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I have personal problem with letting a dead fish "go". In a perfect world where you would be able to trust sportsmen to do the right thing, which in IMO is to take the dead fish home and stop fishing. However it is different in reality, largley because of the untrusting society we live in, and where everything has to be black and white, and PC, there can be no subjectivity (or thought) behind anything....so today, you need to put the undersized dead fish back as distasteful as it is, just to obey the (stupid) law.
Like I said, in my perfect world I think the warden would be able to figure out over time if someone is a real lawbreaker or doing the right thing with a dead fish. But there are few wardens and many changing laws
I also think size limits need to be revisited. I now think size limits contribute to higher mortality. Creel limits is what should be the guideline. As we saw with fluke last year, increasing the size limit so as to meet arbitary target deadlines set by our fishery experts has meant a doubling of the mortality in a year when fishing for the species was low. Now I know bass is different than fluke but if fishermen are fishing for their "limit", perhaps the limit should be 1 or 2 with the stipulation that you can not release dead/dying/bleeding fishing knowingly. I know this is impossible to police but it allows the good sportsman to do the right thing and encourages others to do the same.
just a though.........
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