Hello fellow Fish-Hawkers, I show my face to take what lumps you feel you need to share with me. [cowers in fear]
I'd like to apologize for doing something that seems underhanded or secretive, I wasn't out to just flame some people or make anyone look bad.
I'm not from the same region as many of you. I'm in the middle of a sprawling metropolis where I don't have the luxury of finding 50 keeper trout in one outing, because there's just too much pressure for everyone to do that.
In my neck of the woods this past summer, it was adviseable not to fish rivers for trout at all because the waters were too warm, the fish were low on oxygen, and even releasing them may still lead to fatility. These same rivers are getting new residential developments put on their banks, of course adding to the issues our fish face.
Over the years I've become more involved in conservation, and through that have realized things I never knew about what plagues GTA waters.
Through volunteering to try to help preserve and protect some of the GTA waters in question, I've undergone an attitude shift where I am now deeply and rightfully concerned that later in life, my grandkids won't have much to fish for here other than Gobies and Ruffe. As a result, I now fish with a feeling of responsibility, the responsibility being to leave the place how I found it (or better), and also to share what I know with new fisherpeople. I release all my fish, though I don't expect others to.
Many of the folks here at Fishkawk on the other hand, have much different waters at your disposal, waters that aren't pounded daily, that perhaps aren't littered with boatloads of garbage, and that are definitely not as overpressured as the few rivers I have close to me.
For the most part, both here and at Hipwader, nearly everyone seems to have been able to keep this discussion and difference of opinions civil, which is cool. Anyone who can't, well tough, you're entitled to your opinion too.
The bottom line is, the people who caught the fish were not at fault in any way, nor did I ever claim they were, for keeping their limit of fish. Sorry if I rubbed you guys the wrong way. I also hadn't realized that such aggressively stocked places existed, because they sure don't in my back yard, unless I go to a trout farm.
In the end, I haven't taken home a single trout from [wild] Ontario waters in my entire 15+ years of fishing. Can you blame me for getting my stomach turned over seeing 50 of them at once? I didn't want to spoil all the backpatting taking place here by posting this non-conformist 2 cents, so I took my opinion elsewhere to have a discussion with like-minded people, no insult intended whatsoever.
Sorry for any rift caused, just a difference in regions, resources, and attitudes, but we're all fisherman in the end, no?
Tight lines.