Harvesting Bass

[N Florida Mike]

42 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

perch

My son that lives in Michigan fried me up some yellow perch when we were up there. It was delicious !!

[TnRiver46]

Smallmouth tastes exactly like largemouth 

[Catt]

15 hours ago, king fisher said:

I hate to admit it, but if I am going to be totally honest, the biggest reason I don't keep any bass is I am to lazy.  It takes far less effort to simply let them go, than it does, to keep them in good condition, clean them, and cook them.

 

Exactly 💯 

 

My wife & kids ask why I don't keep some for a fish fry. I answer, y'all want me to catch em, clean em, cook em, while y'all sit around & enjoy em!

 

Too many seafood restaurants in Louisiana & I ain't gotta to do nuthin.

[TnRiver46]

2 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Exactly 💯 

 

My wife & kids ask why I don't keep some for a fish fry. I answer, y'all want me to catch em, clean em, cook em, while y'all sit around & enjoy em!

 

Too many seafood restaurants in Louisiana & I ain't gotta to do nuthin.

Yeah you do. You have to pay your tab 

[Functional]

2 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Exactly 💯 

 

My wife & kids ask why I don't keep some for a fish fry. I answer, y'all want me to catch em, clean em, cook em, while y'all sit around & enjoy em!

 

Too many seafood restaurants in Louisiana & I ain't gotta to do nuthin.

If I didnt enjoy smoking meat I'd feel this exact way about BBQ in NC. By the time I go to a restaurant eat and come back I'd just be getting meat on the smoker. 

[Mobasser]

1 hour ago, N Florida Mike said:

My son that lives in Michigan fried me up some yellow perch when we were up there. It was delicious !!

Mike, my brother in law lived in Iowa. We went up there years ago to visit, and caught a big mess of yellow perch. He cooked them for breakfast, and I thought they were some of the best fish I've ever eaten. 

[gim]

 

Ya they're definitely fine table fare for freshwater fish.  They have scales like iron, you better have a sharp filet knife.

 

Very difficult to catch enough sizable perch here anymore.  They're all dinks.  They provide a valuable food source for a lot of predatory game fish here though.

 

In my lifetime here fishing, the bag limit on them has gone from NONE to 100 to 50 to 25 to 20 daily.  Once the word got out how tasty they were it didn't take long to decimate them.

[MN Fisher]

13 minutes ago, gimruis said:

In my lifetime here fishing, the bag limit on them has gone from NONE to 100 to 50 to 25 to 20 daily.  Once the word got out how tasty they were it didn't take long to decimate them.

Yesterday at Coffee Cove between myself and several others - the catch was

Dozens of sunnies - about split between Pumpkinseed and Bluegill with a lone Green tossed in.  Ranged from yearlings (3"-4") to one 10" 'Monster' bluegill

20 or so Crappie - 5"-11"

6 Largemouth - Largest was 1#13oz, smallest was a 8" yearling

1 Perch - @6"

 

Ya, the perch are rare even where other panfish are congregating.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yeah you do. You have to pay your tab 

 

Uhh! Catching em ain't exactly free 😁

[Pat Brown]

4 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Uhh! Catching em ain't exactly free 😁

 

 

The Bait Monkey™ does indeed approve of that absurd notion.  🙈🙈🙈😂😂😂 

 

It's just like 'free' dogs or 'free' cars.  Yeah.  Free.  😂😂😂😂

[TnRiver46]

11 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Uhh! Catching em ain't exactly free 😁

My rapalas are reusable and I live on the water 😂 

 

and I have a freezer 

[Alex from GA]

I keep an Alabama bass or two every couple of weeks for dinner that night or the next.  My wife sautees the filets in butter and they're delicious.

[Fried Lemons]

Here’s what got me thinking about this topic. On one of my lakes there’s a population dynamic where most of the fish are average to below average. They look something like this:

However, once they reach a certain size around the 19” threshold that changes and they start to balloon:

I’m no biologist but I suspect this is because the competition in the smaller size brackets is fierce but once they reach a size where they can exploit large forage they pack on weight rapidly. This got me thinking: if there were fewer small fish competing for resources, the remaining fish could reach the threshold faster and maybe the population would shift more toward the latter type of fish.

 

[Swamp Girl]

What a difference in build between those two bass. I like your hypothesis. 

[fin]

Interesting pair of pictures, @Fried Lemons. One thing interesting to me is how their heads appear to be almost the same length. I’ve always assumed the size of the head is an indicator of age, as is the bulging eyes. The difference in the gills on those two is interesting too, although it might just be the angle of the photo and the effect of all that weight on the big one. Anyway, it's hard to know how many years difference there are between those two, but I think it's obvious the bigger one is older.

 

I have no idea about your hypothesis, beyond the simple rule that when humans try to alter nature to their benefit, they usually screw something up. lol

[Dan N]

I keep an occasional bass, and would say they are fine eating. 
One of my local lakes just took the size limit off the bass, and 2 different locals that live on the lake asked me to keep them all. The lake is over populated . I kept a limit of 10-12” bass . I’m sure they will be excellent eating. 
I would not normally do this, but the lake is full of small bass.

[ATA]

Harvesting Bass in my idea is a SIN, Period 😠

[BayouSlide]

Came back from a trip to Georgia recently with a bunch of spotted bass. Where smaller largemouths are numerous I may keep a few.

 

Catfish, crappie, bass all make great fish tacos and other table fare. Then again I grew up eating limits of trout pulled from the rivers in northern New York. If you caught it (or shot it) you ate it: perch, pike, pickerel, smallmouth, largemouth, bullheads and, especially, trout.

 

But Catt raises a good point: often I won't keep fish even though my wife begs me too because, after a long day on the water, it's just too much work. 😉

[padlin]

When I first started bass fishing I kept a few, roughly 2 lb’ers. To me it’s not worth the hassle for the flavor one gets, we prefer saltwater fish. It’s just too easy to stop at the grocer and buy a pound of whatever so I’ve released everything I catch since.

 

i have no problem with what anyone else keeps, no moral crusader here.

[Woody B]

9 hours ago, Catt said:

Too many seafood restaurants in Louisiana & I ain't gotta to do nuthin.

 

I've got a deal with the Fishermen's Feast in Shelby NC.  They'll bring me all the fish I want, already cleaned and cooked, with fries and hushpuppies on the side.  All I have to do is give them money.   

[Catt]

@Woody B Simple huh?

[gim]

3 hours ago, Dan N said:

One of my local lakes just took the size limit off the bass, and 2 different locals that live on the lake asked me to keep them all. The lake is over populated . I kept a limit of 10-12” bass . I’m sure they will be excellent eating. 

When you’re done over there, head west here to MN and help us trim some small pike. Bag limit 10/day.

[MN Fisher]

Just now, gimruis said:

Bag limit 10/day.

Better eat quick - cause that's also the possession limit...between livewell and freezer, can't have more than 10 total in your possession.

[gim]

2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Better eat quick - cause that's also the possession limit...between livewell and freezer, can't have more than 10 total in your possession.

I think you, me, and @Deephaven should all get together for a pike outing and then have a big meal of slimy little pike when we’re done. We can talk about lures wrecked and lost over the years from those devils.

[MN Fisher]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I think you, me, and @Deephaven should all get together for a pike outing and then have a big meal of slimy little pike when we’re done. We can talk about lures wrecked and lost over the years from those devils.

I'll let you and Sean have the eats - I tried pike one time....never again.