Chris, we are not that far apart in my view. My dad was one of 8 and grew up in much the same way. He only finished the 7th grade. He joined the Navy in 1940. He spent the war in the south pacific. But he came home from the war and made a good life for himself and all his kids. I am 1 of 7.

I was in no position as a kid to educate my dad about anything. When I was young all he did was work. That's what I learned from him. It almost killed him and me both. I was lucky to figure it out sooner than he did. I am blessed to have friends like you to help me understand things like conservation. I am blessed to have the time and the means to fish as much as I do. My dad would have loved it here in Texas.

Chris, we all know you are not afraid to speak your mind... if guys don't know that, they haven't been paying attention!

Actually the growth rate slows and they begin to eat a smaller percentage of their body weight than a small fish who is aggressively feeding to get big. A big portion of large blues diet are 8-10” fish such as gizzard Shad, Bluegill, Sandbass, and carp. A 50 lb blue eats much less food than 50 lbs of eaters. When other fish are also allowed to grow up to their potential they begin to get too large for these fish to predate. It’s a balance. It is the abundance of offspring that each species is cranking out that becomes the food for larger fish. Larger fish produce more offspring exponentially. As long as their are large fish of other species continue if to have productive spawning there can be lots of both large and eater size fish of all varieties. Remove too many of the larger apex fish and the whole thing becomes unbalanced. A good example of this is in a pond. When you manage a stock tank properly there are both large and small fish to be caught. Remove all the large fish or allow the smaller fish to become over populated and the ecosystem gets out of balance and fish will no longer grow to their full potential . Lakes are just a larger version of this.

Well said Chris. I have a small 1/2 acre pond and I take out every bass I catch that is 12" and smaller. There is a good balance in my pond of all size fish. My brother caught 1 that weighed over 8# out of my little pond. It also has a healthy population of all size blue gill. Then every spring I add tilapia to the mix and that helps my bluegill population as the bass have something new to start feeding on. Once the water cools off in the fall and the tilapia get lethargic my bass get giant bellys from feeding on all the slow moving tilapia.

I have seen too many pond that get over run with small fish and they become stunted and wont get big at all. Sometimes if takes years of managing these ponds to ever them them good again, and sometimes people have to poisen the pond to kill everything and completely start over.

Small fish are very aggressive and have very high metabolisms. Which equals and unbalanced and unhealthy fishery

I totally respect that Tim and my dad was a working machine too. Sun up to sun down 7 days a week. Even at 84 he can work circled around most men. I started mowing grass, painting houses, and earning good money when I was 10 which allowed me to buy my own motor cycles, boats, and pretty much anything I wanted. Here I am 40 yrs later still mowing grass and painting houses and working hard to go buy whatever I want. My dad taught me that if you want something in life you have to work for it and here I am today a successful hard working business man which I owe it all to him. .

I realize I can be a polarizing figure at times but I’m passionate about what I believe in and that has always drawn some criticism from those that disagree with my point of view. My mom told me that if your going to be a beacon for change than prepare to be attacked at times and I get that completely and expect it. I’m a big boy and don’t mind taking on some negative criticism from guys that don’t like me or my way of doing things. It is this exact reason that I have pivoted my efforts in the last 3 years to the youth as well as helping guys with kids get going on fishing the right way. I might not ever be rich but I’m happy and I take pride in helping make an impact on the youth and the future of Catfishing!

My grandparents lived through the depression and they kept every legal fish they caught. I grew up fishing with them. Then my Dad joined The Arlkatex Bass Club. I learned to bass fish with my Pops, who turned 90 last year. He was a little more conservation minded, but I learned catch & release from Jimmy & Bill also. I'm soon to turn 60 and I started fly fishing about 2000. I fished for trout, bass, crappie & bluegills with my fly rods. I even caught a couple of catfish and a gar by mistake!!

While learning the ropes trout fishing, many of the better trout waters were C&R only. That makes it pretty easy to let the big ones go to fight another day. I don't usually do much bass fishing in public waters, but when I do, I usually don't keep them and always make sure to release them kindly. The pressure on all of our fisheries is tremendous. What is sad is the folks that just don't care if there are any fish left after they catch and keep everything in the lake.

I had the use of a 17 acre private lake for many years. It had good bass, crappie, catfish and the largest bluegills I have ever caught. They averaged just about 11". They were most fun to catch on a 4 wt fly rod. Sadly my friend doesn't work there any more and I have had to find other places to fish. I still have a couple of ponds, but I started fishing Tawakoni last year and have learned a couple of places where I can usually catch come crappie or catfish.

