>>2846244I have trouble believing the catfish I eat infrequently from this lake are worse than say eating a can or two of albacore tuna infrequently. I also in general have a hard time dismissing any indicators of a good waterway as "yeah well its complicated!" Yes, it is complicated, but I'm the one here at this lake with the most information. My local government says 32 fish meals a month for the consumption advisory for the lake. I don't hit anywhere near 32 in the average month, probably half that in a good month.
Until I actually get fillets tested from various bodies of water around me, I have a laundry list of indicators the lake is as healthy as one might reasonably expect, with next to no indicators of poor health in the lake beyond some small patches of algae during the hottest months of the year.
Of course, if there's anything you know of that I can do as an individual without highly specialized equipment to get more/better information on the lake, I'd be more than willing to try it out. A doctor on my street had the water tested and it's safe enough to swim in at least.
If I was to play it safe, I wouldn't eat any fish from any lake ever.
>>2846246I fish all day every day. After moving in around December, I have fished every day. Since I work from home I often just cast out my lines and check them between the individual tasks I do. An hour has proven to be the sweet spot in that 30-45mins often enough I didn't get a bite at all while over an hour there's a good chance my bait got stolen or there's a fish on the line. I fish actively enough about 2-3 times during the day where I'll jig around the dock or cast a rapala a few times over 30min-1hr, altho the weediness makes hard lures a bit of a pain to repeatedly cast out and work. Most of my perch are from active fishing. It has been raining for five days straight making standing outside on the dock less appealing.
I guess in short what I'm saying is that I do both active and passive fishing.
