This is a fairly odd thread especially from most of the guides harping on catch and release then taking seasons full of customers out on the lake harvesting thousands of fish annually.

Sure you guides should practice catch and release if you didn't you're spots would suck for your customers and you would have a garage full of fish. This thread would almost make an occasional fisherman think he was doing something wrong by keeping a bag limit.

I agree...I have seen my father-in-law clean every crappie caught out of a large watershed over a six year period to the point I was feeling guilty about it. When I asked him about it he said "more crappie die from old age than are caught." I thought surely we would see a demise in the population but the population has not been hurt a bit. Based on this, I don't think you could hurt a lake population. At least by legal means.

Also, the catch and release mentality has has hurt some bass fisheries and biologist are starting to encourage the harvest of bass to help improve the fishery.

I think a lot depends on the body of water and bait fish available. There is nothing wrong with catch and release but as long as state laws are followed the fishery should be able to sustain the harvest.

The spring might be the best time to release some fish to get a good spawn but don't just release the females let some males go too because they protect the nest.

Remember hunters and fisherman were the first conservationist. If fish populations were on the verge of a downturn we would be the first to come to the rescue.

Myself sometimes I clean them all and sometimes I release them all. Especially when I go fish after work and don't won't to mess with cleaning them.