JC, unfortunately, these days I have more rounded edges than facets.
There was an article in a magazine a while back. The author was strictly a catch and kill angler. His position was that he was doing more for the health of the fishery than the C&R guys. When he caught his limit of 3 (where he was) he went home for the day. The C&R guys who were catching 15-20 fish and releasing them could have been killing many more than 3 depending on what your thoughts are the mortality rate for released fish.
He wasn’t saying that either way was right or wrong, that was just the way he thought about it. An interesting point of view.
As with many others on this board, as long as you are obeying the laws where you are fishing, I think you should do what makes you happy. On the other hand if you don’t agree with the laws the way thay are written or enforced (see LF’s article this week) then by all means you should work to get them changed.
Fish more, work less!
I throw back most of them, but I keep a legal fish or two a few times a year. If its a legal fish and bleeding from the gills, it goes on the stringer. If its legal fish, and I have a taste for a fish dinner…it goes on the stringer. If I injure an undersized fish, or a fish residing in a C&R only area, keeping that fish is illegal, so it must go back (One of the reasons I dont like fishing in C&R only areas).
Catch & Release is just a way to recycle fish for someone else to catch. Its an effective game management tool when angler demand exceeds the supply of fish, but I dont think there is a real moral foundation to the Catch & Realease ethos.
Release all your fish if it gives you a warm fuzzy… but realize that you need to respect the wishes of those anglers who harvest fish (by any legal method, even if you dont approve of it or consider it sporting), and to understand the importance of killing and eat a fish every now and then. Cheers.