another noob - pics and pond question

[Quinn]

See! Good advice from a good question from good folks.

I learned alot from the replies to your question.

8-)

[Ifish4keeps]

im all for catch and release

i never eat my bass

[skillet]

WELCOME to the forums!!!

                                    As Ever,

                                     skillet

[Glenn]

Welcome home!

[SenkoBasser]

Personally, and this is maybe just my strictness coming out, but I think that some states should deem large and small mouth to a catagory maybe named "sport fish" and make it illegal to not put the catch back unless for tournament purposes (which they will go back anyway), or its a trophy bass that has ambushed the bait and more than likely won't survive (wall mount or food). In my opinion, this wouldn't be a bad idea for areas with decreasing bass populations.

  As I stated before, no way would I eat bass. I've also read that bass along with other slow growing species tend to have double the amounts of mercury at 12" in length than other species like trout, crappie, bluegill (delicious).

Yellow perch is delicious and its actually encouraged to bag them in alot of states. I make my locally famous Fish-Ka-Bobs. In order on skewer:    Montery Jack cheese - zuccini - perch - squash - red potato....     and repeat.  

[tyrius.]

Personally, and this is maybe just my strictness coming out, but I think that some states should deem large and small mouth to a catagory maybe named "sport fish" and make it illegal to not put the catch back  

I've seen waters where the bass were very overcrowded and were not healthy because no one kept any.  You could fish there and catch a less than 1lb fish on about every other cast.  This is not a healthy fishery.  

On the larger lakes biologists study the fish populations and will typically set slots and limits so that the population of bass can be managed to provide for the best quality and quantity for that specific lake.  A broad law requiring the release of all fish would be detrimental to the management of the fisheries.  

Read up on fisheries management publications from the various state agencies and nearly every one will say that selective harvesting is a GOOD thing for managing a fish population.

[key chain bass guy]

I prefer catch and release for one reason only.....So that someone else may have the pleasure you just experienced. I think it's selfish for someone who loves to CATCH bass, to remove that possibility for someone else. I'm thinking mostly of my children and future generations. Fishing pressure is on the rise in most areas and will not ever go down..One fish released today could be responsible for thousands of fish 10 years from now....

Amen to that!

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

8-)

[key chain bass guy]

Thank you.  I think you were talking to me.

[roadwarrior]

Yes, glad to have you here!

-Kent  a.k.a. roadwarrior

[fooman]

Welcome

It's hard to give you advise with it being a public pond and not knowing how many bass are being kept by other fisherman..

But I can give advise about private ponds..I belong to a club with a pond and the bass started getting thin and stunted..We had a bioligist come in and shock the pond and we had way to may small bass in there..He advised us to take out 150 bass under 12"

After his advise we went and looked at our harvest books and found out nobody took any bass out in over 5 years.We all assumed somebody else was harvesting bass..

The 1st time out I took home 3 small bass and fried them up and IMO they tasted like crap.

Everything else caught the rest of the year were put in a livewell and transfered to a new sub-division pond..

Without the added compition now the bass are starting to come back around with some decent size..

[flechero]

I think we as "sportsman" or "conservationists" do more to harm the bass fisheries than we help.  In many areas, catch and release is way overdone- and more misunderstood than rod action and power!   ;D  Somewhere it was decided that bass were some superior fish that was so fragile we can't keep a few w/o endangering them.  Harvest regulations are put on a body of water to ENCOURAGE people to keep fish in those ranges... to help balance out the populations, sizes, species mix and overall health of the local ecosystem.  I think the Man upstairs would say that a carp is as important as a bass or any other fish.  

And as far as ponds go, the best ones I have ever fished for BOTH size and numbers, were the ones that had a regular harvest.   :-?  Funy how that works out...

I say if you like bass, keep some that fall within the regs and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it.  By following the biologists recommendations, YOU are actually the conservationist who is contributing to the solution.

final thought before stepping off the soapbox...

I don't think it's a coincidence that regular fish kills and LMB Virus have been on the rise ever since C & R has taken off to the extreme.  (Yes there were kills prior but it seems like we see them much more frequently now)

[farmpond1]

Welcome to the forum!

In my humble opinion, there isn't anything wrong with keeping a few fish now and again.  The question you are asking is the appropriate one: how many fish can we keep without ruining our fishery.  Something a lot of people forget to ask (but a few have mentioned here) is how many other fishermen utilize this same resource and how many of them are keeping their fish?  Obviously, the more people who fish and, in turn, keep their fish, the fewer we should keep ourselves.  This doesn't seem very fair (and I think it's why some people chaff when they hear about others keeping fish) but it's a hard reality.  Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to keep a large stringer of fish from a small pond unless they intentionally want to fish it out.

