Dan S.

Futile might be to strong of a term. I just feel the c&r thing has been debated to death.

NWR,

I could say the same thing about the opponents of c&r.

[edit] Yes, you could kerry. I think that taking an unreasonable stand and spewing retoric on both sides has a tendency to discredit whomever is spewing the retoric (both ways). This is one issue that some folks are passionate about and sometimes they get tunnel vision (both ways).

Micro ... The study is real. It was conducted by Queen's University in Ontario. I'm pretty sure that rainbows were the species of interest here.

While percentages may vary some based on species, the fact that similar studies in very different portions fo the world all point the same way does make it very obvious that when you intend / are required to release your fish, the reposnsible thing to do is: play them quickly, and limit their time out of the water.

Yes, the merits of C&R have been hit pretty hard, but I think thisis an important thread to teach those that don't realize the impacts of keeping fish out of the water for minutes at a time ... maybe we can email it to some of those Saturday morning bass shows!

Dan...I am sorry about the confusion...the 'v.' was not intended to stand for "versus" but "version" such as IFish's version of my thread.

...damn...I hope Im not sounding to c*cky!

i appreciate your comments sparkey and completely agree with you. selfishness rules in the fisheries on all sides. you have many more that agree with you than you think. keep up the good work. many on this board think something is important only if it can be banged bought or built

I think it's a mistake to get hung up in the percentages, or whether it's a wild trout or a hatchery trout. The point is that air is bad for them, and exhaustion is bad for them.

The logical conclusion, in my opinion is,

a) don't bring them into the air, at all.

b) use gear that can control the fish rapidly. 4 lb test kills steelhead. I never use less than 8 lb.

c) use a net. You can net a fish more quickly than you can tail a fish.

I know that netting is controversial. This past year, I caught and released the same fish (steelhead) pver a three week period three times. On the third time, he showed no apparent damage, despite having enduring a nylon net. He never left the water, and was released quickly.