There is a very interesting and important article on the above subject written by a WV angler named Joe Webb on his blog.
Making C&R Work is about Education, not Regulation
Over on the wvangler.com message board, we’ve been having some very interesting discussions regarding the need for Catch & Release on West Virginia’s native brook trout streams. What seems to be missing in some of the exchanges, however, seems to be a lack of differentiating between PRACTICING C&R and REGULATING it…
Hello overmywaders, without even reading Joe’s Blog, I tend to favor the idea of education in C&R because of the ‘makes me turn away’ methods of C&R I’ve seen stream and lakeside. On the other hand, I’ve seen better, though not always correct, methods of C&R among fly fishers, less among hardware casters and least among bait fishermen. So I’m thinking education would be the way to go since regulation (written, posted) may go unheeded or incorrectly done since enforcement in many areas I fly fish is mostly non-existant.
Not meaning to offend anyone in any fishing category, but it seems to me that as meat becomes less the pursuit in fishing of any kind, be it bait casting, use of hardware or fly fishing, that C&R methods and intent improve. There are exceptions of course. Now I’ll click on the link and read Joe’s Blog ! Thanks for the good post overmywaders !
I believe in regulation for two situations. First is native populations that are threatened or in decline. They need to be protected.
Second is areas that are stocked or maintain a population of trophy trout or areas that are set aside for protection of a special quality resource. This will help to ensure that we have good places to fish and can these places can help bring new people to the sport.
Beyond that, C&R should be encouraged always. Not that you should never take home a fish but you should always consider whether or not it is appropriate.
I do believe that if you made all waters C&R you would loose many people who like to fish, revenues from licenses would decline and stocking and other programs used to encourage a strong healthy fish population would decline. In the end it would probably be detremental to fishing and fish in general to not have a Catch and Keep component to fishing.