Opinion on people keeping Big Fish to eat?

[hawgenvy]

In my area bass fisherman practice catch and release.  On the other hand, most of those who fish for food are catching panfish or tilapia. And lots of folks who fish for food are poor people who may, if they are lucky, have the good fortune to bring home to their families some fresh lean protein.  There are many impoverished people in the US for whom it is very hard to feed their families, and I am glad they can occasionally bring home some fresh fish. And when those poor folks manage on a lucky day to score a good sized bass, they can put it to best use by consuming it.  To people who are chronically hungry, catch and release is at the very least ridiculous, and maybe close to sinful. It's okay to care about those of us who fish for sport, but more important to have compassion for our brothers who are needy.

[MassYak85]

16 minutes ago, hawgenvy said:

In my area bass fisherman practice catch and release.  On the other hand, most of those who fish for food are catching panfish or tilapia. And lots of folks who fish for food are poor people who may, if they are lucky, have the good fortune to bring home to their families some fresh lean protein.  There are many impoverished people in the US for whom it is very hard to feed their families, and I am glad they can occasionally bring home some fresh fish. And when those poor folks manage on a lucky day to score a good sized bass, they can put it to best use by consuming it.  To people who are chronically hungry, catch and release is at the very least ridiculous, and maybe close to sinful. It's okay to care about those of us who fish for sport, but more important to have compassion for our brothers who are needy.

I think it goes beyond even us sport fisherman. If people who fish for food take and take and take....soon their food source will be a lot less plentiful. Everyone needs to be careful of the impact on their local places, some can take the pressure, some can't. 

[hawgenvy]

5 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

I think it goes beyond even us sport fisherman. If people who fish for food take and take and take....soon their food source will be a lot less plentiful. Everyone needs to be careful of the impact on their local places, some can take the pressure, some can't. 

Bass fishing is regulated everywhere and bass are very plentiful. It is excessive commercial fishing and coastal habitat destruction that threatens fish populations around the globe.

[Gundog]

My opinion is that its not as simple as "its legal so its ok".. If its a large or even mid-size lake with a healthy population of bass then its something I'm not against. But small lakes can be killed by keeping large or even average size bass. Unfortunately I've seen this in a local lake and the lake hasn't recovered yet. If you live in a state where warm-water species take a back seat to trout stockings you can't expect any help from state agencies who are suppose to use the money from fishing license sales to improve fishing for all people who fish. Not just the guys who fish for trout.

[S. Sass]

20 minutes ago, Gundog said:

My opinion is that its not as simple as "its legal so its ok".. If its a large or even mid-size lake with a healthy population of bass then its something I'm not against. But small lakes can be killed by keeping large or even average size bass. Unfortunately I've seen this in a local lake and the lake hasn't recovered yet. If you live in a state where warm-water species take a back seat to trout stockings you can't expect any help from state agencies who are suppose to use the money from fishing license sales to improve fishing for all people who fish. Not just the guys who fish for trout.

What lake was killed by keeping large or even average size bass?

[bigfruits]

stop eating your toys.

[the reel ess]

A couple things here:

Bass from a clean, spring-fed body of water taste good.

The limits most places are set based on DNR electro-shock surveys. If the place isn't fished out, they're not hurting the numbers. Nature has a way of fixing itself. Take a lot and more will survive after hatching the next few years. In the meantime there will be more large ones while the quantity is down. I don't like to see people take big fish to eat because I like to catch big fish and I know their mentality is "I caught this, it's my trophy, I'm taking it home!" I used to have the same mentality. I know a lot of big fish get wasted because people can't seem to let go of a trophy. I was told by a DNR hatchery manager that you can't fish out a body of water. Some just won't bite. He said most of the time, when a place has no fish it's because of some other factor. Oxygen, disease, water quality...

This is why I seek and fish private places.

[Gundog]

9 hours ago, S. Sass said:

What lake was killed by keeping large or even average size bass?

Its a local lake I fished ever since I was a kid. Its called Cotters. Its roughly 50 acres and use to have nice size bass. Its one of the places where I practiced some of the lures and techniques I say Bill Dance and Hark Parker use on their tv shows.

42 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

 

I was told by a DNR hatchery manager that you can't fish out a body of water. 

