I few years back I caught a 6+lbs Rocky Mountain Whitefish in the Red Deer River. It was the last few days of my summer up in Alberta playing baseball for the Red Deer Riggers. I had no clue where to take it for authentication, no time to have it taxidermy, and the big fellow was looking at me with very sad eyes. Plus I was fishing with a resident fishing license when I clearly should have had an out of province license. (Hey I was a broke college kid).
! So, after keeping it out of the water for entirely too long, I nursed it back to swimming away to be free and pass on it's genes. I told my uncle about my catch, and he said, "oh great, we have a brain dead trophy whitefish out there". I felt horrible and still do all these years later!
He swam away fine.....do you think I hurt him? I nursed him back for some time, with several attempts to swim on his own, and made sure he was pretty strong when I finally let him loose.
And, when you release a record fish...do you have bragging rights that you own the provincial record? I say yes!
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