It's Time to Rethink Catch-and-Release Trout Fishing — or Get Much Better at It
On some of the country’s best trout streams, catch-and-release may be doing more harm than good. So should we be killing more trout?
Twenty years ago, when Trent Tatum and his business partner began building a fishing empire on a blue-ribbon tail water in central Wyoming, two clients could catch up to 80 fish a day.
“It was absurd,” says Tatum, co-owner of the North Platte Lodge and The Reef Fly Shop.
Anglers would cast three flies below a strike indicator, offering hungry trout a veritable buffet of options drifting downstream. Most of those trout that were netted and hoisted for a picture likely lived, splashing water through the air and then disappearing back into the river.
Author summary: Rethinking catch-and-release trout fishing methods.