For a lot of blue catfish anglers releasing the bigger fish is a no brainer. Easy cheesy. But, what about those anglers who really haven't given it much thought or have ever been confronted w/ the idea of letting the bigger fish go?

I remember the first time I told my grandfather I had let a larger blue catfish go (15 years ago). He wanted to hang me, lol. But, over time and a few fishing trips to catch the big fish on rod n' reel, he had a change of heart.

The other day a gentleman came in after collecting his jugs. After parking his boat, he came over towards my cleaning table and asked me how our day went. Later, he told me he had worn out the blues and had caught one just over 60lbs.

After asking him how much fun it was to bring that big fish in on a hand line, I asked him if he had kept it. He kinda looked at me in a long stare. I think he had literally never thought about it. He asked me if I release them and I told him we had released 5 fish over 30lbs today...and, on a regular basis we return the fish about 10lbs or larger to grow up and breed. I told him there was a chance that the 60lb'er in his boat was a fish someone had released before.

Before I could say anything else he asked me to come over to his boat and help him release the fish. We worked hard to release her but the fish had been out of the water too long.

We exchanged business cards, shook hands and he looked me in the eye and thanked me for bringing up the idea of letting the bigger fish go. He said: "all it takes if someone to tell me, I just didn't know. I'll never keep another biggun."

So, a few months ago when the bigger fish started biting better we had to make an afternoon bait run. I noticed on my way out of Holiday Marina that 2 kayaks were at the mouth of the channel fishing. I really didn't pay much attention to them. Made bait fairly quickly and was returning in. Still there, I noticed behind his kayak what looked to be a large blue catfish on a stringer. Bout that time, he waived at me to come over. He was incredibly excited about his fish (obviously largest fish he had ever caught) and wanted to know if we could take a pic of it and text it to him since he didn't have a phone with him. One thing led to another as we were talking and the subject came up of letting larger fish go and what it means. This gentleman had never considered letting a large fish go. The more we talked about it the more excited he got about releasing this large fish.

Here is the rest of that story:



Just shows that initiating conversations and helping other fisherman understand why you let big fish go travels a long ways,

If ya have a similar story, feel free to share.

That's awesome, spread the word!

Very cool guys

Nicely done. Good job.

Teri had a good clip from last week:

Did he have live shad in the 5 gallon bucket? I'm guessing that's what the salt was for? Either that or tequila shots

I do agree that once people are educated they are much more likely to let fish go. Because lets all face it...at one point in time we didn't know either!

Good eye smoky...I'm guessing live shad.

12and bigger go back every time in my boat

Been fishing all my life returned every bass that made it through weigh in. The only reason I ever returned catfish was because I was to lazy or tired to clean them. Never enter my mind to release them. You have made another old man think twice about turning them back and promoting this to my grandchildren, Thanks

Have to agree !!

Good stuff guys.

Even Kendall Jones....famed Texas Tech cheerleader and hunting celebrity spent quite a bit of time on her Facebook explaining why it's good to let'em go. Yesterday she smoked a 65lb'er on Teri's boat. Good stuff.

Yes, blonde cheerleaders can fish too,