I Am Not My Brother’s Keeper
*Published August 2009 Midwest Outdoors Magazine*
Written by: Len Harris
Photos by: Len Harris
No I am not going to give you a sermon. Quite the opposite.
I am sick of getting sermons. The Wisconsin Department
Of Natural Resources have done many studies on which
small streams can handle harvest of trout. They give size limits
and numbers that can be kept from each waterway that holds trout
The people that work for the Fisheries Department
are well trained and most of them have
the minimum of 4 years of college and much ongoing
schooling. There many studies going on right now.
Our tax dollars at work.
When I look at the Trout Pamphlet I cringe a little.
They are quite complicated and some streams
even change regulations in midstream and then change
back. Then there is the Early Catch & Release Season in
Wisconsin for trout? You can only use artificial lures
and barbless is a requirement. ALL trout must be
returned immediately.
This small stream brown was release to the small
stream it lives in southwestern Wisconsin.
How would you have liked to hear someone say?
“You must keep that trout.”
What other species of fish in Wisconsin has a
Catch & Release ONLY season? I look at the
regulations and I can find none. I can remember
when there was a January season and all types
of lures and bait were allowed. This season
was discontinued due to perceived over harvest of large
trout during the cold months. Now no live bait can
be used in early season. The average trout angler in Wisconsin
is a worm angler. This early season basically rules
out the vast majority of anglers. You have to stay home. When
is there going to be a Keep Only Season?
Joe caught this enormous small stream trout
on a minnow in southwestern Wisconsin. Joe
was age 17 at the time. Joe had the trout mounted
and ate the trout also. The saying that big trout
taste bad is incorrect.
This catch and release moment in the trout
circles have gotten way out of hand. If you
are in the wrong circles and talk about
keeping a large trout for mounting,,,
you are criticized. Some silly saying is
usually used during the SERMON. The typical
responses are: Why didn’t you make a fiberglass
reproduction of that fish? Then there is the one
that really rubs me. A trout is too valuable of a
resource to catch only once. Who says that
trout has only been caught once? Then there
is the one that they try when nothing else works.
“You are so selfish for keeping that trout, you
should have let it go and shared the experience with
someone else.” I am really glad these brothers keepers
are not taking over deer hunting.
Trout fishing is a food gathering task. It is not some
type of religious movement.Catch and release is a
management tool.The big trout are NOT big
because they are so how superior to the others
in the area. They just have the better hiding spots.
They have the better forage. When trout get really
old they lose their breeding prowess and are a drain
on the small trout population. They are carnivores
and eat many small trout. If someone wants to have
a trout mounted, let them do it without making some
disparaging remark. Do they tell you that you
MUST keep trout? I only expect the same in
return. If you want to let it go. Let it go!
The Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources
have been at this trout management thing for many years.
Let them do their jobs. They are very good at it. If it was
detrimental to keep a certain sized trout from a waterway
the WDNR would not allow big trout to be taken. If you
feel the urge to criticize just consider the current trout
regulations in Switzerland and some German streams.
If you hook it you MUST take it home. I think we have
plenty of trout to go around and lots of big ones.
Go catch some trout. They are tasty and easy to
clean and are very good source of vitamins and nutrients.
