Catch. Release. Repeat.

"A trout is too valuable to be caught only once" Lee Wulff.

Def: Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing intended as a technique of conservation. After capture, the fish are unhooked and returned to the water before they are totally exhausted or further injured. Using barbless hooks, it is often possible to release the fish without removing it from the water (a slack line is frequently sufficient).

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In the old days if you caught a fish it was yours God Dam It! Whether you ate fish or not that fish wasn't going back into the water. You either chopped it up for chum, gave it to the cat or buried it in your garden. You caught it, you kept it.

But times have changed. People today have a greater respect for the natural world and the dwindling natural resources of water access and healthy fish stocks. Overfishing creates terrible fishing conditions for all fishermen. Its simple, if there are less fish in the water everyone is going to catch less. And isn't the surprise of catching fish where the fun is in fishing?

Of course not everyone has been enlightened to the concept of catch and release. But its gaining converts. The first official use of catch and release in the U.S. occured in Michigan in the early 1950s as a way to reduce the cost of restocking hatchery-raised trout. Typically what happens in non-catch and released managed waters is the states take your fishing license fees and pay to restock fisheries with little fish. These fish are then typically wiped out in a single fishing season and then the state has to restock.

Fishermen acustom to fishing in catch and release waters are usually catching much older and larger fish. Which certainly increases the pleasure value.

Try catch and release and you will be rewarded in better fishing waters and you will be protecting fish populations for your grandkids.

Effective catch and release fishing techniques avoid excessive fish fighting and handling times, avoid damage to fish skin, scale and slime layers (that leave fish vulnerable to fungal skin infections) by nets, dry hands and dry surfaces, and avoid damage to throat ligaments and gills by poor handling techniques.

Some tips: Use barbless hooks to reduce injury and handling time. Using strong tackle, to minimise fighting times, use needle-nosed pliers to aid unhooking, leaving fish in the water during the unhooking and release process, to avoid any handling, use specially designed catch and release landing nets, avoid touching fish with dry hands and don't have the fish out of water for more than 30 seconds.

The next best thing to practicing catch and release yourself is to promote catch and release to other fishermen. One way to do this is by wearing "Catch. Release. Repeat." t-shirts and hats. Fishboy.com sells a nice selection of short and long sleeve "Catch. Release. Repeat" shirts as well as hats.