Mortality Large vs. Small??

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by BigFish

I see statistics on mortality for released schoolies and many folks believe many of those C & R schoolies die within hours of being released! How many believe that the large or "Trophy" fish being released survive or is the mortality rate of these larger fish alot higher due to the length of the battle???

I'm sorry to piss you off, Larry, but whatever the intent your lead in sentence sets up an unsupported pretense that what many folks (wrongly) believe is correct....i.e., that "MANY" fish die after release.
You then use that pretext as a lead into an apparent rhetorical question (I say that because the sentence conveniently contains a supporting rationalization for one answer) that begs to justify killing breeder fish.

Is it unfair then to read your initial post as...."Yup, Larry knows the statistics and they show, as we all know, that most small released fish die and furthermore, as Larry points out, the larger fish are even more tired so surely there is no point in releasing them" ?

Obviously, your subsequent posts make it clear that was not your intent.

As for your question.......there is no evidence that larger fish fair more poorly. There IS evidence that fish deeply hooked with J-hooks do the worst (but still survive 1/2 the time even in the worst conditions). Obviously large fish are more often caught on bait, and more often gut hooked since they can more easily swallow the large baits.
There is evidence that the length of the fight does NOT effect the short term mortality. There is evidence that fish caught by experienced fishermen fair better. http://www.laterallineco.com/fishing...hards_1996.pdf
There are concerns that released fish suffer some growth retardation that may worsen survival and breeding success down the road.

So again, I am sorry to misread your intent. I am not sorry, however, for trying to put a nail in all the misconceptions people use to feel better about killing large breeder bass. Together (even at 8%) we kill plenty of them practicing C & R. Killing them intentionally for food (but really for trophies/pictures/fame/money/tournaments/etc) should, I feel, be severely restricted. The fact that I still kill fish for my own purposes practicing C&R does not help my credibility on this issue, unfortunately. I recognize it is a public resource and other people may fairly want to use the fish differently.