[jad2t]

I don't know about the rest of you but since I'm back in Cookeville I'm back to fishing the Caney on a regular basis and I'm catching primarily brown trout. It makes for a fun night but at the same time sort of aggravating that I have to toss them all back due to the 24" limit. I know some will want to crucify me for saying this but I enjoy eating trout. Everytime I go to the Caney Fork I have my stringer and a cooler with me in hopes of taking a few home. They are delicious and probably the healthiest fish to eat that can be caught in Tennessee. I think it's time for the TWRA to back off a bit. It gets harder and harder to keep a trout out of that river but I'm seeing more and more trout in my recent experiences. I understand the brown trout population was hurt and that's why the regulations were put in place but they are clearly coming back and quite impressively as I've seen.

I fish at night and have not seen a single TWRA officer there in the evening so the rules could easily be broken. However, I'd never do such a thing. Sure, I think the rules are overbearing but I feel that as an ethical fisherman and a sportsman breaking the rules would make me no better than the immigrants who fill up a cooler with undersized fish of all species that they caught using a casting net. Which brings me to my next point. Why is it that I have called TWRA several times about that issue when I see it, yet they never show up to do anything about it. Meanwhile, every year they make it more and more difficult for an ethical angler like myself to enjoy some fresh caught trout? Am I wrong in saying that my trout stamp is becoming a waste of 18 dollars? Not that I care about 18 bucks, I'm just wondering why I'm paying the same price every year to be allowed to keep fewer and fewer trout?

The past two trips to the Caney I've totalled almost 20 trout, only one of which was not a brown. They're back, they're all over, and it's time to lift the regulations a bit. Not saying it needs to go back to the old rules of keeping 7 fish, any size and any species, but it needs to be a little more friendly to those of us who like to eat trout.

Thoughts?