[browntrout]

Well at least some things have been cleared up that the person who posted the video was not the actual person who caught the fish. BTW welcome to the forum. I know this is a dead horse as we have discussed keeping and eating vs. releasing at least a million times.

I would like to make a couple of points for us to think about. The fisherman was 100% entitled to keep and eat the fish. I think everybody is in agreement with that. 1 fish out of that fishery is not going to make a difference. Lets say 10 people were fishing that day and they all caught a nice smallmouth like that and decided to keep it. No big deal, only 10 fish. Lets say a 100 people decided to keep a nice smallmouth that day. Where is the magic number? No one knows. Do not depend on the TWRA to figure out that magic number either. Case in point, when I was growing up my grandmother's farm was covered with quail. We would hunt the quail and eat them. We only harvested what we were allowed to by law. A few friends would come to her farm and hunt quail, again all the time following the law. Guess what? 1 day no more quail. Not only on my grandmothers farm but all across TN quail numbers have all but disappeared. Another case in point, I fish out on the White River in Arkansas a lot. Out there you are welcome to keep all the rainbow trout that you want (within the law) and the guides will even clean them and cook them for you. They will guide you for big brown trout. If you catch big brown trout they will let you keep it if you want to. ( They will highly encourage you to release it.) If you keep it from that point forward they will make sure you do not catch another big brown trout the rest of trip. They realize how fragile the fishery is. As far as conservation is concerned I will always err to the safe side. Granted I love a fish fry but as for me I will stick to the fish where the fishery is not in danger.

As far as tournament fishing goes just ask Alphahawk about the sight he saw the other day. He was fishing where they had held a bass tournament and weighed the fish in. There were a lot of dead bass in the water. Catch and release is one thing. Catch, ride around in a bass boat at 60 MPH all day getting the crap beat out of the fish, and then release is a whole different thing.

Great discussion topic and my .02 cents worth.

Roy