Catch & Release

[mikedatiger]

Can someone here point me to data on the mortality of trout that have been caught and released? I can't imagine that it is very high, but then again, I don't know if there is a way to verify this.

Have just been getting frustrated lately with having to throw back mortally wounded trout (14 inchers) in TX knowing that they have next to a zero chance of surviving - i.e. swimming in circles floating in the tide...All for conservation, catch & release, etc. but don't see the point in throwing back dead fish. Guess there isn't any easy way around it.

I am even curious about this from a large trout perspective as well. I know a few of you guys here tag fish, so would love to hear your perspective. Trout appear to be overly delicate, so I would suspect that survivability is low (obv depending on a variety of factors) but then again I could be dead wrong on both the mortality and sturdiness of the species.