[Lard Almighty]

There is lots of interesting information about hooking mortality in this thread, both scientific and anecdotal. It all has certainly made me consider the way I fish for trout. I am about 95 percent C&R on all trout no matter where I catch them, but now I have to wonder if I'm doing more harm than good by letting these fish go. Maybe keeping a limit and calling it a day is a better policy after all? There are lots of factors I have to consider in this situation, mainly:

1) Can the stream/lake support trout year-round?
2) Am I using lures that enable quick releases with minimal handling?
3) Am I using tackle that allows me to land trout quickly and with minimal physical stress?
4) Are current water temperatures within the trout's "comfort zone" throughout the water column?

It seems to me that if the answer to any of the above is "No," then it would probably be better to keep any caught trout than letting them go (however, I certainly would get sick of eating the dozens of trout I typically land in the spring). It appears that the best way to keep trout alive is to limit fishing for them to times of year or water conditions that would allow for low mortality after hooking. Getting back to the subject of this thread, playing rainbows to exhaustion on light tackle through 75-degree surface temperatures is certainly not conducive to C&R.