Why or why not keep bass?

In the 60s and 70s I always kept them even though I've never cared for the taste..but I always looked cool with a big stringer of fish! Since then, I've always released them..don't need to look cool anymore...except on SDFISH!

 

I keep em of they are hooked bad. Not worth keeping one if I am going to take a knife to the neck. I try not to catch them in the first place, but chunk bait can make this almost impossible...

 

This seems to always be a contentious subject with bass fisherman. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with keeping legal Bass if you want to, that’s why there is and size and number limit. It can actually be a good thing, depending on the fishery. I don’t personally like lmb, but my wife and here family like them so I’ll keep some if she asks me to. So I guess to answer your question the only reason to keep them is for eating.

 

We should introduce a large predatory species that can feed on lots of bass so we aren’t as obliged to keep them

 

If you want to eat bass, please keep the small ones, anything over 20" or so should be released.

 

I have never kept a bass - mainly because that’s the way I was raised. I learned from my dad we keep trout and eat them but that’s pretty much it. He thought catfish didn’t taste good (which seems crazy after all the delicious catfish I’ve eaten in my life now) but maybe he just didn’t like cleaning them.

As I’ve become an adult now I am curious and want to try some LMB. My thought is take a couple from Ramona because the population seems especially stunted there and the water seems clean.

Which brings up another point. Logical or not, I slightly worry about how healthy our local fish really are. I know some people eat the fish and are fine, but some people also keep those Potomac catfish... I think the answer to this would be some transparency if/when testing is done. I know in some NorCal reservoirs they have found significant mercury and PCBs levels in fish so they strongly advise against eating them. I assume since they haven’t posted warnings about our local fish they are fine, but how often is testing really done? Yearly? Every few years? When it’s done do they do every type of fish or just one or two? Again, I’m not sure this worry is actually logical, but it exists none the less.

Next, and I wanted to ask you about this anyway Queue, many of us believe keeping a few fish here or there can actually help the health of the population by decreasing competition for resources. However those on the strictly cnr side don’t buy that argument. So my question is are there any studies we can refer them to that prove this?

Lastly I just want to say I also think any fish over 3.5 pounds or so should probably be released because that fish could possibly make another anglers day/year. Slot limits seem like a fine idea, but may actually be detrimental if they further limit the fish that are harvested on our already under-harvested fisheries.

 

Very well put, Egorham ... My biggest questions come from the sample methods. I know in the past studies in the IV, they sampled some bass longer than 24"... That has to throw the studies off a bit in terms of what an angler could expect from just keeping 13-16" fish (what I try to do when I am out there) in terms of toxin load. Channel catfish over 28 inches compared to 18" as well.. a catfish four years old feeding on fish probably has a different load to one a year old eating plants and small crustaceans/insects...

 

Every year I tell myself I am going to keep a few, then I don't. I watch Barrett then I look at Sutherland and I figure there are not enough Bass in Sutherland. Likely wrong but that is my thinking.

 

That calculates out to10.95 lbs per day for 5 years, i

10.95 +/- fish per day. No way

 

Cuz the big ones give us more bass...

 

Because I said so

 

Todays world its our pass time sport fish, let'em go...
Its like keeping a Marlin, just really no reason to.
Even though many folks would...
My dad brought me up to bring fish home for the dinner table, he raised me fishing salt.
First fw bass ive ever caught was over 9lbs & I was ready to take that sucker home!!!!
Was quickly educated but at first I was looking at the ranger & my friends like they were crazzzzzy...
Needless to say, back in she went...

 

Right....most size limits pertain to the fish being mature enough to spawn at least once before they are taken. The big fish have exponentially more spawning potential(lay a helluva lot more eggs) than the keeper size ones.

 

Just so you guys know Queue is one of our state fisheries biologist. Me and my family do not eat bass so I usually do not keep them. I have in the past when a friend has asked. It’s definitely not a bad thing.

 

Talk about being spoiled! Beat my PB !

 

Thought I was hooked into a bush...
Pointed the rod straight at the water & started walking backwards up the bank to pull the hook from the bush, the bush started swimming to the right.....