You don’t have to be a catfish Maven or Freak to understand the importance of big fish conservation Bob that’s for sure buddy. There are millions of eater size fish 5 lbs and under to be responsibly harvested. Big fish are the ones cranking out the eaters and removing them will only hurt the eater numbers making fishing decline for both the big fish and eater crowd. Nobody here flaming anyone! Just a group of guys who love Bluecatn and want to preserve the big fish for future generations. Can’t fault guys for wanting to protect what they love.

There has been too many lakes ruined for big fish do to over harvesting of big fish. I would love to see more restrictions from TPWD as far as the harvest of big fish.

I eat my fare share of the eater size catfish (2-5 pounds), but these big fish have to be put back into the lakes to protect the fishing for our future generations. Not all fish have the genetics to grow giant, just like all deer don't have those genes also. If we can keep our giant breeders in the lakes then they will pass on those genetics.

CPR on those big fish guys/gals.

Love it Matt!

Good, we agree!!

Great minds think alike Bob👍

I am 73 years old; a life span that has allowed me to see the results of over fishing on numerous waters over decades. Coming from the Pacific Coast, I can recall many lakes that used to produce large bass, crappie, landlocked salmon and trout only to see the largest brood stock pulled out year after year. The end result was seen 20-30 years later when these lakes produced only modest sized fish as the gene pool no longer contained enough large fish. The same is true for many rivers, although it can be argued that water releases. pollution and spawning habitat had more of an impact than sport fishing.

I love eating fish but I have always had my own conservation ethic, at least since my early 20’s. I kept one large fish in my adult life, a 50 lb Chinook salmon I caught in Tillamook Bay, OR, but that was tge only fish I caught on a 3 day trip and I shared it with friends and neighbors because it was in prime condition. I never kept another salmon over 15 lb., a striper over 10 lb, a catfish over 5 lb, a crappie over 1 lb, or a trout over 14” or so.

I worked for 15 years at a research university and became friends with the faculty who managed the fisheries program. I learned from them that fish genetics are the same as raising cattle; the gene pool of the largest and strongest has to be maintained or the quality of the stock will dwindle over the years.

I do what I do and don’t judge anyone, but I know that there are as many people that don’t care about what happens tomorrow as there are of those of us who do. Human nature is not always what we want it to be which is why our grandchildren will ot enjoy what we did just like we wish we could have seen the fishing of our grandfathers.

I will be making my first trip to TWOK on Friday and I know it wont be what many of you experienced in years pasr, but I am grateful to fish that famous body of water beforeI die.

Don’t give up pushing for more regs that make sense

I sure hope the Mighty Twok shows off for you Gdr 11. You deserve it buddy! Still a lot of monsters in that lake for sure. Just getting much harder to catch 10 of em in 1 trip!

While I am still pretty new to this game, I have been teaching my boys and some of their friends about turning the big fish lose the last few years. Take the pictures and watch them swim away for another day!
Chris, you know I have call you and Tim for help to figure out how to burp a big fish that I could not get deflated... not afraid to ask for help. Want to make sure we have big fish for the next generation and beyond.
I like to eat fish, and I like crappie and blues... but little blues are easier to clean anyway! I have turned far more 7-10 lb fish loose than I have cleaned... that is my call. Figure I can catch plenty of little ones to keep fish in the house.
I have also let a lot of deer walk, including some really nice 3 yr old 10 points, that a lot of people said I was crazy for... let them breed. I have let a lot of hen mallards fly, just shooting drakes over the years. It is just the decisions you make in life.
A lot has been said about rules and regulations... and I agree some things need to be spelled out, especially around commercial fishing. I understand they do it for a living and I support anyone willing to work for a living! But we must all look at the big picture and long term. Takes a lot longer to fix something than to screw it up!

I think... we will gain far more ground and save a lot more big fish by teaching people and getting them to agree and teach others, than we will by relying on rules and regulations. People have to want to make a difference.

Tight lines all - be safe and teach your kids and other kids when you get a chance!

Ken Graham

Personally, I've voiced my opinion to the TPWD many times about Catfishing and would truly like to see them considered a gamefish species. Of course, you only get a generic form response back from them, and it seems like they don't really care that much about making big changes. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

I knew I could wake some of y’all up! Need more folks like this standing up and making their voice heard! Love it!

