Very unfair rule

[Icedaddy22]

I agree pretty much completely with what Don says, and I respectfully disagree with what oats says. I do agree with him that he and a lot of others who properly fish flies have a low mortality rate just like those who fish lures or actively fish baits. I disagree with him saying that more restrictions are better. In still water fisheries such as spinney and the delaney buttes, maybe a no bait restriction is fine. I can also say that letting a bait sit in a larger river actually is less productive than flies or lures much of the time. You don't really get that many strikes. Trust me I have tried. I have many holes where I have never got a strike experimenting with stillfishing, only to mop them up on bait that is drifted. I have deep hooked very few fish fishing this way. If the half the fish that are deep hooked survive rule is correct, my mortality rate this year is about 4%. I agree that we need mostly catch and release for quality trout waters. I never hardly keep a trout in these waters even though I am allowed to do so in most. Let the no bait rule stand in a few of the lakes and small rivers. However I and most of the rest of Colorado anglers will not tolerate any additional regulations in other waters. Once they refill Antero, bait should be allowed there like always. You just cannot usually match the success with flies or lures that you can skillfully fished bait. And the only way to skillfully fish bait in larger rivers is drifting, and by this method most all trout are lip or mouth hooked. Also, when I say fly fisherman have a high mortality rate, I mean ONLY those who fish with too light of gear, tippets, leaders ect. Proper fly fishing is very low in mortality, some of the lowest. But it's not statisically lower than properly fished lures or baits. I can assure you that passively fishing baits in rivers doesn't work as well as fly fishing or lure fishing, let alone drifted bait. So to have bait allowed on all larger rivers is a good and just rule because those who improperly fish bait are not going to hook many fish, trust me. It's also important that we educate anglers to properly fish bait or flies, and to release most all trout caught in most fisheries. The only quality water in which I regularly harvest trout are smaller browns in the Gunnison Gorge, where restrictive limits have actually allowed the browns to become too numerous. Besides that, only brookies and small macks go onto my stringer. I also wish that bass, pike, catfish, walleye, and panfish would be given the same respect.
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