A bid to rid the Shenandoah National Park of invasive species has spawned new regulations that are not sitting well with some die hard catch and release fishermen. Park officials say the new regulations are aimed at protecting the Brook trout fishery.
From the park's fishing regulations:
In the park’s continuing effort to control wild non-native brown trout populations to limit
impacts on wild native brook trout populations, special brown trout specific regulations
have been promulgated for the Rose River, Hughes River, and Brokenback Run.
All regulations as specified in the Regulations section apply to these three streams except:
• The minimum size for brown trout as part of any daily creel or otherwise in
possession is 7 inches.
• The release of any captured brown trout back into any park stream is prohibited.
Undersized brown trout, those less than the 7 inch minimum, must be disposed of
away from the stream and away from park roads or trails.
2 comments:
Boy did they step in it. Not only encouraging catch-and-kill; but catch-and-waste.
It wouldn't have taken much more time for some nameless, faceless, spineless bureaucrat to add "must be immediately reduced to bag, taken home and eaten with friends and family."
Imagine the reaction of some PETA-type or grannie with her brood, who see the first guy toss a wiggling brown on to the bank to slowly suffocate.
I agree that wasting the fish seems contrary to all that I learned about the outdoors as a kid. My Daddy would have had a fit if I had wasted game or game fish.
Sounds like a shore lunch would be in order.
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