That's true but you can severly damage populations of bass in small waters by taking out the large and medium size bass. Only little fish will survive and if other species like crappie and perch are in the lake you will have less medium and big bass. The lake I use to fish was small but because nobody kept the bass they grew big. That changed and the numbers of big and medium size bass dropped quick. 

[ottosmagic13]

I don't mind people that follow regulations when they keep fish. More and more lately I've been calling the DEC/police on people fishing the canal. 

About the people taking a limit every day, I've never seen the type that would take a limit (shore bait fisher sitting in the same spot all day) actually achieve the limit of bass. Crappie/Bluegill sure, carp if they are lucky but never bass. 

My other pet peeve is people begging for the fish that you've caught. I always practice C&R with bass and several spots I fish will have anglers that will literally hound anyone that pulls a fish regardless of species. 

[the reel ess]

22 minutes ago, ottosmagic13 said:

My other pet peeve is people begging for the fish that you've caught. 

Me too. Catch your own dang bass. I'll keep some sometimes, but if I want to throw my fish back, I'll do it.

[Ratherbfishing]

they are poo poo heads. (you wanted my opinion)

[LVLDVL]

On 8/9/2016 at 7:09 PM, gimruis said:

Up here in the north country, I don't know anyone that targets bass for food.  Personally I think they taste like mud.  I actually don't know that many people who target bass, period.  The meat hunters are mostly walleye anglers and secondarily, panfish anglers.  The big lakes and rivers all have special slot restrictions for keeping walleyes so the harvest is managed closely.  Most of the lakes around the Twin Cities are choked full of tiny panfish now for that very reason, but the meat hunters don't really give a sh** about the resource because they only wanna fill their buckets

Blackhawk Lake, Eagan, MN

RIP

I saw many 20"+ largemouth on a stringer in the 2000-2003. I went to Wisconsin for college, moved back to West St. Paul, went back to check the lake in 2007-2008. All of the bass went missing, along with the lines of bucket fishermen with their squeaky Ugly Stik combos. Literally, there used to be 20-40 people on that 40 acre lake on any given weekend. Now, you'd be lucky to see 3 people fishing at all.

My opinion: screw these people who keep any bass over 12". And you would tell me to shut up because here in Minnesota, there is no general minimum size for bass so no one is breaking regulation. But you're sitting comfortably on your nice shiny big bass boat and you can get to the outer weed edge and find bass in the deep any time. I'm the weekend guy who fishes from shore. But what do I know.

[Jar11591]

To me, it's not an issue of legality. Big bass, ESPECIALLY in small bodies of water are very few in numbers. For a bass to achieve a large size, it has to overcome extreme odds, and when the big ones are taken out of a smaller body of water, one fish can be a comparatively large percentage of the big fish population. It's not a matter of legality. It's an issue of everyone else's fishing possibly being affected by people not respecting the very limited resource that are trophy bass. 

The negative effects of keeping small to medium sized bass may be over-stated, but the OP specifically mentioned big bass. I absolutely believe the big bass population can be affected by larger fish being kept, especially in the <500 acre lakes I normally fish. 

One thing I don't understand is how for some people, eating bass outweighs the joy that catching a bass brings. And I love fish! 

[bigfruits]

On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 6:27 PM, Molay1292 said:

If you buy a license and fish legally it is your choice to keep or release any legal fish caught.  End of story.

 

true. but the OP is asking for opinions.

its legal to sleep with someone else's girlfriend but its not cool. that's my opinion.

eating a large bass might take care of your hunger for a few hours but that bass will never be caught again. not worth it. the bucket fisherman who eat everything wont care about that. sport fisherman with bassboats and shiny new reels - shame on you!

[fishballer06]

13 hours ago, Gundog said:

If you live in a state where warm-water species take a back seat to trout stockings you can't expect any help from state agencies who are suppose to use the money from fishing license sales to improve fishing for all people who fish. Not just the guys who fish for trout.

 

Preach it brother! 

Someone else who feels the same pain.

[gim]

1 hour ago, LVLDVL said:

I saw many 20"+ largemouth on a stringer in the 2000-2003. I went to Wisconsin for college, moved back to West St. Paul, went back to check the lake in 2007-2008. All of the bass went missing, along with the lines of bucket fishermen with their squeaky Ugly Stik combos. Literally, there used to be 20-40 people on that 40 acre lake on any given weekend. Now, you'd be lucky to see 3 people fishing at all.

