The others will answer that question for sure as there are so many facets to it, my observations locally is that people always catch and release and that really stunts a lake. Up at one of our northern natural lakes about 20 acres in size we would only catch 14 inch lake trout all day long...and i mean every cast was a trout with nothing bigger than that. After 2 years of fishing it very often and keeping as many as we could (and many dying on release im sure) the sizes started increasing, and now other fish this remote lake and the limited pressure on the lake has turned it into a lake where we can catch 5 and 7 pounders along with small ones.. point is fish are meant to be caught and eaten in many cases.
Cheers.
