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The percent harvested is small compared to the percent hooked/caught. If 1 in 11 bass caught are kept, you have 10 released for every 1 caught. If the release mortality is (to keep the math easy) 10%, 1 outta the 11 die from release and 1 outta 11 are killed for the table or wall. I don't know what the numbers really are, I made them up for the purpose of discussion. Catch and release is a huge part of the fishery. There are tons of factors that contribute to release mortality and there alot of guys out there gut hooking, throwing fish on the rocks and hanging 25lbers by the jaw on boga type devices. I wouldn't be suprised at all if the release mortality is 5-10% and thats a bunch of dead fish. If everyone here calculated their own catch and release mortality at 3% that would be a pretty good # of dead fish.
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