Bradley, It's an age old question, made more prominent by Catch & Release. It has been proven time and again that a fish, when played to exhaustion will probably not survive. I'm not a fish biologist, but from what I read about fish that are fought/played to near exhaustion, it appears that they build up a high concentration of lactic acid, which shocks the fish's system and death can quickly result.
My personal feeling is that if you're going to use light tackle to wear a fish down,(unless you're catching brookies or other small fish), you might as well go ahead and kill it and take it home and eat it, since its going to die anyway. I don't fool around with the fish I catch. I get them in as soon as possible and I probably use stronger leaders and tippets than a lot of folks, just so that I don't stress the fish too much. Even so, most fish will have to be helped to "get their bearings", before they are set free. Grasping them by the tail and pushing back and forth in the water flares their gills and gets them breathing again. You can tell when a fish is ready to leave your grasp by the feel, i.e. the re-gaining of its strength which ultimately leads to the fish breaking your grasp and swimming away. I think a lot of the light tackle deal has dealt with saltwater fish where people are trying to set records by line weight class. I know there are some of us who will say "it takes great skill to land a 10 pound steelhead on 2 pound test leader." True enough, but why play that beautiful steelhead to exhaustion and probably death, when you could use a stronger leader and minimize the playing time and release the fish unharmed, while still enjoying a good tussle. My 2 cents worth. JIMMY *********************************************************************** bradley robinson wrote: > Dear lister's, > In my progression of fishing, I am finding myself > wanting to catch bigger fish on lighter tackle. > my question is this, lighter tackle means longer > playing time. Thus the fish must get tired,and face a > chance of dying.is it more ethical to use heavier > tackle with fewer chances of harming the trophy or if > done properly can a concious angler use lighter > tackle. Im looking for more challenge in my angling > the landing isnt as important to me as the battle > itself but the most important thing to me is the > welfare of the fish This question has been haunting me > a while > thank you for your imput , > brad robinson > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ -- Jimmy D. Moore " BIGTROUTMAN" Woodway, TX "THE GUY WHO INVENTED WORK NEVER CAUGHT A FISH!" Outdoor Writer,humorist I FISH BECAUSE I MUST! Member-TOWA,TU,FFF,NAFC But, more importantly, I fish Board member-GRTU because my Dad taught me. For fly fishing info across the USA world. check out http://www.BIGTROUTMAN.homestead.com/MainPage.html World Clock: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
