Your PETA membership application is in the mail, Matt.

They're fish. Inside an hour of being caught (or just minutes in some cases) they'll bite again. It's because they're stupid animals with a pea brain.........and here you are describing being hooked and landed as if they're human.


Do I feel bad about landing and releasing one because it might be traumatized by the expereince and require counseling? Nope........just like I don't fret too much about stepping on an ant. I don't do it on purpose, but I don't lose any sleep either. The stupid fish won't even remember it was caught in a matter of minutes, if care is taken in releasing it.

If someone offered me free beef for life to stop fishing, I'd tell him to stick it in his ass. Fishing's not about food to me, it's about fishing. I'll whack a hatchery fish in a minute because I like fresh steelhead and salmon, but the thought of converting a nice wild fish into a turd just doesn't sit well with me.

If you don't want to fish for something you can't eat, then stay home. But don't give me some PETA-like description of C&R fishing to support your position. They're stupid fish......but extremely important and awesome stupid fish. Do you get all bent about horse racing and rodeos too? That's another one that PETA likes to tell the Martian story about......you know, how they'd come down and think we were barbarians for doing it. So now we worry about people from other planets? Please.

I'll worry about the fish on this planet, and my ability to fish for them, thanks.