That's too bad.  40 acres is a really small lake and it won't take long for it to be fished out.  Squeaky ugly stik combos...LOL

[Zeeter]

I think most of us here on this site are sport fishermen. Therefore we are inclined to catch a fish, maybe take a picture, and then throw it back. Some people look at it differently. They catch a fish and say, "dinner!" I've fished tournaments and when we'd walk back to the water to release the fish people would keep asking us for them. It got kind of annoying, actually, and of course being a tournament we had to say no.

People who fish for species that actually taste good are more likely to keep their fish. Pike, pickerel, salmon, walleye (though I've never had one), catfish, and trout are good eating. They're also generally a lot harder to catch than bass. Let's face it: our favored species is relatively easy to catch (at most of our skill levels) and so keeping our limit would devastate our nearby lakes and ponds.

Therefore we, as a fishing community, have a more or less unwritten rule that we only rarely keep a fish and even then it should be at or just above the size limit but no larger. Big bass make other big bass. 

[scaleface]

I already had bass for supper six times this year . I plan to keep on eating them .  Now most I keep are under the slot and the Mo Con dept are begging people to harvest them , but if I have  to  keep a fish or two over the slot to finish off my stringer , I do it . I dont keep five lb +  fish , unless I hooked them badly and dont think they will survive . 

[BassThumbAddict]

If there is already that many posts about this topic, isn't our opinion already on the forums?

[senile1]

On 8/10/2016 at 11:56 AM, Neil McCauley said:

 Go to the inner city ponds where people sit all day on buckets of literally whatever they catch. These places are awful thanks to people keeping fish.

Does anyone see buckets in this picture?  I see a cooler or two on the other side but there aren't very many containers for fish from what I can see.  While I do understand that there have been situations where "bucket fishermen" have hurt fisheries, in some cases people are complaining about something that they have assumed, rather than confirmed.  Do those of you complaining about this actually check the buckets and coolers around a body of water to confirm they are full of big bass?  

By the way, in the state of Missouri where I live, most small metropolitan lakes and ponds are not stocked with bass.  They are stocked with fish that most non-sporting anglers see as food fish (i.e. catfish, bluegill).  The MDC website provides a description of the bodies of water and of what fish are available there.

 

[soflabasser]

6 hours ago, senile1 said:

 

1 hour ago, senile1 said:

 

 

 

Does anyone see buckets in this picture?  I see a cooler or two on the other side but there aren't very many containers for fish from what I can see.  While I do understand that there have been situations where "bucket fishermen" have hurt fisheries, in some cases people are complaining about something that they have assumed, rather than confirmed.  Do those of you complaining about this actually check the buckets and coolers around a body of water to confirm they are full of big bass?

 

By the way, in the state of Missouri where I live, most small metropolitan lakes and ponds are not stocked with bass.  They are stocked with fish that most non-sporting anglers see as food fish (i.e. catfish, bluegill).  The MDC website provides a description of the bodies of water and of what fish are available there.

 

 

 

 

 

No I don't see any buckets in this picture, and I zoomed in. Seems like this picture is a stereoypical representation of those that keep what they catch, and a bad one at that. People need to have some compassion for their fellow man and understand that some people have to supplement their diets with what they catch, and that it is acceptable as long as they have their fishing license and catch the legal limit and size of bass.

 

 

[gim]

22 hours ago, Further North said:

Best example of this happening currently is the idiocy underway up on Mille Lacs.

For years, everyone, their brother and their uncle Stu went out on the lake and took a limit of walleyes.

...toss in a couple poor year classes...and guess what?  Not as many walleyes!  ...and they're surprised....and they're blaming muskies, pike and...smallmouth bass.

...so the Minnesota DNR has now caved into political and money based pressure from Gomers who don't know conservation from their left rear cheek...and raised the limit on smallies...and now there's party boats going out to do to the smallies exactly what was done to the walleyes.

Effect on walleye population?  Pretty much nothing...and now they've had to enact special walleye regs to try to save that fishery...

Sometimes, as concerned anglers, we have to do what's right rather that what's legal and not take a limit...and we need to help others understand why this is important.

I'll get off my soapbox now...

