07-19-2005, 05:08 PM
I love certain kinds of fish to eat, especially walleyes and crappie. I'll keep some smallmouth and some rainbows, too. But I don't keep any really big fish to eat. In my opinion, a really large game fish is too valuable a resource to die for my dinner.
A 25 lb. lake trout will be 20-25 years old and I don't want to see that resource disappear. Any fish I kill that is that old cannot be replaced in my lifetime. So as a matter of personal choice I don't kill any of those big fish. I'd rather have the chance to catch the same fish at 30 or 35 lbs.
To me, it's a matter of trying to keep the few remaining trophy fisheries viable.
I think it is Lee Wulff who is widely quoted as coining the phrase: "A gamefish is too valuable to be caught only once."
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A 25 lb. lake trout will be 20-25 years old and I don't want to see that resource disappear. Any fish I kill that is that old cannot be replaced in my lifetime. So as a matter of personal choice I don't kill any of those big fish. I'd rather have the chance to catch the same fish at 30 or 35 lbs.
To me, it's a matter of trying to keep the few remaining trophy fisheries viable.
I think it is Lee Wulff who is widely quoted as coining the phrase: "A gamefish is too valuable to be caught only once."
[signature]