ThomD
>Right, forty years ago, the heyday of big trophy striped bass fishing in SF bay area. :)

John Betts has experimented with hooks that have an eye on either end so that they don't penetrate, and some fish can be caugh with flies made of yarn that tangle on their teeth.

Sure catch and release fishing is cruel, but where would be without that?

Mortality rates for C&R trout fishing have been calculated, and are fairly high say 15%. But C&R doesn't mean low impact, it's how it's done that counts. I have fished places where the fish were caught so regularly that they rolled on their sides to let you take the hook out. The first time I saw that I was surprised to say the least. There are some fish being caught dozens of times a season, possibly a week. Not much of a life.

C&R fishing makes lots of commercial sense, like cut and replant forestry. The motivation is money. Lee Wulff said it when he originally was pushing C&R for Trout and Salmon: "A trout is too valuable to catch only once". He may have meant something a little less material, but these days, it is the backbone of an industry that has grown by leaps and bounds, literally.

I attached a picture of four flies I tie for trout fishing. The smallest hooks are pretty small and cause less damage.