Striperfishin - I remember now about what you said...back in the day I remember using the down riggers and was also lead to believe the bigger fish caught from deep water had much less of a chance of surviving than those caught shallow...perhaps I was wrong in my earlier messgae I posted here. The thing is I never released them anyway...Considering what I was told, I didn't figure they would survive plus I was told they did not reproduce in fresh water anyway, does anyone know if this is true or not?