Is It Time for Conservation

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

I disagree strongly, I think you'd find that the "new" generation of fisherman practice catch and release more than the old. Many of us begain fishing when we knew the population was in trouble, we never witnessed the massive cathches of the 60,70s. We know what overfishing can do and many of us have more of an environmental approach to fishing. I dont want to turn this into an old vs. new, but I believe your generalization is way off.

I see people in both groups that really care and are active about as well as those that could give a rat's buttocks about it...

I think one thing that often gets overlooked is that the majority of anglers on boards like these or in fishing clubs tend to be fairly to strongly conservation minded - for example I keep generally less than 5 fish per year - than say your average joe walking into the B&T looking for 2 three packs of frozen bunker and then going next door to the packy.

There are a LOT of people that just don't know ~or~ could give two bleeps. That is where it is important to get the word out to promote a conservation friendly mindset.

Fortunately, we have been having a very strong YOY index, ususally year after year - this bodes well for the future. Unfortunately, problems like general lack of forage fish, disease, polution, and excessive bycatch have a negative impact. I can't see how this tourney - as it stands - can have an even insignificant impact on the species.

As for Tourneys though, I recently had a long and interesting conversation with the fellow that runs the FLW Striper tour. Very interesting and even positive