Why Catch and Release? - by Clay Gill

Recently I watched a conversation turn to debate over catch and release. A spirited position was taken that an occasional big fish in the creel will not hurt anything. No argument here from me. Whether it was bait for argument or an honest point made, it did get us all going on the issues.

There was time decades ago when I was like most others. We kept our limits when the fish cooperated. During a tournament, heaven help a large fish destined for weigh-in. As time went on, many of our mindsets changed. Most of us evolved and became sensitive to the destructiveness.

Thanks to conservation minded legislators, utilizing scientific data and expert recommendations, the fish populations are now better than ever in many cases. Slot and size limits have restored a common sense approach to the plunder of the past. Netting and over fishing commercially, along with overly liberalized limits for the renewable resource, having gone unchecked, was bankrupting the game for everyone. Fifty or more years ago, people kept everything, and ate them all. Considering the growing numbers of boaters, licensed fisherman, and enthusiasts, stringent measures have become a necessity to preserve something for future generations.

We can no longer remain ambivalent to the needs for limits and innovations like slots for the allowance of certain fish to attain maturity and spawn. The boon in coastal fishing in the Laguna Madre is evidence of this issue. The bays now have Redfish and Trout in abundance courtesy of the net ban and projects by the Coastal Fisheries Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Additionally, organizations like the Coastal Conservation Association pour private monies into the preservation bucket.

The rub will kick in when the casual fisherman and guides alike must reduce the daily limit, as is being considered now. Guides will become hard pressed to charge the near five hundred dollars for a party on the flats, and multi species catch will become a premium priority to justify the cost. Proposed limit reductions have been considered for some time and surely will become a hotbed of discussion and controversy. Some will claim to loose, while others claim to be winners. All things considered, progress is progress. Just how you balance this is the tricky part.

Television fishing shows depict catch and release constantly, and education has become the best tool to get the message out. The last thing we need is to find the horse when we should have been fixing the gate. Involvement can start by the careful handling of that next large fish you cross paths with. Respectfully ease it back to the nursery that provided that luxury in the first place. This respect and admiration for the resource can and will make a difference in the future. Education is the key to success.

I remember Port Aransas where I lived as a young person. Solitude prevailed there on all but busy holidays, and summer weekends. A look there now on any Saturday or Sunday reveals the drastic increase in boat traffic and fishing pressure on the same spaces and places. It is a small wonder how regulation and technology has given us increase in renewable fishing resources under such pressure. The boats virtually line up now along the Laguna. Finding an unoccupied tidal lake takes a half-hour boat ride on a Saturday. Every day brings in new high technology fishing guides who fish seven days a week. Many of these guides are making two trips a day, and catching a limit to give each group. Restrictive measures will result when the plunder becomes evident and sport fishing increases with the population.

To make a difference, one could start by educating sportsmen on the issues. As a practice, we can begin by keeping nothing or only enough legal fish to eat that day, releasing the larger mature breeders.

Fly fishermen do very little damage as a rule. They commonly practice sound principals of conservation. Everyone will eventually be penalized if over indulgence goes unchecked. This mentality seemed to work ages ago, but not now. We are not in a depression, and fillets are cheap at HEB. Everyone must become involved in some way.

Slide that next thirty-inch Redfish or Trout back into the Laguna and see how good it feels. It can be contagious. The next time you pole along that widgeon grass, the speckled beauty you hook up on may be a Texas record that you released last year. Tight lines and leave those places we visit better than we find them.