Introducing Trophy Anglers Guild

[Phil Lilley]

Clay or Phil,

Can you TAG a fish if you only have a photo that does not have the tape measure? I caught a 25" pink salmon, but only have this single photo of the fish.

Dad's Juneau pink salmon.JPG

Did you mark it on your rod and measure later?

These kinds of questions will have to be ironed out by Clay I'm sure....

[Clay Goforth]

Clay I like the idea but my biggest concern is Many of the fish you listed people like to eat and can always say they released it and not be telling the truth. How are you going to verify that?

Wouldn't it be easier just to enter the fish and not worry about what they did after. It would suck if you DQed a person who landed a monster rainbow but it expired and could not be released like the one that was recently caught, or a guy who wanted to eat a fish.

The idea is good but I think you will lose people at the CNR /CPR aspect of it.

I totally understand your concerns, as you just listed all things that I thought and worked through. I understand that we will lose people at the C&R part. Bottom line, the system is what the system is. There are certain rules set in place and we want to promote catch and release, fully understanding that there are a lot of catch and eat fishermen. I am one of them on certain species on this list. If I caught a 28" walleye, for example, the joy I would get out of eating that fish vs the joy I would get out of releasing it and submitting it to the Guild would heavily favor the "eat."

I understand that people will cheat the system. My standpoint on the cheating is that they have to live with knowing that they didn't truly follow the rules. I am a firm believer that people will get what is due them, in time. There will always be people that want to cheat the system and I can't stop that.

The one point you made that I really wrestle with are those that want to release the fish but just can't get it to come back after a long fight...I think we have to just make a stand and stick to it, though.

All great points and thank you for the feedback.

needs to be on a measuring device, a hog trough or other type of bump board is best, but a tape will due.

988917_10206763812799023_3070896704313196614_n.jpg

Richy, you are correct, bump boards or hog troughs are probably best, but we just need a reference point for review of the submission. A measuring device of some kind, i.e. a tape, is what is required for sure-enough approval however, as I said in a post earlier, we will understand that some folks will want to submit fish they caught before they knew the requirements and we need some point of reference for determining the validity of their catch. In the example above, we used experience in catching pinks as well as the length of the streamer in the mouth to determine that the fish was, in fact, very very close to 25". We want to approve submissions for people but if there is something "fishy" (bad pun) going on, we will deny the submission.

Replace the word "Guild," People will think you are tubby men with beards, drinking mead from chalices "hammered" from ancient ore mined by dwarves.

Have you seen me...you pretty much nailed it...

All great feedback, guys! Please keep it coming. And I really do get it that we can't make everyone happy but we want to hit the 80/20 rule, at least.