The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Ed Kelleher wrote:
If you play a trout for fifteen minutes, you might as well keep it, because you have likely killed it anyway.

I disagree. Perhaps if you play a 7 or 8 inch trout that long, what you say is true. By all means bring a trout to hand as quickly as possible, but if it takes 15 mins just to be able to land a 24 inch Brown, that fish has plenty of life in him/her. It'd be crazy not to let it go. I am reading a book by Lefty Kreh and he says when you bring a fish to hand, hold it upside down (with it's back in your palm) and the fish won't thrash and the chances of it's survival are increased. Just a thought.