The first thing I wanted him to learned was how to handle the fish as little as possible
And where to handle it and not too- I cannot stand to see someone pick up the fish by the gills if they plan to release it- That is tantamount to someone picking us up by the lungs
And I had a dinner to go to and no idea what would happen to the fish if he took it home so I got him to release it
Catch and release is going to be more important to the future of fishing than ever before because of the refinement of a forward facing sonar.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m going to catch and eat some fish but I’m going to do it deliberately.
That fish still has a lot of growth left and really was a little bit big for the table anyway as far as a bass goes
I love this. Teach responsibility.
When we go fishing here we make a decision before we launch the boat; dinner or release.
We take the catch and release concept to a different level. We cut the hooks off the flies/lures. We do this because the fish will still take the lures and run. We don't see the benefit of tiring a fish out and then dropping it back in the water sluggish and become dinner for a shark, dolphin or other predators.
When we go for big fish with the possibility of the line breaking we use freshwater hooks. Very rarely do we use stainless hooks. Non stainless hooks will rust away (if they can't spit them out) in about 5 days versus who knows how long, if ever,
Florida and I am sure elsewhere is getting plugged up with people and too many of them keep everything that is pulled into the boat. Releasing them is the only way young kids will have a chance to catch fish in the future. Otherwise we are going to see massive season restrictions and species closures.




