My family and I eat a lot of fish, so I frequently retain part of my catch.

Mostly, though I do a lot of catch & release so I can maximize my time on the water.

This is a serious question on my part, and I hope will be answered in that manner.

To use an example, my buddy and I hit the best Chinook fishing in our 100 years of combined salmon fishing time a couple of years ago in the Charlottes.

We caught about 40 Chinook from 18 to 50 pounds in one day. All were released except for a 38 pound fish I caught and was my biggest saltwater chinook ever and a badly hooked 18 pounder that my buddy killed since the fish was bleeding badly. He released a 50 pound fish only minutes earlier.

All fish were played as quickly as possible and released without netting or taking them out of the water. Well, we did try to pick up the 50 pounder for a very quick picture, but that didn't work.

While we were doing this, the other guest as the lodge, who were part of a large group, had limited on Chinook and spent the rest of the day trolling up six pound silvers, instead of playing more chinook.

My buddy and I were both legal as we were below our legal limit. Usually we will kill one fish each early in a trip and save any retention plans until the last day or two.

So, here is my question, asked with serious concern.

As a skilled fisherman, who does their best to handle the fish with the best possible care in releasing, is it morally right to keep on fishing under legal conditions or are we exceeding the numbers of stressed fish by continueing fish?

Thanks for thoughts.

Sebastes