Quote:
Originally Posted by hchol
Bass fishermen have for years embraced a catch and release mentality that has had a tremendous positive impact on their fisheries. In fact, now you are looked down on if you show up at a freshwater boat launch with an ice chest full of large mouths. You might even get run off! I by no means like the goverenment telling me what I can and cant do, but if you run your fisheries into the ground you open the door for the Feds to come in and take control. Why do we saltwater fishermen have such a huge problem embracing a similar culture. I know trout are better eating than bass, they spawn different, and so on but it seems like the Bass guys figured out a LONG time ago that if you keep to many today there wont be any to catch tomorrow......pretty common sense if you ask me.
P.S. plenty of freshwater and also tarpon, bonefish, and permit guides make a great living practicing catch and release.
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Feel free to release your fish if you want. I'll eat most of the ones I catch tho. I am not interested in buying my fish from h.e.b. just like I don't buy meat from them. My family takes great pride and expense in the fact that ALL our red meat , pork, fish, and most of our shell fish are personally harvested, butchered and cooked by us. That is a hunting and fishing heritage and lifestyle that my grandfather instilled in me as a young man. And one that was instilled in him by his father and so on. It is my responsibility to pass these values and and heritage on to my children. Yet this lifestyle is now considered "greedy" or labeled as a "game hog" or "resource raper". I will not condone this attitude. Why make me and my family feel guilty for harvesting what we will consume. Don't get me wrong.. it's not about "feeding my family" we spend far more money in our hunting and fishing pursuits than we would spend at a grocery store for the same amount of fish and meat. But that's not the point...this is our heritage. And when these limits on legal harvest keep decreasing it makes pursuing that lifestyle much less rewarding and will no doubt deter future generations from keeping those traditions alive. It's like I posted earlier about the snapper....lower the limit enough and most people won't be interested in spending the time or money to catch them. Now there is an overabundance of snapper that far less people than before are interested in pursuing and that overabundance is hurting other marine species(grey triggerfish by eating the eggs) You'd think we would have learned by the failure of that model. But the CCA continues to support lower and lower bag limits....Have you heard that the trout limit just dropped to 5 from Freeport to Brownsville? I see you are a fellow Texan...