Thread: Saturday Night At Wateree

"...i dont think anyone has the right to cast judgment on someone for the way they fish ,as long as it is legal..."

I disagree 100%. In my opinion, just because something is considered legal does not make it the best thing to do for the fish or as a sportman. Our hunters and fishermen have a long history of screwing things up when we are left unregulated, and that is where catfish are at this stage. We just don't relaize the problems until serious dammage has been done.

Just because the law says something is legal does not make it moral or the right htings to do. Lots of things in our history have been legal and they were wrong, and slavery comes to mind first.

There is NOTHING wrong with a person taking a big fish, but as stewards of the land we have to use some self regulation.

Flopeye I am sorry to hear that that tournament resulted in so many dead fish. I hope you were a good steward of the land and released your alive. I know you did a good job of keeping them alive during the tournament. The night I fished the rodeo all of the big fish made it back alive.

yea it was good that time Wylie,But this was like an old west bufflo kill,thank God the fish werent biting like they had a few nights ago.I saw dude that won out on those nights too.I caught a few,But they were released,I have a 10 yr old that is mad at me now for putting his fish back,Oh well cant please everyone ..Water not running due to drowning.I Team_Flopeye was out two nights dragging.Live fish,Esp BIG F/MS with roe.This year has been hard enough on the fish.

a few of the guys that fish those particular rodeo events do try there best to keep fish alive,i know at the last one quite a few were released back alive,including ours and flopeyes,i wasnt able to make last nights so i cant comment on it and what took place,also all the teams that participated in the carolina catmen tourney released all fish alive,i think i heard of one casualty that day and it was a smaller fish,i think people are starting to realize the importance of cpr more and more,i too am not so crazy about the 5 fish rule that the rodeo crowd uses,and would like to see it drop to at least 3 fish or have a penalty installed for dead fish,but on the otherhand i think it would hurt attendance for that particular event if all fish had to be weighed and released alive,as far the carlolina catmen trail,i think it is more of an entry fee issue than a keep alive issue,the average or underaverage fishermen are not gonna readily go out and pay a $100 entry to fish against guys that just target big blues and flats on regular basis and feel that they dont have a chance on a 5 fish stringer,but i as much as anyone else have the choice to make on which tourneys they fish and how there fish are handled,i guess there are arguements to be made from both sides

Very well said,I have got to get off my butt and go fishing I am late now,Oh yea another bowfin was caught at the state park of bank Last night.Very small about 8 inches.