Mahogany Outdoors

A Word From The Founder Robert O' Bryant About Sport Fishing

Catch and Release Is A Vital Fishing Method to Ensure That Future Generations Will Have Fish To Catch. Small Lakes Can Be Fished Out BY Greed.  That IS Why We Work SO Hard TO Educate Fishermen and Women TO Practice Catch And Release.  We Do Have Cookouts But We Don't Want To Catch Freshwater Fish To Sell. Freshwater Fishing is Something Children Can Do Locally So Commercial Fishing In local Lakes Can Deplete The Resource and Fun For Kids. Please DO NOT Fish TO Sell In South Florida in Our Freshwater Lakes.

Mahogany Outdoors

The sport of recreational Bass fishing started back in the 1960’s with the introduction of professional bass fishing. The Bassmasters Tour. At that time Fishing tournaments were recognized with the long stringers of Bass. I have several articles with Roland Martin with a twenty five pound stringers of bass slung over his shoulder. However tournament directors knew that, the continue taking of Bass would deplete the fish and the source of the tournament would die.

The theme of catch and release popularly took on a new meaning. Professional Bass fishermen were required to have working live wells on there boats. They were limited to state bag limits and if they were to fish outside the bag limit a special permit was needed to fish . A five fish limit, with a penalty for a dead fish was imposed. This attitude put the emphasis on keeping fish alive and back into the water

As a youngster I grow up watching these programs and not really thinking about the way we fished. Most Bass at that time were caught for dinner and there were not many times that we caught more bass than we ate. In our community whenever we see a fishermen release a fish boy! The respond is they must be crazy, that fish was big enough for the pot. Most people eat fish as a choice not out of starving today. I never really tied the ideal of catch and release into what was really happen in the fishing industry that professional bass fishermen were being paid and making a good living on Bass fishing circuit . Another good reason to release the fish is that if a fishermen caught them one time, well then maybe he will catch them again. (A Sport Fishermen.)

Another area I did not understand was the concept of teaching fish, some bass are more aggressive then other fish ,so these fish hit any thing that moves and are used to introduced new fishermen as well as youth into the sport of fishing. Well, that was about twenty years ago. Today many people relate to why we do catch and release and most people respect the law of a five fish limited. We discussed this issue at length at one of our meetings. And our decision is to do catch and release only for our bass fishing . No shadow of gray ground. Then we have those fishermen who don’t care about how many fish they catch, how it affects the water or the youth, we teach the sport of fishing. The only concern is to catch fish and sell fish to buy more baits. When you buy a pack of rubber worms at $3.99 per pack and one worm in a pack can catch up to ten fish, and you keep all ten fish and more then what? Recently I introduced a few fishermen to a private lake that I use to teach kids Bass fishing. They caught a ten pound bass which was released back into the water. A very unselfish move, the fish were spawning. However at the end of the day the fishermen came out of the water with a stinger of fish that would choke a horse. To think that these fishermen don’t care about the next fishermen past, present or future. We need the support of local law enforcement agency’s to help enforce the laws since people won’t volunteer then they need to be made to follow the law. Writing this story makes me think of dodge city when the news paper reporter had to write something uncomfortable but did so for the good of the people. Do you lay down against every thing that you have been working to change or try to educate where you can and enforce the laws where you have to. WE have to protect the fish so that our children and grandchildren can enjoy the sport.

Contact Us  At (305) 603-7451

Robert O’ Bryant – President & Founder

Kathleen Elliott - Vice President

Mailing Address

Mahogany Outdoors
P.O. Box 381305
Miami, Fl 33238

Email: robryant@mahoganyoutdoors.com
Tel.:  (305) 603-7451.