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[dustin93]

Hey what is going on with the member photos? I'm not trying to be an idiot and I want people to have fun and enjoy fishing, but there sure are a lot of photos of big fish on hooks and in people's driveways and I guarantee you those fish are not getting released! Whatever happened to catch and release? Procat members should be carrying that banner high. We should be telling others that these big fish need to be let go. A 50lb. flathead could easily be 40 years old or older. Probably the same is true for most parts of the country concerning blues. 4-15lb. channels are in their prime for spawning and reproducing. A flathead only lays roughly 2,000 eggs per pound of weight. That isn't much considering that most bass lay 50,000 to 100,000 per pound and bass are a lot more plentiful than flatheads. A flathead isn't really ready to be a productful spawner until about 25lbs. Go ahead and keep a few small channels under 4 lbs. or a couple of blues under 8 or so. Lets only keep what we will absolutely use and make sure and release the big ones and probably all flatheads. The commercial netters are not on our side. They are seriously damaging the rivers in this country. I believe the Mississippi teetering on maybe never recovering from what they are doing to catfish. Us sportsmen and especially catfish guides have to be the ones to make sure and catch and release and then tell others the same, with conviction. So go have fun, have blast, catch as many as you can and then release them to spawn and reproduce and then have the chance to catch them again. Thanks everyone for your participation!

[mbradley]

I'll second that thought Dustin. If I'm going to keep a catfish, my personal guidelines for the ones I would eat (as opposed to release to spawn and fight another day) is less than 4 pounds for channel cats and less than 10 pounds for blues and flatheads. Really, if a blue or flatty is anywhere near 10 pounds I'll probably not even consider keeping it unless it's badly hooked and bleeding. If I do keep one between 4 and 10 pounds, that's probably the only one I'll keep too- if I get another that size, I'll turn it loose. The reason is that I'm not out there to fill a freezer (now deer and mushroom hunting on the other hand...) and a 6-10 pound blue is a nice fresh fish meal for about 4 people (with fried potatoes, some kind of beans, coleslaw, etc.).

[Shawn]

I was looking through the gallery, and see what you mean. Of course, in most instances there's no restrictions on how many and what sized fish can be harvested. In that respect, were on the honor system.

I also came accross this in Puddycat's gallery caption "Flathead Heaven"... great pic.
http://www.procats.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10086&pos=5

I don't know what the future holds for Procats. I know it's been dissapointing to some, the on again off again thing. Hopefully, better days ahead.

Shawn

[dustin93]

Thanks for the great responses. I know that fish are a great renewable resource, but just like any resource the core product has to be protected. In the long run you will get more money from a cow if you keep it, sell the milk and the calves than if you just send it to the slaughter house. However most of these species of fish are going to be a lot harder to replace than a cow if we don't start now. We are almost too late as it is. There are pools (sections between dams) in the Mississippi River that have low population numbers of big channel cats and are almost totally devoid of flatheads. I said before keeping a couple small ones here and there is not a problem. I'm not anti-keeping fish for the table. I'm against wanton waste of these top-line predators that help keep are waters in balance. I agree with Shawn that we are on a honor system so we either need more talk like this or more regulations, by that I mean a slot limit. I guess my main concern is to be able to catch these giants for years and years to come and for family to enjoy it with me. I don't want a bunch of inconsiderate and unthoughtful people to ruin for people like me, Tim Scott ,Mbradley and others who do give a thought to the future!