With many more new anglers and fishing growing in popularity of fishing among many weekend fishers who keep fish,should we be concerned about our fisherys?reason why i'm asking is i'm seeing an increase of people on the shore and lakes all carrying the 5 gallon buckets of fish.A weekend fisher if most don't know what a limit is or what a keeper size is(bass is 15'' limit).I've knotice with the increase of fishing sales can only mean a heavier pressure on our local lakes.

I've gone strickly catch and release this year,knoticing not many people are catching fish like we usally do.

maybe i'm just worrying about something over nothing...but usally this time of the year i can catch bluegills by the 50s now i'm lucky to catch 3 in 4 hours.I used to be able to catch bass 5 is the limit(even though small but still they were there).it's gotten pretty warm here now i figured the fish would be in alot more shallow areas.

I don't have a straight answer to your question.  I guess it depends on the body of water you're fishing or the region.  I do nothing but catch and release in the lakes I fish because that is what is needed.  However, there is one small pond that I fish which is in need of selective harvest.  We had a thread quite a few months back where statistics were quoted and it seems that the actual total number of anglers is far less than it used to be, though the people who are fishing, are going on more fishing outings that the average angler did in the past.  

Earlier this year I was fishing in a small pond near my house. By small I mean less than 1 mile around and only about 1/2 of that is fishable terrain. One saturday, 3 bass 5+ pounds each were taken home and eaten. I was fairly upset by this, but there is really nothing one can do. I do think people taking big fish from there has decreased the big fish population a great amount.

I keep hearing that fishing popularity is declining.  The people saying this are not fishing where I do.  I don't even bother fishing public lakes on the weekend much anymore.  It's insane.  I have seen the effects of people keeping bass on some of the 100 acre and less lakes around here and it has ruined a couple good fishing holes for me.

I keep hearing that fishing popularity is declining.  The people saying this are not fishing where I do

This comes from the tackle manufacturers who are reporting a downward trend in sales.

I'm not surprised.  

Why should you go outside, where there is a chance you might have to move a little, when you can sit in front of your tv and play video games all day?

To answer the original question.

No, I don't worry about the quality of fishing in general from over harvesting.  Any single body of water can of course be hurt, but for the most part over fishing is not the culprit when a lake declines.

Pollution, and disease do much more harm.

When you see people violating your state game laws do you call the local fish and game dept. or conservation officer?

It is our responsibilty to protect our fisheries from all threats.  

yep i did...matter of fact i didn't get an answer.It wasn't over illegal fishing though,it was boaters landing where people were fishing...there were no boat landing docks.It's all shore for shore fishermens.I swear we have some of the most retarded boaters here.

We do however have that VHS virus going around up here...possibly why i'm not seeing as many fish being caught. However you'd think the DNR would be a little strict over what's being caught to protect the spread of the virus any more.