Coley,

From a human interest perspective, it's only loving them to death if the population abundance and age class structure is declining. Obviously the trout can spawn and reproduce with missing maxilaries, however the mouthparts are designed for optimum feeding. So mutilation doesn't help any. What about barbless hooks? Careless removal of barbed hooks when the trout are still fairly small is more likely to tear away the max than if barbless were required and used. Just thinking about alternatives that allow us to continue loving them without loving them to death.

Sg