How many fish do you eat?

[WSU]

The discussion about lifting fish out of the water made me reflect on how I've evolved as a fisherman.  I used to want to kill everything.  I still like to harvest fish but have found I can fairly easily catch more fish than I eat in a timely fashion.

I find that a halibut or two, a half dozen kings, and some tuna is typically more than my family will eat in, say, six or eight months.  I don't like to keep fish any longer than that, as I feel the quality goes down.  I can a lot of the tuna, so they last years with no ill-effect.  I find myself becoming a "fish snob" and only keep a few of the best eating fish.  Most fall chinook go home with friends.  URBs, Youngs bay brights at B10 and ocean fish (not 90% of the puget sound kings I catch but I'm in deep south sound) are the exceptions.  I only keep chrome coho, don't eat winter steelhead, etc.  I won't smoke fish that I wouldn't want to eat fresh (prime fish).  As a result, I release a lot of fish and give away/share a lot of fish. 

So, how many fish do others keep and eat?  Some folks keep and eat dozens of salmon a year.  I have no beef with whatever your approach is a long as it is eaten and enjoyed.  For hatchery fish, I don't care if you use it for fertilizer or bait.

[Dhoey07]

I use to fish the Cowlitz around the Holidays when i was back visiting family.  I use to fish the Snake in the fall for steelhead and Springers in May.  I use to make a trip in early August for sockeye at Brewster. I use to make a trip a year to the Ronde but I've stopped doing all that when the Columbia River Endorsement came out.

Now, I take my kids to a local lake for panfish and go to Roosevelt for some winter shore fishing.  If I had to put a number on the fish I keep from this state it would probably amount to around 50, but that's mostly perch and crappie. 

I now get my salmon from a friendly commercial fisherman that I met on a local hunting forum 

[Jake Dogfish]

I evolved from eating almost everything, to complete catch and release, back to keeping everything but wild trout and salmon.
My wife eats as much fish and seafood as I can catch. 

[WSU]

I wish we (me included) liked to eat seafood more often.  I like it when we cook it, but we don't seem to eat it more than once or twice a month.  I'd love to eat fish twice a week or more but never seem to make it happen.

[7mmfan]

Number wise, I eat probably 15-20 salmon/steelhead a year, and as many bottom fish as I can get ahold of. That's tougher as I don't have a saltwater boat, so I have to take advantage of ride alongs. Like you, I'm pretty picky about the fish I eat. June summer runs, spring chinook, and ocean coho pretty much make up the majority of those fish.

[WSU]

Maybe my next thread will be a recipe thread so I can up my game and eat more fish!

[Stein]

We pretty much eat everything we can get our hands on.  When you have two growing kids that have eaten good fish since they were young, they really can put the stuff away.  I would have to be incredibly lethal to be able to catch more than we can eat.

[cavemann]

I'm lucky to have anything left by this time of year..  we eat about everything we can keep.  Kids love it and are not as picky so a free meal is a free meal.  We keep about 12 salmon a year and countless koks depending on how often I can get out.  Koks are usually gone the weekend we catch.

[blackpowderhunter]

well since i didnt shoot an elk this year....a lot 
but in all seriousness, as much as i love eating fresh salmon and crab, i also love being out there, and getting people out who have never caught a salmon, or gone crabbing.
it's an enjoyable day on the water, and then we can share the bounty.
love having frozen crab cakes in the freezer year round though, and lots of smoked salmon vac sealed and frozen is always great to pull out for a treat, or to make a dip, or bring to a party.

[Wetwoodshunter]

I probably eat fish at least 3 times a week. Typically will cook it for dinner once and have leftovers for my lunch or breakfast later within the week.

I basically only go fishing for whatever the species is that I want to put in my freezer or who ever I am with wants in theirs.

I also give a lot of fish away to family and friends. It seems to make people really happy.

[jamesfromseattle]

I used to do a lot of catch and release fishing (including some time as a fly fishing bum living out of a car and fishing every day), but I have lost my stomach for catch and release fishing. Now I just fish to kill and eat and leave them alone otherwise. A couple bottomfish trips (lings and rockfish) and about 5-10 salmon trips a year usually gets my wife and I through the year. I’m going to ballpark the average at about 30 fish Leo per year now. We eat fish a couple times a week plus occasional crab, shrimp, and prawns in season.

My wife has also put a moratorium on releasing fish. I can fish all I want as long as I am bringing something home. In her opinion catch and release fishing is less worthwhile than doing chores around the house. I guess there are worse qualities to have in a wife than that.

[pianoman9701]

The only fish I keep are stocked rainbow. Everything else goes back - bass mostly. I don't get much of a chance to fish for salmon or sturgeon anymore or I'd keep some of those. Never been ocean fishing on the West Coast except one salmon trip out of SF, CA.

[The Marquis]

I eat a lot of fish.  I smoke probably on average 10 per month of Kok or Trout (not each month).  So 120 a year and we eat the smoked stuff quickly.  I'll probably eat fish otherwise about once per week whether it's just fish or in something like a soup or dip or something.  My family probably eats 250-300 fish in 12 months, mostly Trout, Kokanee, Shad and Perch.  That's going to change this year as I plan to put my efforts into shellfish more.

[Sandberm]

I wish I liked to eat bass as there are tons of em in the sanke river to be caught but I just do not really care for the taste of bass/bluegill/crappie vs perch/walleye , catfish or salmon/steelhead/trout which I do enjoy.

 I might eat 2-3 dozen trout, a few walleye and a couple dozen perch, and 1 or 2 catfish per year. Wish I was a better fisherman/fished more often as i would eat fish more often.

[throttlejocky20]

Its a staple in our house i cant seem to catch enough. at least a couple times a week.