I was fishing with my wife the other day and gut-hooked a trophy fish too. It was a legal keep, and the fillets are gorgeous, but I still get a bit of a twinge over it. Still, the fish are there for us, and as long as they don’t go to waste there’s no reason to regret keeping one if it won’t survive the release.
pictures are worth a thousand words… mounts collect dust…mine do anyway…their stuffed in a closet…right next to a bag of beanie babies… until I build a bigger room… so she says now… am I babbling again?