On a side note, why is it everyone seems to treat trout like red-headed step children?  I suppose if they aren't wild trout and won't reproduce, then that's a little different.  But trout don't reproduce like gang busters and the mentality that they can all be kept is just as inappropriate as keeping all of any other species.  (My personal rant).

[Mepps]

Mepps #3 Black Fury, learn it, fish it correctly and you'll love it.  

[Catt]

Dude don't let what others say discourage you, aint nothing wrong with eating a few bass.

Most guys who preach 100% catch-n-release don't know much about conservation otherwise they would learn more about selective harvesting.

The way I look at it is God put bass on earth to eat not worship

[Paul Roberts]

The way I look at it is God put bass on earth to eat not worship

Now that was a good.  ;D

Now does that mean that C&R is akin to blasphemy? Does that mean I'm headed straight to hell??? 'Cause I'd rather eat perch, 'gills, cats, walleyes, trout, and .... Will those save me???

[IneedAnewScreenName9886691]

Welcome!  You opened her up in style!  

[Catt]

Nope but many people do place bass on some kind of pedestal which is akin to worship  

It ticks me off when someone mentions eating bass and we have people who hardly even post anything but they jump all over this subject in the name of conservation. Every wildlife & fisheries agency in America will tell you selective harvesting does more for bass population the 100% catch & release. Many of these so called "conservationists" never spend any time on community service helping wildlife & fisheries; they spend absolutely no time studying conservation. They are very few people here that love bass fishing any more than me, I practice catch & release 90% of the time, I spend 50-100 hours helping local wildlife & fisheries agencies.

If someone wants to eat a few bass is perfectly ok & if someone doesn't want to eat bass that's ok to. But trying to make someone feel like they are harming something by eating bass is just plain wrong.

[FivePoundBluegill]

What I do not get is why people say its so wrong to keep a bass and say its perfectly fine to keep a bunch of catfish, crappie, bluegills, trout. Its like the bass is a sacred fish or something. Yeah I think you should be careful how many bass you keep if you want your local lake to continue to have a good amount of bass to fish for but thats the only reason I say you should be careful keeping them. Im not an expert on this subject because I throw all my fish back however from listening to a lot of experts I have learned in most situations keeping some of the smaller bass is actually a good thing. However I personally think you should look at the population of bass in the lake you are fishing. Especially if you like to both eat fish as well as have fish to catch in the future. If it is loaded with small fish then keep a lot of these smaller fish. However if there are not that many fish in the lake and they are pretty balanced in the area of size I would be careful about keeping them.

Also if you are fishing beds NEVER keep a bedding bass. Doing this is the worst thing you can do because you are killing the bass garding the nest as well as all that bass's offspring. I personally think it should be illegal to keep a bass that comes off a bed.

[SenkoBasser]

Nope but many people do place bass on some kind of pedestal which is akin to worship

It ticks me off when someone mentions eating bass and we have people who hardly even post anything but they jump all over this subject in the name of conservation. Every wildlife & fisheries agency in America will tell you selective harvesting does more for bass population the 100% catch & release. Many of these so called "conservationists" never spend any time on community service helping wildlife & fisheries; they spend absolutely no time studying conservation. They are very few people here that love bass fishing any more than me, I practice catch & release 90% of the time, I spend 50-100 hours helping local wildlife & fisheries agencies.

If someone wants to eat a few bass is perfectly ok & if someone doesn't want to eat bass that's ok to. But trying to make someone feel like they are harming something by eating bass is just plain wrong.

Say what?

[HesterIsGod]

You can eat a few bass every now and then, its fine but just use selective harvest and leave the real big ones, they don't taste good anyway

[evillllsinz]

wow i dint notice how fast this thread grew! thanks for all the input from everyone! ill try to take one every once in a while imo i think bass taste good.

today i went out to the same pond and got skunked... i think the fish just dint wanna bite. it was really hot (75 degees-ish sunny). i saw a group of maybe 6 carp.. i think? one of them was white and the others were black. would it be possible that one of those could have been bass or catfish?

and i know this is a bass website but i find it odd that today was the clearest the water has ever been and i still havent seen any of the "prey" fish. i dont even know if there is bluegill in there!

[Fish Man]

i love in line spinners. they are fun and ive caught fish that have come close to my pb on them, around five pounds