ON the 16lber thread there is a big debate and some are mad that the guy didnt release his lawful catch.
I have been thinking and to me it seems that for a person to have the view that it is wrong to keep, kill, eat, donate or do anything other than release a trophy fish is wrong is a very Liberal stance, just like gun control or government assistance. So my question is, those of you that dont like the fact that it was not released or frown on folks for mounting thier trophy fish, how many of yall consider yourselves Liberal or democrats? Conversly how many that realize it is perfectly legal and his right to do so and have no problem with it consider yourselves liberal?

Me I am very far right wing and have no issue whatsoever with a person keeping a legal limit per TP&W of any sized legal fish.

good question. from what i got out of it the angler tried to get it into the SAL program. some don't agree with the program but it is a scientific way to benefit all of us anglers in Texas. Success or failure can only be determined in the long run and either way its a benefit to all of us from whats learned. that's how science works; you have to figure it out and knowone knows the answers ahead of time. one other thing to consider is how old that bass was and how many hundreds of thousands of fry she has already put into the lake. she might have even been to old to successfully spawn anymore, no one knows. just a few things to think about.

Nobody knows if that fish would live if it was released. At least there's a chance it can produce more genetically superior fish. I'm to sure on the right vs left thing. I'm on the right and say if he wanted fish for dinner last night so be it.

exactly

I believe it is more of how long people have been fishing, what they have personally witnessed, the bad reports they have read, the research they have done, and how they were raised up through the fishing ranks.
As a child growing up I was taught you fish to eat. You hunt to eat. You eat to live.
As time has passed many of our fellow hunter and fisherman are just like my Granddad sees them. They live to eat.

What you said may be true. OOPS SORRY forgot to quote Donald Harper. I am not sure though how someone who has reasearched it can be against keeping a trophy fish. I mean if the experts (TP&W, biologists ect) say its ok to keep them (by allowin them to be kept in a daily bag limit on certain lakes) then how can one think otherwise. Now on some small lakes that are managed for trophy fish you cannot keep any big fish for the simple fact there are not but a few in the lake due to size. ON fork though (TP&W's trophy lake) you can keep one big fish a day. They would not do this if it hurt the lake. ALso they work hard by putting tons of baby bass in our lakes each year. As far as the taking of the big fish taking out milions of baby fish with thier genetics, a big fish is an old fish, thus it has had several spawns in which it was able to put its offspring back into the lake and most likely only has a year or two left in life anyhow. Even if it would live another 5 years, it still had that or more spawns in its past.

A very few persons live to be 500# plus. Having people live longer doesn't effect that. So why would it with fish? They only live so long. So those in the 15# range might get bigger and they might not. A fishes genetics are spreadout there many times by the time they get over 10 pounds. Lots of Catch and Release going on. Sooner or later someone beats the State record.

I don't care if anyone keeps the legal length and limit of fish. Fishing would probably be better if people took their limit sometimes instead of throwing them all back. I know it I catchable fish that size I'll donate it to sharelunker or I'll get her mounted. Bash all you want but untill you're in the position how can you say what you'd really do.

I think it's great that most people take the stance to catch and release, but for one not to shouldn't be questioned. The pic a saw showed the fish floating in the tank, so would she survived? I think if more people would harvest the over populated smaller keepers we bring to the scales, this would help produce larger fish because of less completion for the forage. Pigs aren't the sprinters in the school. They are more opportunistic. As I said, it's great that most people are onboard with catch and release ethics.

We know that fishes best chance of survival was to be, immediately,released.

it would have died a slow death and eaten by birds and turtles, is that what you want? at least now it has a chance...

What did I say in my post?

Lol.

Well it didnt answer the original question

to me its kinda like trophy deer hunting, we (most choose to shoot deer at a minimum of 4.5 to 5.5 years old, knowing that they have a chance to get bigger, but also that they have already passed on thier genes to offspring and that the odds of them growing a ton bigger after that age is going down hill. We dont kill every 5.5 year old on a ranch and we dont catch every 16lber in a lake.