FishingBanter - View Single Post - To stock or not to stock a wild trout stream. That is the question.

**Ken Fortenberry** · August 25th, 2006, 07:47 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
What is a "traditional subsistence angler" ?
People who fish to catch and kill fish to eat.
I don't think so. I was taught to eat everything I killed
and that to do otherwise was wrong. ...

By definition, then, C&R anglers are unethical spportsmen. It can be no
other way because the hunter is wasting the meat of all fish that
succomb from the stress of being caught and release, around 5% on
average. The C&K angler that *quits* when he has a limit definately
maintains the ethical high ground.

That's your ethical high ground and you're welcome to it,
my ethical high ground is far more nuanced.

I've returned dead cutthroat to the stream because of C&R
regulations, sometimes in situations where it was unwise to
do so (think grizzly country), but I'm not so egocentric as
to think that if I don't eat the dead fish that it's being
"wasted". There are other links in the food chain, ya know .

--
Ken Fortenberry