Sometimes, I feel like I'm talking to a wall.

The issue at hand is BIG fish. BIG fish with really special genes. That top 1% of BIG Fish. Not just fish.

I've bonked one REALLY BIG fish and for that, I truly regret that decision. I have now seen the errors of my ways. The genetic make up of that one BIG FISH will never get passed on. I've single handidly increased the chance that you will *NOT* catch a BIG FISH on that particular river. And no, I don't feel any better or justification even if it was a tribal river.

I've never talked about populations. Why you all seem to infer that, is beyond me.

B.Gray - That's a HUGE r***e of numbers. There's a huge difference between a 51" 5 year old fish, and a 51" 12 year old fish.

I have been informed that in the river where I harvested that one sturgeon, that 51" fish was around 5 years old, not the 12+ some of you would like to think.

Be careful when you generalize about fisheries. The Number 1 RULE we learned in Fisheries is NOT to generalize about fish.

Parker