BigBendFishing.Net

keep 15" trout? Not trying to stir anything up here, but personally I throw them back.
I noticed some guys at the ramp Friday afternoon that were ear to ear about their two limits, yet all these fish seemed to be "just legal".
I understand it's legal, and yes I have done it in the past. A side from a tournament, or needing them for the occasional fish fry, it seems like a waste to me.
Chalk mentioned earlier he returned his lunker trout he caught this weekend. Is it better to return those big sows, or the juvenile smaller ones, and keep the 16.5-17" plus fish.
Five 15" trout seems like taking advantage of of them, like shooting every spike that walks by, or blasting a jake...but that's just my .02.

Think of the size of the row sack in a trout over 19"...bigger the fish the more trout babies for your children and grand children to catch.

Gene pool: a trout over 20" is special, we don't necessarily catch them all day long, if we did we wouldn't keep coming after them...releasing them back to spawn is ensuring the gene pool has another chance at making a 20 plus inch trout....One thing for sure is if you throw it in the ice box, there is a 100% guarantee that the fish will not spawn again....Between now and June please think about our trout futures.

I fish tournaments and have not caught a big one in a tournament, but when I do, I will be in a situation that will be troublesome to my heart. I wish we could adopt the speckled trout catch and release tournaments like they run in Texas or at least provisions to release the good ones back into the drink.

Okay, I'll come from around the pulpit and sit down

I'd say keep the little ones and throw the big ones back. They are smarter and will produce more. Its hard for most to do though ! If you fish every weekend you should be consider letting lots of fish go. Don't catch em for someone else all the time.

If TC threw back all his 15" trout, he' d starve to death .

My personal rule of thumb says don't measure. Either it's obivously legal, or it's not. If the kids catch something close I'll measure it, but if I catch it and it looks close I usually release. The exception to this is the upper end of the trout limit. I'll measure them just to make sure I stay legal.

This isn't for everybody. I figure if somebody else has a legal limit of anything, anything beyond a compliment is none of my business.

Another thing I do is the more fish I have in the fridge, the more I release. On a slow day I'll release more. I don't like cleaning one fish, unless it's a big red or something like the wife's striper.

IMHO, there is a slot size for a reason. From what I've seen, you aren't targeting but about a 1/3 rd of the fish population with the slot. I also don't think hook and line fishermen with a 5 fish limit are hurting the fish population by keeping slot fish. As for big ones, I tend to throw those over 20 back if I caught it. However, I don't have the heart to tell a newbie or a kid to throw a gator back.

I'm kinda like Mudducker, I think the slot kinda takes care of it. I always keep my catch (legal fish) because we like to eat them. But I don't have any in my freezer, we eat em' when we catch em, fresh. Also I don't go but a couple of time a month on average. So I don't feel that amount of keeping is too much. If I'm gonna release it will be the larger trout. Like Chalk said they are the ones that need to reproduce, they are quality. I can eat a smaller even better than a large one, I'm not going hungry. Also I've caught a few large bass lately, that I released, don't want to eat them and don't need him on my wall, would rather see them be brood stock.

You guys keep your trout?

I love to eat em !

ROCKET, IF I EVER CATCH A TROUT I WILL LET YOU KNOW HIS FATE....
NOW A 18IN RED... THATS A LIL DIFF....

Tom Keels wrote:You guys keep your trout?

It's the divers who should be shot. There are thousands and thousands of divers in our waters everyday maliciously harpooning fish at random just to kill yet another helpless grouper. These grouper haven't hurt anyone,yet they are hunted down just for the kill. Remember the buffalo,taken only for their hides by the skinners and left to rot on the prairies. Our ocean bottoms are littered with carcasses from dead grouper whose only goal in life is to hide under a rock.
Trout on the other hand are vicious attack animals and should be culled. My God they eat their own. They must be stopped.

The divers are just culling out the stupid ones ! We leave the smart ones for seed !

MudDucker wrote:IMHO, there is a slot size for a reason. From what I've seen, you aren't targeting but about a 1/3 rd of the fish population with the slot. I also don't think hook and line fishermen with a 5 fish limit are hurting the fish population by keeping slot fish. As for big ones, I tend to throw those over 20 back if I caught it. However, I don't have the heart to tell a newbie or a kid to throw a gator back.

The above is essentially correct. I have been involved in the science that leads to size and bag limit options. And, that is what they are. The combinations reflect both impacts on the population and a social value judgement about what people would like to harvest. There is always a balancing of interests: for example, guides catering to fly fishing folks want lower bag limits, longer closed seasons, and a slot that will result in larger, but fewer fish for their clients who release most anyway. Mom and Pop and little junior would simply like to take home a few fish to eat.

There is some science and more social science and it is already cooked in the regs. No need for you to do more yourself, unless you feel a personal need to do so.

EJ

Now I see. The divers aren't at fault. It's the scientist. Let's start harvesting scientist.

Guys I'm not that old, but I remember back in my high school days, of heading out and filling up a cooler full of trout. I realize I'm an OOS but the new regs caused alot of people I know to quit fishing the gulf. If I'm gonna get up early and travel 2.5 hrs to fish, I'm gonna come home with something to show for my efforts. I eat what I catch within a day or two of the trip. In fact we went this weekend and the trout and rockbass are being fried up and eaten as we speak.