Do You Eat Your Bass?

[frosty]

I don’t normally, I usually don’t keep anything unless I’m going fishing with the intent to bring some home, then I’m usually targeting bluegills. 

[DINK WHISPERER]

Never. Catfish is the only freshwater fish I eat. I will keep a few small ones for friends that do eat them once in a while. 

[mattkenzer]

15 hours ago, scaleface said:

It depends on the lake . I like to eat bass but selectively harvest them .

Yup, this .... ^^^^^ ....

Maybe twice a year when the buddies come to visit.

[burrows]

Sometimes depends on the body of water but I prefer crappie or cat fish.

[TOXIC]

Touchy subject.  DNR tells us that you have to harvest bass to keep the population healthy but conservation tells us to put them all back.  I don't begrudge anyone for keeping their legal limit.  I would hope they only keep the smaller class fish to keep the genetics of the bigger fish alive.  I have kept and eaten them but I much prefer any number of other freshwater fish for table fare.  They just taste better to me.  Gills, Crappie, Ring Perch, White Perch, Walleye, Pike, Northern Snakehead, Wipers, Sand Bass and catfish (if prepared properly) all taste better to me than Bass.  That being said, if I kill it, I eat it.  Nothing should go to waste.  

[NYWayfarer]

15 hours ago, NHBull said:

Anything that I don’t think is going to make it, finds it way to folk that can use a free meal

Same here. Those folks are usually my in-laws.

 

Bass to me are a sport fish. There are so many better tasting freshwater fish IMO. Trout, Perch, Salmon, Crappie, Bluegill, Catfish and even Tilapia. I would keep all of those before a Bass. Given the choice I prefer most saltwater fish, fluke flounder, cod, tuna, etc. over freshwater fish.

 

Plus I am too lazy to clean my catch so I get my fish from where God intended me to, the supermarket!

 

 

[LonnieP]

10 hours ago, Junger said:

Gotta try Northern Snakehead!

We have snakeheads here in Virginia although I've never caught one. You're supposed to kill them if you catch one. 

[Bigbruce]

1 hour ago, NYWayfarer said:

Same here. Those folks are usually my in-laws.

 

Bass to me are a sport fish. There are so many better tasting freshwater fish IMO. Trout, Perch, Salmon, Crappie, Bluegill, Catfish and even Tilapia. I would keep all of those before a Bass. Given the choice I prefer most saltwater fish, fluke flounder, cod, tuna, etc. over freshwater fish.

 

Plus I am too lazy to clean my catch so I get my fish from where God intended me to, the supermarket!

 

 

Was going to post almost this exactly. Sometimes I’ll clean catfish, but for the most part I’m to lazy to keep them. If someone is near that’s wants to keep catfish or sunfish I usually give them away.

[Troy85]

I keep enough for a meal every few trips out.  Always the smaller fish, if its over 2lb I release it always(unless its hooked bad and won't survive).

[N Florida Mike]

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I wish I liked them, but freshwater fish and my tastebuds do not get along. More than willing to take someone who likes to eat them to several different lakes I frequent to keep both our limits of fish under the slot for them to take home. I'd rather see the guy taking home a limit of 12 inch under the slot fish to eat than the the guy who kept a 10 pounder last winter to put on his wall from power plant lake that will just be skinned and the rest thrown out, when it could have been measured, photo'd and released. The same guy probably would have scolded and scoffed at a bank angler for keeping a 5 pounder to eat. Keeping those little fish is good for a fishery, keeping those big spawners is not so great. 

Exactly !

[Junger]

25 minutes ago, LonnieP said:

We have snakeheads here in Virginia although I've never caught one. You're supposed to kill them if you catch one. 

Yeah they are all over the Potomac tributaries. If you're fishing for bass in the weeds, you'll eventually catch one. You don't HAVE to kill them: https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/snakehead/

 

Anglers are required to report snakeheads kept but are not required to kill them if caught and immediately released.  Snakeheads must be dead if in possession (contained in live well, cooler, etc.)  However, the Department asks that all snakeheads be killed if possible.

[the reel ess]

I rarely eat what I catch from the kayak because it's a hassle to keep them and the family don't like them as much as I do. So I end up eating three helpings trying not to waste any. When i go with my buddy in his Tracker, he keeps everything bigger than 3/4 lbs. and smaller than 3 lbs. He lets all the trophies live. This is a 30 acre private lake and he can keep 60 fish if he wants to. There's not much danger of that happening because the bass don't bite that well there. He also crappie fishes there as well and does keep them all, every time. Anyway, I like the way they taste from clean water so, yeah, I'll keep some.

 

I really prefer grouper, snapper, sea bass, triggerfish, stripers and the like. I like the meater fish better than the fishier fish, if you get my drift. Crappie are much better eating than bass.

[TnRiver46]

I prefer bass over crappie just because a bass has big flaky meat where crappie just falls apart, sometimes even before you cook it. I love cooking largemouth  bass for people and not telling them what it us until after they have already proclaimed it's the best fish they have ever eaten. I've never had anyone say that about a catfish or a trout. Also several studies have found hatchery fish to have higher contaminant levels than wild fish. Usually this is because they feed hatchery fish ground up wild fish and they have no diversity in their diet. In my opinion, y'all can keep your supermarket fish from China and I'll eat out of the river 

[TOXIC]

You know in Japan they sell them as food fish live in the markets.  ?

[J.Vincent]

No, as a sport angler I release every Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass I catch. I've heard about underharvested waters, which become over run by smaller bass and bluegill, but in most situations in healthy and balanced fisheries with other predatory fish like Northern Pike and Musky, this doesn't happen. I also don't like the taste of Bass and see enough people harvesting them,  so I don't feel the need to harvest bass for food. 

