I doubt that it will come to ALL Trout caught in the Cumberland River having to be released...crazier things have happened but I don't think KDFWR would put something like this into place. And I do agree with you on the belly up theory, I know some of the fish I caught AND RELEASED looked like they had a tough time getting back to normal after being stung by my treble hook. I did all the right things when I released them, slowly, easily, moving them back and forth, etc...

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the slot limit you're referring to was in place last year wasn't it? Maybe not, but I thought it was. If it wasn't I was abiding by it anyway. I'm all for the slot limit that's in place, in my opinion and from my own personal experience when I was there last year the slot limit rule seems to have made a difference in the over all size of trout that I caught...very few of my fish were keepers last year, caught a couple of nice 18" and 19" browns, but in general we caught fewer keepers than we usually did before. It seems the majority of our fish were in the slot limit.

Something else that's happened is the state has quit letting the scheduled releasing of trout in the Cumberland River be made public knowledge. I don't know this for a fact but I believe under the old rule there were lots of locals down there simply waiting and watching with fishing equipment in hand during each release.

For what it's worth I don't fly fish...that's an entirely different avenue of fishing that I haven't taken yet...I'm not ruling it out and I would like to take the time and try it out someday, but right now I don't have any fly fishing equipment, I guess I'm to preoccupied with other means of fishing at this time in my life. In fact, I've almost come to the conclusion that when I go to the Cumberland River I only need two or three different lures in order to catch fish.