I have met a few folks on the site and i know of a few my age.
You youngsters don't have a clue about "raping" the trout population.
When some of us were y'alls age a trip was measured in how many ice chest of filets you brought home . Not boxes of fish boxes of filets!. no we didn't have 120qt chest back then . but i have been on a few trips where you couldnt put another 48qt box of filets in the bed of the PU.
This was back when they had gill nets and commercial fishing for trout and reds.
we would each take the filets we wanted and the rest were sold at the fish mkt to pay for our fishing trips.
We weren't the only ones doing this and it didn't put a dent in the trout population.
I don't belive that the gillnets put a dent in the overall trout population either. Maybe a short term reduction in a small area . After saying that i will also say this . getting rid of the nets did have the positive affect of letting the trout grow to a larger overall size.
If iremember right when those pics of the stringers came out there was ALOT more trash talk about it being Texas fishermen w/ a Texas guide coming to Louisiana and not spending any $$$ here than there was about the stringers of trout.
And also if you look back at that time there were only a select few that even knew about wading the lake and catching trout this size.
I think alot of the post were abouit the $$$ and alot were just jealous that someone could come down here and make it look that easy?
I understand now why we have limits . and i wont keep a big fish of any type unless it's going on my wall.
But It's your decision to make wether you do or not .
We are not going to hurt the trout population in an open body of water w/ rod and reels.
We should all be alot more worried about the estuaries . As long as we have the marsh we will have plenty of trout. But once the marsh goes so goes the fish.
IE: Texas and Florida.
Think about it!
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