Holy Crap!!

[Shore Thing]

Agree again. Only thing I disagree with is people can still go home with the fish of a lifetime with a picture and a tape measure. The majority of the fish I caught last year were 38-39 inches. I wonder if that is the class of fish they are trying to protect but will be 40 inches this year and kept. Will be interesting to see to say the least.

[B-Faithful]

While I am a big catch and release guy myself, I will argue to look at participation levels of when people can keep big fish from when they cannot. The trophy season has very high levels of participation over the short period of time because people can catch and keep big fish. I see this with my charters too. People are asking when the season opens to keep fish. When I offer earlier season catch and release trips 9/10 say they want to wait until they can keep the fish even if I offer the C&R only trips at a discount. Sportsmen have a long tradition of celebrating the biggest fish. There are a lot of charters who charge more during the trophy season because of the demand to catch and keep big fish.