Trophy fish

[Goose]

Don't waste your time on here. Make a difference, stand in front of the fish houses, hand out pamphlets with statistics. Maybe bring a generator so you can show a video. I luv kicking horses

[fishaholic18]

Originally Posted by Goose

Don't waste your time on here. Make a difference, stand in front of the fish houses, hand out pamphlets with statistics. Maybe bring a generator so you can show a video. I luv kicking horses

[Sea Dangles]

Kill the old ones they have lived a long and healthy life.
The bass under 20 should be let go to breed for generations to come.
Take one bass at 40 rather than two at 20 to show real conservation.
The filet from a 40 provides better yield at the table in comparison.
Restaurants and markets alike prefer the larger representatives for fare.
All fish are trophies, take only pictures, leave only footprints......

[SAUERKRAUT]

I will stand on the soap box of the Numbskull, any time. Science, and the lessons of history tell us uncomfortable lessons, that even a Numbskull can understand if you have a mind to be objective.

Here is a history: In the early 1800's, the disastrous harvest and kill "recreational" fishery (along with dam building) forever wiped out the gene pool of northern New England and Maine 10 pound squaretails (brook trout), and 25 pound landlocked salmon. Gone. No amount of subsequent great fisheries management can recover this. Would you like some 11 inch brookies, no problem says our fisheries managers. How about a "trophy" four pound Lake Winnie landlock? You might have to troll all year for that one. Are you happy? Not if you lived through "back then".

Are you happy with the present status of our "fully recovered" striped bass fishery? Not if you are as old as Daignault, or myself. Are you impressed by the shear numbers of all these baby bass running around, while your gene pool access to... or chance for... a dozen or so 40's plus beach bass per season...just sinks. Now it seems pure luck to blunder across even an occasiuonal 30.

So, IF you are so fortunate or expert to be looking into that angry eye of your trophy bass this coming season, remember that you are looking at the gene pool. It is not all gone yet. This is what the Numbskull said in words a little more docile than mine. But then again, he isn't as old as I am. He does not know that he missed.