Actually the problem is mostly from bigger walleyes eating smaller walleyes, plus an exploding pike population!  Studies have shown that smallmouth bass almost entirely eat crayfish and the muskies in there are so rare that they don't have a large enough population to make a dent.  Have you heard the latest and greatest?  The mortality quota was exceeded but the governor ordered the lake to stay open.  He cites local economy and business as being more important than the long term sustainability to the fishery.  The Tribe is ticked!

[rboat]

Here is my humble opinion. Please don't be a hater.

Around here predators eat so many bass, that fisherman are not needed to control populations. I hear many say, if its legal to keep bass, then it's ok.  Have any of you ever questioned who made the law on the size and number to keep? Are all lakes and rivers the same in your state so that the law will work perfect for every body of water? How often is the law checked or amended? The DNR in most states is highly under staffed due to budget cuts and they have a hard time checking bass populations to ensure the laws are working properly. Each year we see mother nature control bass populations through predators, lack of food, floods, drought, extreme heat, or extreme cold. I am not saying laws are not needed, They are. I simply state that because it is legal, that does not always mean it is the right thing to do.

The highway speed limit is 70 mph all year. If the highway is icy, 70 mph may not be the right thing to do, but legally you could.

I do not keep any bass. I enjoy this sport to much to negatively affect it. If you need to fish to feed your family, panfish are more abundant and easier to catch and because they are smaller, will have less toxins due to bioaccumulation than their larger cousins. If you want to keep bass that is solely up to you. 

I have heard results of water testing on some of our lakes and i would not recommend keeping and eating any of those fish. You may glow in the dark or grow some extra eyes. 

[Further North]

53 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Actually the problem is mostly from bigger walleyes eating smaller walleyes, plus an exploding pike population!  Studies have shown that smallmouth bass almost entirely eat crayfish and the muskies in there are so rare that they don't have a large enough population to make a dent.  Have you heard the latest and greatest?  The mortality quota was exceeded but the governor ordered the lake to stay open.  He cites local economy and business as being more important than the long term sustainability to the fishery.  The Tribe is ticked!

I hadn't heard the latest...I got disgusted and quit following it...

That the pike population is skyrocketing makes perfect sense...there's no walleye to eat the forage fish...

For me, that' not all bad, I'd rather catch decent sized pike than anything else...

Maybe I need to schedule a trip up there...

[S. Sass]

I'm not hating on anyone for their opinion. True everyone has opinions but to be parading misinformation around is to me just as bad as keeping fish is to you all. 

It is like this line you said.

1 hour ago, rboat said:

I do not keep any bass. I enjoy this sport to much to negatively affect it.

How in the world does everyone know you keeping your limit or even a few legal fish is negative? I hear some that think no one should keep bass directly associating that to taking fish will negatively affect it. As if they know this as fact. The point is neither side generally has a clue if they are negatively affecting the fishing. Unless you are in on the studies and managing of the water or possibly read some recent article(s) with sources from a valid study none of you have a clue other than an assumption. Just like this article will show you sometimes to many Bass or other fish need to be removed. http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/stocking_adult_bass.html But the misinformation just keeps being repeated until some think its gospel. Man has been eating fish since the beginning of time. I seriously doubt we will run out of Bass. Unless Sasquatch people come out of hiding. 

1 hour ago, rboat said:

The highway speed limit is 70 mph all year. If the highway is icy, 70 mph may not be the right thing to do, but legally you could.

Well I tell ya what I have seen many a guy/gal in icy conditions pass me and a few minutes later I see them as they sit in the ditch. Did they break the law, no. Was it the right thing to do? Maybe maybe not. You shouldn't care its not any of your/my business. I stop and check on them and/or pull them out and move on. Do you know those people? No so quit judging them. They may have very good reason for going faster than you think they should. Could be sick or hurt or pregnant. You don't know could be anything or nothing.

Maybe these people fell on hard times and they are trying to feed their kids. How would this look. You assume you know all, start griping at a legal person fishing to feed their family and your worried about a sport fish. I believe they have a name for that these days. Women use them monthly.  Or worse yet you catch a bullet as you caught the wrong person at the wrong time in his/her life. Over a stupid bass that you had no business with and wasn't yours to start with. 

What is it these days where everyone thinks they need to be in everyone's business. Not everyone that lives on this planet fish for sport only. Glad for those that do I do at times as well. But it would be a big mistake, and I hope it doesn't happen, where someone comes up to me and tries to get crappy about me legally keeping my fish.