Quote Originally Posted by Tim_T View Post
It is a double-edged sword. More people fishing means more crowded lakes, rivers and streams, but more people fishing also means more people to make sure these same lakes, rivers and streams are protected.

It also means more money for KDFWR and more money for conservation groupls like Trout Unlimited etc.

About the only way to protect things from bureacrats is to prove to them that it has a dollar value. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in.

If it were any kind of 'sword' it'd be able to cut through much of the BS that has always surrounded this issue. No, we don't need late night television touting fishing, and kids aren't up that late to watch or care anyway. I do agree with the kids thing, get em out there and let them see for themselves if they like it or not. 99.9 % of the time they are going to love it and dare I say, be "hooked."

I do not agree that we need more fisherman to boost money which boosts people's perception of the sport or where the sport takes place. We need the people who do enjoy the sport to get more educated about the different aspects of it. We should all know that recreational fishing is more popular in this country than golf and tennis combined, and the revenue generated from recreational fishing far surpasses that of any other outdoor, recreational activity. It's in the billions, annually. Keep in mind too that just one round of golf on any course USA is more than I will spend in a season on lures, bait, or line.

And, groups such as TU and DU have attempted to dupe us all into thinking that their organizations promote conservation. They don't. They promote a specific type of wetlands conservation so that we can go kill ducks that happen to land in that nice, soggy, 'protected' area where a nice, new nesting box just happened to be placed. They promote a type of stream and river conservation so we can harvest fish out of them. One must see that this does wonders for the hunter, and great things for the trout fisherman, but ultimately very little for the bird or the fish. Would real conservation organizations reintroduce an endangered animal back into the wild for the benefit of the poacher? That's more than a little bass ackwards.

On a final note, I'm a creek and stream fisherman primarily and when I notice that more people have come to the spots I frequent, I don't see things improving. I see things get worse, very quickly. I see more blue worm containers, more line on the ground than on my reel, more lures and god-awful red and white bobbers hanging in trees, less fish, angry landowners, fire pits, beer cans, etc., etc.