[WRB]

The Catch & Release religion is starting to see the Lght of Selective Harvest.

To all you who believe every bass you release survives, the mortality rate rises with the water temperature, the warmer it is the higher the post mortality rate is, over 90 degrees is nearly 100%.

Largemouth bass taste different then Smallmouth bass and all fish taste differently do to the water quality and food sources they eat. The key to eating any fish is how soon it's killed, cleaned and refrigerated.

Bass are a renewable resource and managed to be harvested within limits set by the states and local biologist.

I am all for releasing big bass that are healthy and keeping a few to eat occasionally or injured fish I know will not survive. Releasing injured fish is killing the animal, eat it or give to someone who will.

Tom

[the reel ess]

27 minutes ago, Active_Outdoors said:

No, as a sport angler I release every Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass I catch. I've heard about underharvested waters, which become over run by smaller bass and bluegill, but in most situations in healthy and balanced fisheries with other predatory fish like Northern Pike and Musky, this doesn't happen. I also don't like the taste of Bass and see enough people harvesting them,  so I don't feel the need to harvest bass for food. 

That's mostly correct about major public impoundments. But it's really not the case with ponds. They can become so overrun with dinks so quickly you can't take enough fish by hook and line to reset the balance. 

[Bankbeater]

I don't eat bass.  I like cat, bluegill, and crappie much better.

[PourMyOwn]

I probably eat one or two a year-always ones I've caught while ice fishing for perch. I only keep them if they're obviously not going to make it. 

[J.Vincent]

5 minutes ago, WRB said:

The Catch & Release religion is starting to see the Lght of Selective Harvest.

To all you who believe every bass you release survives, the mortality rate rises with the water temperature, the warmer it is the higher the post mortality rate is, over 90 degrees is nearly 100%.

Largemouth bass taste different then Smallmouth bass and all fish taste differently do to the water quality and food sources they eat. The key to eating any fish is how soon it's killed, cleaned and refrigerated.

Bass are a renewable resource and managed to be harvested within limits set by the states and local biologist.

I am all for releasing big bass that are healthy and keeping a few to eat occasionally or injured fish I know will not survive. Releasing injured fish is killing the animal, eat it or give to someone who will.

Tom

100% Mortality rate for Bass caught and released in 90 degree or warmer water ? Is this accurate, or a typo ? 

[fissure_man]

16 hours ago, Glaucus said:

Nope, and I negatively judge those who do. My opinion, which matters little.

It’s an interesting moral stance that would lead someone to cast judgement on sustainable and humane harvest of bass, while presumably having no issue with (and taking considerable pride/enjoyment from) impaling that same fish with a barbed hook or hooks, forcefully dragging it by its hook wound into an atmosphere it cannot breath, hoisting it up by its jaw for pictures, touring it around all day in a dark, tiny box, sizing it up against his/her friends' 'trophies', then releasing it to hopefully survive, but occasionally die from the trauma, as nature permits. 

 

This would be akin to a judgemental anti-hunter who buys their meat at a grocery store, and then enthusiastically participates in a hypothetical “catch and release” form of hunting, where animals are not (usually) killed, only maimed and tormented for a bit.  Animals are friends, after all.

 

It’s not a pretty picture, but isn’t this fairly close to reality?  Fishing is a blood sport.  For those that would oppose it, doesn't catch-and-release fishing seem far more twisted and inhumane than sustainable harvest would? 

 

@Glaucus, how do you rationalize it?

[J.Vincent]

39 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

That's mostly correct about major public impoundments. But it's really not the case with ponds. They can become so overrun with dinks so quickly you can't take enough fish by hook and line to reset the balance. 

I agree in some situations or ponds, this can be a problem

[LionHeart]

I brought home a few bass to cook a while ago.  My wife loved it (she typically doesn't like fish), so now before I go fishing she always says to 'bring home supper,' and makes me take a cooler.

 

The other day, she was actually upset because I didn't bring home any fish.  I told her that I Don't need this kind of abuse, getting skunked hurts bad enough as it is.

 

I'm certainly not against eating bass, that's why God gave them to us.  Most days I prefer to release them.

[the reel ess]

23 minutes ago, Active_Outdoors said:

I agree in some situations or ponds, this can be a problem

I have a buddy with a maybe 4 acre pond that is badly out of balance. We've discussed rigging up our own shocking method to remove a large quantity of fish. The bass are almost all under 3/4 lb and the bluegills are too big for them to eat. Both species are competing for the same prey. It has advantages as well. The fish are so hungry they're really stupid. And you can target both species with a Rooster Tail and a lightweight spin combo if you like. I've caught 50 bass there in a couple hours before. I try to cull the smaller fish by only using big baits, but the dinks will still bite them. I was introduced to that guy by my wife and the first day I fished with him I caught a 6.5 lb bass, which I put back, on a frog. But I haven't caught more than 5 fish over 2 lbs there in the last 14 years. That's how badly it got out of balance.

 

While on the other hand, I have another friend with a pond that has much better average size bass in it. A 13 pounder has been caught there! The state record is 16 and change. And almost no one ever keeps fish there. I always use that as my ploy to get into a place. When I ask permission, I'll say "Hey if you're worried about people taking too many fish, I won't. I'm only in it for the fun and to catch a monster."

[Elkins45]

I will keep a fish that I don’t think will survive, but for the most part bass are for fighting rather than eating. I would much rather eat catfish or crappie.