Sorry to start a new thread (hopefully some folks read this rebuttle before it is deleted), but you ignored the sentiments of several people who posted on the “inside the mouth” topic, inserted your last word, and then froze the thread. That doesn’t seem fair or in the spirit of good debate and conversation. I won’t take much more of your time here, but I wanted to sign off with some clarification:

(1) This argument has been twisted. I’m not suggesting that outside or on the mouth should “count.” I know it’s not an officially caught fish. I think that “counting” is up to the fisherman. The whole bit here is that you stated, in a public forum, that a person was not a “true” roughfisher if he counted fish caught on the outside of the lip. As I outlined in previous posts, precisely where the hook embeds does not speak to the trueness of the fishing method or the fisherman. It does speak to an official result, but that’s about it. The irony here is that the original question – “should I count this buffalo” – would be answered NO by me, because it seems that the fish was blindly snagged. If the thread had stuck to the objective/official matter I wouldn’t have even replied. But when you stick in jabs and bits about “true fisherman”… well you’re goading people into replying/discussing/defending. Which in many cases is good – here though, it seems that certain opinions are squashed by way of freezing and/or kicking off of the board.

(2) On the kids topic: I’ve got two kids, and I’m trying to raise them to be thoughtful and ethical people. That encompasses being thoughtful and ethical fisherman. That means teaching them things like: (a) fish are not “provided as a resource” for us to “take” at will, but rather they are here, coexisting with us, (b) all fish are to be treated with respect - meaning all caught fish should be either consumed or released – none should be wantonly wasted or hung on walls as trophies, etc. etc. One thing I won’t tell my kids is that to be an ethical angler they can only count fish caught inside the mouth, and thus they should use whatever technique or approach necessary to maximize “inside the mouth” fish. That doesn’t sound ethical to me. It sounds technical. It’s part of another discussion regarding officialness.

I don’t believe you’re sorry to see anybody leave your board. It seems that anyone that leaves or is booted off is in disagreement with you, and thus you are probably happy to see them go. I wasn’t trying to be inflammatory; I was only arguing the other side of a debate. It was the “wrong” side though.

I’ll part then with no real problem with anybody on this board… I hope to meet more of you on the water. The board itself though has little utility, IMO, as it is basically focused on back-slapping and congrats for bait-fishing, underlying disdain for fly-fishing-only folks, and maintaining one-sidedness in debates/discussion. I’ll focus on CAG, Rochester Anglers Forum and a couple alternative sites that have been shared with me by fellow roughfish.com exiles.

Good fishing folks,

WB