I will tell you what lure and how I worked it. I would rather learn how to catch fish than where. More enjoyable for me. To each his own. Now those that I know will get more detailed info. Thats still my choice. LMJ knows about High Horse Point, Big Bruiser Bank, Backside Island and Big Buffalo Point. You have to get on my good side to know where these honey holes are.


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Mean Morone said:


> High Horse Point, Big Bruiser Bank, Backside Island and Big Buffalo Point. You have to get on my good side to know where these honey holes are.


UUHH! Set the Hook, Scott! 
Don't EVER bring those names up to me again, unless of course I'm in the boat with you and Todd and the drag is scream'n and HEY, isn't that Striper on it's HIGH HORSE?
LOL!
LMJ


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## Loomis (May 20, 2006)

I agree... I also fish a lot of the rivers and creeks... And i definately know what Jay (TeamPlaker) is talking about getting PM's from supposed friends wanting to go fishing. Well needless to say, I took someone from the forum with me to fish 4 mile creek when I lived in Oxford. The next day I came back to see beer cans all over the place with the same guy and his friends there fishing with a stringer full of Smallies.

You can imagine how I felt...

(I still like to help people though, but now am very wary who I go fishing with)


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## Day81 (Jun 27, 2008)

Who does this stuff? this is a sick world.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

Red The Fisherman said:


> Please don't insult hillbillies like this, they are much smarter than the idiot who did this.


Sorry not trying to offend, just using an old expression to make a point. How about just ignorant inbred


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

Hey LMJ, CRAZY FISH ISLAND!


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Mean Morone said:


> Hey LMJ, CRAZY FISH ISLAND!


bbbrrrr!
lmj
http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=21175


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## Juan More Fish (Apr 1, 2007)

What they did is wrong.
There will be a HIGHER price /God to pay at some point!
You fish for sport/Fun as in catch and relase or for food.
I cant believe another true fisherman would mutilate a fish. Thats sad. Sorry for my soapbox guys.


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## reiner52 (Jun 14, 2008)

learning to fish and fish a particular area is half the fun, i enjoy catching fish like all of you , but i really enjoy trolling around mapping, looking for things, keeping journals , as much as anything. really satisfying when you do catch that nice fish because of the work youve put in. all the people on this site have been really nice and i hope to meet more. i live close to cj so im trying to learn the lake and several of you regulars have been helpful . ill still be out there till it freezes, and be ready to ice out fish for muskies at my fav lake up north from here a little,. well good luck all


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## big_b16 (Oct 17, 2004)

monsterKAT11 said:


> and my buddy was at CC the other day at a boat ramp, said he saw a guy put in, go around the corner start cussing up and down, came back...my buddy asked "have any luck" the guy replies with "MUSKIES!, KILLIN ALL THE DAMN BASS IN THIS PLACE, GUNNA START KILLIN EM ALL"



Doubt it. According to this story, a guy put in, went around a corner, came back. In that time he made an assessment that there were no bass in the lake and Muskies were the culprit. Usual story that some people post every few months.


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## Cincyghosthunter (Jun 4, 2008)

Not that I expect it to do any good, but I have reported this to the ODNR this week.


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## jeepguyjames (Sep 24, 2008)

thats pretty messed up, it makes me sick/angry when some one mis-uses our recources in such a way, i have an 8 year old that loves to fish and knuckle heads like this or others who keep more than their limit or leave all their trash in or around the water could have an impact on his fishing future. fishing is a privelage and should be treated as such.


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