Question

My kids ask me why we throw back some of the fish we catch,i tell them that its called catch and release.Whats the best way to explain to them why we do this?

Tell them so they can catch em when they get older!

tell them if people didnt practice it, you wouldn’t have caught the one your letting go

If it was a Bass, you could just tell them because it was a rough fish

This may be a bit much…but here is what i’m telling my 3 year old daughter hoping she gets 2% of it. We have to be stewards of the resources we have. If we fail to be responsible with the things we have, these resources will not be there in the future. Sometimes we keep fish and thank God for providing things we can eat. Other times we let them go so they can help sustain the lakes/rivers we fish in the future. At the end of the day, it’s about giving and taking. Takers keep everything and don’t think about anything but themselves. Givers, think about others as well as themselves and asks how to be generous in a given situation.
I figure if I tell her enough times, she’ll get it eventually right. And besides, I’m a firm believer in the fact that kids can understand WAY more than they can articulate. Hope that helps.
micah

My father,2yr.old son,Jack and myself were coming in off the river one fall evening with a nice mess of crappies and gills,while unloading we were shocked to see the live well was empty. Here it turned out while Dad and I were busy filing the live well Jack was buisier letting them go. I asked Jack why he let our fish go and he replied with a sentence I’ll never forget,he said “I LIKE WATCHING THEM SWIM” well,I like watching them swim too. This has always been part of my explaination to my sons when dealing with catch and release. My boys are now 9 and 7 so its pretty cool watching them throw back those nice gills down the hole that otherwise might have been kept by others .

That is priceless… Thanks for sharing.

big g

Well there is nothing to add after reading everyone elses post but yet a couple of them posts send chills up a persons back. How touching it is to hear exactly a kids point of view for the actions they have taken.. And what if we kept every fish? What would we all be doing today? Would there be an IDA? Most likely not. Cause if we took all the fish how long would it take before we took all the other games we hunt?

Great Info guys. Keep it. CPR.

Thanks for the info you guys/gals really know your stuff.Its nice to know that if i have a question everyone is here for each other.THANKS!!!!!