When I lived in Miami in the 60's, one of my favorite things to do was keep track of the standings in the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament. This was, and still is a half year long event, running from December to May, that can be entered by most anyone catching most any species of fish.
Why, I even have a couple of Citations for catching and releasing fish. One is for catching and releasing five or more tarpon and one is for catching and releasing five or more snook. Heck, back then that was a pretty easy feat if you knew how to get down to the myriad canals and waterways that line the shore of Biscayne Bay.
But, when it came to releasing, I never really considered that I had caught the fish unless I actually held it in my hands. I think that if I knew I could keep it if I wanted to, and then released it, I counted it as a release.
For some reason, unknown to me, the major fishing tournaments and organizations, including the IGFA, see a catch and or release a little differently. By their rules, as soon as the leader is either past the tip of the rod or is touched by a mate or helper, the fish is officially caught. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? - until you read a little further and find out that the leader can be fifteen feet long when using less than twenty pound line and can be thirty feet long when using line over twenty pound test. Thirty feet!! Add the allowed ten more feet of double line and you have forty feet of essentially handline to bring the fish to the boat! What's wrong with this picture?
Want more? Once the leader is in hand (and more than one person is permitted to handle the leader) a flying gaff is permitted. A flying gaff is one where the gaff hook comes off the pole and is attached to a rope (are you ready?) thirty feet long.
Now why am I going on about this? After all it is we the fishermen that make the rules, so why should I complain? Here's one reason that I am personally aware of that makes me want to change the rules:
We were fishing offshore south of Miami, freeline drifting some live ballyhoo in about 120 feet of water. Right off the reef on the south end of Elliot Key, winter sailfish love to sit on a hump we fished. We drifted along with the wind between the Key Largo whistle buoy and Pacific Light. After successfully avoiding a huge school of triggerfish that were tearing up our good live bait, we watched as a nice sail circled one of the baits. He took the bait and the fight was on. Little did I know that the fellow fishing with us, the son of my fishing buddy, was using six pound test line. This sail was fifty pounds if he was an ounce, and that meant that fishing was over for me and my partner for the next hour or so.
We chased that sail all over the ocean before finally getting it close enough to do something with. The six pound line had held, and a tired sailfish was getting close to the boat. The double line showed, and five feet later, the fifteen foot leader (at least fifty pound test!) came out of the water. As we grabbed the leader, we realized that the sail had become tail wrapped and was unable to fight our pull. Before we could get the fish to the surface, he kicked hard a couple of times, broke the line and swam off as we watched. In my mind, we never caught the fish. He broke off. But in this boy's mind it was a catch and release. He took a sample of his line, filled out he proper paper work, and that year he was awarded a Citation for catching and releasing a sailfish on six pound line! A fish he never even touched!
To each his own, as the saying goes. One man's garden is another's weed patch. The rules are there, they say, to protect the fish. Perhaps the fish would have a better chance if the rules weren't slanted so far in the fisherman's favor!
