Now to be quite honest only after reading the entire story did I decide not to shoot it. Though Im not sure I would have been patient enough to wait and see that he was with a female.
[quote=Whopperhead;707865]Tone- I myself would of shot him. I would be more likely to pass on smaller or medium sized ones and strickly go for the bigger ones. I just think if you pass on the smaller ones- eventually you'll have lots of big ones to choose from. [quote]
Im not sure that this is a very valid assumption. When the larger fish in a group are targeted you are taking them out of the "breeding pool." In result the individuals will become smaller. In short big males breeding with females = Larger offspring, small males breeding with females=smaller offspring. THis is what happened to many species of grouper (e.g. black grouper in california, and hapuupuu in hawaii) also swordfish, blackmarlin, and many others have been victims of "trophy fishing."
I think it comes down to experience and respect for the ocean which settingsteele proves he has a lot of.