If anyone has any tips on barge or docks to fish, let an old man in on it!!

The pier at Wind Point should start to really fire up for shallow water catfish now that spring is approaching. South wind on a warming trend Bob and you might just catch you a 70 lbr buddy! I hope you get one amigo!!

I feel blessed to be able to go fishing for the monster blue cats we have as a native species in our local lakes.

These big fish are beautiful beasts and it's a privilege to be able to fish for them. I see no harm in harvesting some of the smaller fish, but I just cannot imagine killing and eating the big ones.

I have fished with other members on this board, and without exception they treat the big fish very carefully. Everything from 'burbing' the compressed air out of their lungs, to easing them back into the water to gain a breath after an epic fight.

A few weeks ago I caught a nice 18 pounder, and noticed after I got him in the boat that one of his eyes was missing and had healed over, probably as a result of being caught previously. The fish was still thriving with just one eye, and still in great shape.

As a data point I am Brit, and back in the UK it is illegal to remove ANY freshwater fish from the rivers and lakes. The only exception being pike. Carp especially are revered, with specimen hunters targeting the big fish. Kill a carp and you're in BIG trouble.

To add (and yes, I am a bit of a post whore. haha), it's a great community we have here. I have met a lot of the posters in this very thread and have been privileged to have fished with a few of them.

It's interesting to read how some of you grew up poor, and fishing to eat, food, was the way it was.

We were poor growing up in England, and hunting and fishing were still not part of the culture even back then. Nobody owned guns to hunt, well only the rich had them to hunt, and still most of that was for pleasure, and very few deer were shot for meat (now even less so).

My Dad would fish for hours and hours on the bank of the River Thames with a big weight and a big bait. There were some good Chub (a bit like a freshwater Striper/Mullet) and Barbel (like a freshwater slim Carp with whiskers), and he used to sit there all day with a big bait (lobworm and sometimes cheese) waiting for a big fish. He didn't catch many but when he did they were usually big fish. I didn't have the patience (early teens) so used to flip my road to and fro all day in a mad crazy frenzy (think bass fishing haha..... hides).

This picture below was taken at Buscot Weir on the upper reaches of the Thames of my Dad holding an 8 pound Barbel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbel_(fish)



That fish was put into a 'keep net' and returned alive to be caught another day. Every fish was returned, big and small. It's important to conserve so that the young kids can continue to enjoy 'hunting' for the big fish fish when they grow into adults.

Just like Tim, I would do anything to spend a day fishing for catfish with him, but alas he passed many years ago when I was a young man.

It's funny how I have turned out just like him with my pursuit of big fish.

Here in OK when dealing with catfish regulations, we get blanket rules applied across all waters in the state. I’m in the NE part of the state and have 3 lakes that could be targeted with specific rules that would really allow any of them to become excellent trophy fisheries. When speaking with rule makers on the state level, I have always rec’d the same response, “jug fisherman buy a license too, or Trot liners buy a license same as you.” I completely understand people like to eat fish, plenty of people need fish to keep food on their table. I actually like the way TX targeted Tawakoni specifically with more protective rules (would like to see even more restriction on that lake specifically.) I always propose they choose 1 lake in NE OK (we have MANY lakes with good catfish populations) choose 1 lake in this section of the state and be extremely protective of trophy fish, I have a simple mind but I make myself happy with the argument. Say we take our “Tawakoni” and apply rules like “no jugs, no trot lines, no noodling, no harvest of fish over 30”, manage that 1 lake in the region as a Trophy fishery. In my specific area, 1 hour or less in any direction there would be 6-7 lakes with PLENTY eater size fish and a few bigguns for stocking the freezer BUT there would be 1 lake for CPR guys to enjoy their Trophy fishery, a lake that would draw revenue from traveling anglers, it just seems like an easy compromise to me. Both types of fisheries would be available, break the state into 4 or 5 regions, and promote a Trophy fishery in each region. It seems to fall on mostly deaf ears up here but I’ll keep having the conversation and maybe some day i’ll see it happen.

Well, that makes perfect sense to me but the problem is you're trying to apply logic and reason to government. And as they say in these parts, that dog don't hunt...

Thanks for the good wishes, Chris!

Was a tough day on the lake with temps starting at 25 degrees and the water at only 49 degrees which really scattered the fish. Most boats worked hard to scratch out few fish and Matt Cartwright gave it 100% to get us two good eaters, one 15 lb striper and my one and only fish; a 31lb piggie that was my PB and the reason I braved the cold.

The brass monkeys were running for cover but it made my old heart warm to see the big boy swim off to fight another day.

Excellent!!!