I heard a story yesterday from an old timer about a 93 pounder that was caught on a trotline at Benbrook lake back in the 60's. He remembered the guy used a pistol to dispatch the fish before they hauled it in. I have a feeling that sort of stuff happened all the time back then. I remember when I was in my late teens going to the lake with the mindset of catching and keeping a limit of whatever I was fishing for. I think back then everyone wanted to be in a picture with an absurd amount of fish to prove their fishing prowess. Thanks to my dad (God rest his soul) and a number of uncles I was taught the value of conservation. One of my uncles told me one time that, as much as I went fishing, I could keep one or two fish every time I went and feed myself forever.

I believe that we are reaping the consequences of an uneducated past mindset that is quickly changing. The beauty of that is, eventually things can get better than ever. Really big catfish live a long time so it will take a little while for things to catch up and swing the other way. You'll always have those that don't understand or don't care but they are a very small minority of the catfish community as far as I can see. We just keep teaching our littles and let it sink in. I'm gonna keep hope and faith in that because without it, there's no anticipation for a good future. Faith and hope are something we could all use a little more of these days!

The mindset is changing; there is no doubt about that. Chris' attitude about educating the youngsters is the right way to do it. Regs and enforcement only work when the guys fishing self-regulate. TPWD cannot be everywhere fish are being harvested. I'm going to be cautious about labeling guys uneducated. My dad, who I would love the chance to fish with one more time, grew up in the depression. He never threw anything back. He and others like him knew what it meant to be hungry and for that reason, they always kept what they caught. It wasn't a lack of education, it was growing up in a time when they had nothing vs where we are today with the plenty all around us.

All that said, I am encouraged by what I see here. The attitudes are changing. I know mine have. As a youngster my ideas were influenced by my dad. Now I know I am not in the same world he was in. I have adjusted my thinking to my reality, not his.

Miss him and wish I could get him on the water just once...

Wow, great point Tim. One thing I love about this forum and another reason for people to be connected. Bouncing ideas and opinions off one another can keep you looking at things with different perspectives. So true about those that grew up in a different time. Very few people these days know anything about being hungry. The only thing I know about hunger is being so broke when I got my first apartment that I lived on Ramen noodles for months. I got hungry for something other than that, but I never really got "hungry".

This is where Tim and I differ greatly. I believe education is the the key teaching our youth about conservation and this will be the driving factor for change. The youth are much more willing and receptive to learn than the old.

My dad came from the same era where times were tough and you keep everything Tim. He grew up with 9 brothers and sisters in a 2 room dug out mud house with dirt floors, no electricity or running water in the deserts of New Mexico. They kept everything to eat including rabbit and rattlesnake. It was engrained in his thought process to keep everything we caught fishing when I was a kid and we kept big fish too. In 1981 I was 7 yrs old and I started watching Jimmy Houston and Bill Dance on TV and they were talking about conserving our resources for the future. When I turned 8 I started fishing on my own and implementing what Jimmy and Bill were teaching into my fishing. Over the next 5 yrs I would have long discussions with my father about why we should turn the big fish loose. It took a long time and many fishing trips of us keeping those fish but eventually my dad started to understand how important it was to me even as a little kid. When I turned 14 I told my dad I was never keeping another big fish and he told me he now understood why and wouldn’t keep them either. Even though my father came from a dirt house with 2 rooms he worked hard and put himself through college and was educated with school work but uneducated in the importance of conservation. That’s the way he grew up. Having a son like me who was growing up with idols like Jimmy Houston and Bill Dance educating me about conservation and in turn educated him. The impact of those guys teaching and educating me has lasted a lifetime and forged me into the type of person I am today. I will continue to educate the uninformed and focus my efforts on the youth and I’ve all but given up on trying to teach these old guys on why conservation is important for our youth. You have to care about something to want to learn about it and protect it and some folks just don’t care.

Lastly, I’m not afraid to step on a few toes to protect what I love. My dad taught me to be a sheepdog and stand up against the wolf that is praying on the sheep. Someone who gets mad about me trying to protect what I love I am really not concerned. They are the wolf and I am the sheepdog. We will never get along. I know for a fact that I have done a lot more positive change through being outspoken than I ever could have by worrying about some old guys feelings or weather he likes me or not.

Don't the huge fish eat a lot of baby fish though? We have kind of a similar argument back in Washington about Bull trout. They can get up to 3 feet long and while they probably lay a ton of eggs they also eat the other trout species fry so it seems like having them is 50/50 pro versus con.