Quote Originally Posted by 365allout View Post
Taking release out of catch and release would be a loss to the fisheries without question. The very small percentage that was lost at that event was offset by the the much higher percentage of fish that were released, returned to enhance the population in opposition to another option, catch , weigh and eat. Keep in mind if a tournament wanted to they could allow double the limit now brought to the scales by allowing the legal limit per angler to be brought in, weigh and fillet. So there is no question the catch and release in a benefit as compared to some other options. Is care needed to be taken in the process, of course but that's old news, debated and decided decades ago. If one wanted to try and reach perfection one could make it law that any fish hooked but not landed, came free, broke line, no matter the reason, that fish could count toward your daily limit and it would without question enhance the fisheries. Now apply it to all species, crappie, cats, whites, hybrids, sounds crazy don't it?
Justifing this by using percentages is laughable to me. Even if 3 times the amount of fish were released healthy it wouldn't change the fact that bushel baskets of bass were left floating in the lake. If the tournament let the anglers clean ALL the fish,KDFW would adjust bag limits.After all,tournament anglers are licensed fisherman and have a right to their catch. It's the WASTE that bothers me. They shouldn't have the right to wantonly waste the resource.