On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:42:40 -0700, Olebiker wrote:

On Jun 7, 1:15 pm, forthesky wrote:
The Fact is, if you are bothered by the sight of seeing someone
legally catch a legal size and legal limit of fish and KEEP them, you
DON'T belong behind a fishing rod.

What's legal isn't always a good idea. One of the 20 acre lakes in my
neighborhood was almost completely stripped of bass one summer by a
couple of guys who kept every legal bass they caught. These two guys
fished almost every day and, for the first few weeks, caught legal
limits of five to eight pound fish nearly every time they went out.

They broke no laws, but the lake never recovered it's bass stock.

There is no way 2 guys or even 20 could "fish out" even a small lake.
maybe a tiny "pond". I know this because I have tried. About 15 of us
(friends and cousins) found a pond/swamp (less than 3 acres) about 5
miles hike through snake country from the nearest access road. We all
fish it super hard for two years now and have not decimated I, every
year sees about the same level of bass.
I believe there is no way a Lake could be "fished out". Here in PA
whenever a lake or dam (and we have small ones too) gets low on fish,
The PFBC slaps a "big bass" limitation and reduced creel limit into
effect and usually within two years the fish stock is back up. And
that is with literally hundreds if not thousands of anglers using the
lake or dam. If your state has no such wildlife conservation in effect
, then perhaps your states anglers should push for better management.

I fish a certain trout stream that has a two mile stretch that is C&R
only. The first day of trout season this year My daughter and I fished
just downstream of this stretch. By noon we had counted 59
dead/dyeing/seriously distress trout go by, not many of which were
under 15 inches. Fortunately there was a flock of Amish children
scooping the floaters up with nets (illegal but much better than the
alternative). I have watched anglers take upwards of five minutes to
free a fish from their hook and then flop it into the water and watch
it float away with a confident look that they did the right thing. I
have seen too many anglers rip their spinner from a bass with all
force they could muster, just to hurriedly get back into it cause the
bass are "really hittin".
again I must say
The Fact is, if you are bothered by the sight of seeing someone
legally catch a legal size and legal limit of fish and KEEP them, you
DON'T belong behind a fishing rod.

Forthesky
Western PA