E
Ell
Guest
This has been bothering me for a while now, bear with me (no I\'m not typing naked) a bit of background first. Once a killer of anything, a young kid with fields, an airgun and no guidance or supervision. Shot owt that moved smaller than a goat wether it flew or not. Premieval instinct, man the hunter something like that in my child\'s mind, my mates were exactly the same. Taken fishing with me dad in the 70\'s when I believe I am right in saying, the general perception was there were plenty more fish in the sea, certainly plenty more to be caught from the shore. Given proper guidance on respect for the countryside, how to handle fish, workings of the food chain etc. Then left home and went all ultra lefty, vegetarian, animal rights supporter (not activist, too busy fighting for the human cause
) no meat, anti-hunting and wouldn\'t fish on moral grounds (joke in there somewhere... \"where\'d you catch that?\" \"On the moral ground just off St. Mary\'s\" Grew up a bit, ditched a few of my more bigotted beliefs but kept the fundementals.
What I\'m leading up to is.......... I am beginning to find it difficult to justify keeping fish over a certain size. There are a number being captured this season, in fact in terms of HSF\'s this year seems to be a good \'un. As we all know though this is not indicative of a general trend, fish stocks are depleting, Cod and many other species are in deep trouble the doo doo has well and truly hit the fan. I think it may be an idea to have a self imposed upper limit on what we keep (Cod and Ling in particular) Mant times the words Perfect for the pan or pansize are used and I suggest anything not should be photographed and returned. I have seen a few good fish this year and after the excitement of hunting them down, tempting them to the hook and playing and boating them it saddens me to see some of these long term wreck residents lying discoloured in a fish box. In no way am I suggesting to keep these fish is WRONG, I\'m just not sure wether it is RIGHT. An upper limit as a ball park figure to me would be 7-8lbs. I understand that whatever efforts sport anglers make can be undone in a blink of the eye by a commercial boat but 2 wrongs never made a right in me dads book and I\'ll go with that.

What I\'m leading up to is.......... I am beginning to find it difficult to justify keeping fish over a certain size. There are a number being captured this season, in fact in terms of HSF\'s this year seems to be a good \'un. As we all know though this is not indicative of a general trend, fish stocks are depleting, Cod and many other species are in deep trouble the doo doo has well and truly hit the fan. I think it may be an idea to have a self imposed upper limit on what we keep (Cod and Ling in particular) Mant times the words Perfect for the pan or pansize are used and I suggest anything not should be photographed and returned. I have seen a few good fish this year and after the excitement of hunting them down, tempting them to the hook and playing and boating them it saddens me to see some of these long term wreck residents lying discoloured in a fish box. In no way am I suggesting to keep these fish is WRONG, I\'m just not sure wether it is RIGHT. An upper limit as a ball park figure to me would be 7-8lbs. I understand that whatever efforts sport anglers make can be undone in a blink of the eye by a commercial boat but 2 wrongs never made a right in me dads book and I\'ll go with that.