The Pleasure of Fishing: A refreshing concept on fishing that will make you stop and think

From one vantage point, sport fishing is an unconstrained sport. You are literally free to "dip a line" beneath 70 percent of the earth's surface trying to induce a denizen thereof to feed on your offering.

However, if the mission is to take a few of those "denizens" home for dinner, the platform changes radically. Now, you are at the mercy of the governmental bureaucracy and their induction of rules and regulations ad infinitum. To say the fisherperson is constrained is putting it mildly.

Now we all know, those constraints are noble endeavors manufactured by governmental authorities to ensure the healthy continuance of all waterborne vertebrates. But they come at the little guy, out on the water, like an avalanche of confusion.

There are size limits, bag limits, season closures multiplied by species and geographic sectors. Complicated enough to make one depressed and likely to do something drastic. Like make a suggestion to simplify and, just maybe, improve the overall result.

There was an event for me that framed this dilemma a few weeks back.

The family had fished saltwater before, but definitely were not fishing "nuts." They came for a day of family fun and taking a few fresh caught fish to a restaurant that evening for a "self caught" dinner. No big deal, just a few nice fish would do it!

Our morning started at Capri Pass. The pompano had shown the day before and we were back to capitalize. The drifts we did were productive but, unfortunately, the pompano today were all an inch or so too short. So back they went.

But the family was thrilled and engrossed by the dolphins that had assembled around the boat. The kids thought they were just being friendly but their lunges at released fish told the real story. They were there to scoff up those released pompano who were trying to regain their composure. The dolphin didn't miss very often. After 45 minutes we had no keepers; the dolphin had many.

Which prompted the family to remark, "what's the difference on conservation when the fish are obliterated one way or the other?" If the family could have kept a few fish an inch short of the rule they would have had their fish for dinner and moved on to other things.

But the way it played out, the dolphins were the only winners so far this particular morning.

The snook is the number one game fish in Florida.

We moved out of the pass and into the backwaters. Snapper, and whatever else might be there, became our new dinner quarry.

The snapper were there all right but, again, most all were short. The releasing was fast and furious. Most of the small snapper scooted away but a few had taken the hook too deep and were obvious prospects for the food chain in very short order.

We managed but a few keeper snappers in just over an hour's effort. Hardly what you'd call a banner catch. Then we were readying to move on to another area, when one of the kid's rods went off with a vengeance. With lots of coaching and tons of luck he struggled but landed a beautiful big redfish. You could see the look in Dad's eye ... he was already having visions of these baked filets gracing the dinner table.

Quickly off the hook for photos and measurement, the redfish brought yet another disappointment. The big guy measured out at 28" and an inch over the slot limit. We quickly released him after some anxious moments as we revived him boat side.

Now you could actually feel the family's searing stare ... and, finally, they spoke up.

"We've been out here almost three hours with you and it's been most disappointing. We've caught a ton of fish and all but a few have been released because of artificially induced rules. They were released as weak targets for marauding dolphin or a percentage as fatally injured targets for roaming predators."

There was a strained silence for a few minutes as they digested the probable final effects of the day. The father then spoke up again with what seemed to be inspired resolve.

"The name of the game is trying to preserve the stock of these various species. But you've got size limits and bag limits. The size limits encourage people to keep trying by catching and unwittingly killing a percentage of the fish until the bag limit is reached. That's downright wasteful."

Then the conceptual bomb: "Suppose you did away with the size limit. Folks could take whatever they wanted. Size didn't matter. But the bag limit per person for all species was reduced to one or two fish maximum for each species. Folks would get what they wanted and then move on. Certainly, mortality caused by extended periods of catch and release would be greatly minimized. And everyone who wanted to take fish would be rewarded with a most-yet-adequate opportunity."

You could have cut the resulting silence with a knife. Radical as it may have appeared, the concept certainly drew pause. Could it be that all of us, rule makers as well as partakers alike, have been so close to the forest that we've lost sight of the trees?

Something at least to consider ... don't you think?