I occasionally will keep a couple trout for dinner especially if they are hooked real deep in their mouth. (they probably won't survive). I have never kept any bass that I have caught as I figure if I let them go they will grow and give some other fishing person a kick. Do other fishermen/women release all of there's? I also heard that bass aren't that good to eat.

It's all about taste... I also fish in saltwater and frequently eat what I catch... afterall, if I didn't fish, I would be buying fresh fish at the market... and fish at a market is never as fresh as when you catch it yourself...

Now I'm getting hungry for Stripped Bass!

All Bass released, trout if i'm backpacking or camping...might keep one or 2 for dinner

i used to keep an occasional yellowtail in the ocean or a few bonita....but 99.9% were let go back in the day

I'm the same as Roboworm99.

I think it's best to release all LMB for the sake of the sport.

None of the lakes in my area stock LMB and the fishing pressure increases each year.

We all know that the interest in bass fishing has exploded in the last ten years and the bass populations have not.

In the five years that I have been fishing at Castaic I have noticed a definite drop in the number and quality of bass caught during a year of fishing.

One could only imagine how bad it might be if the majority of bass were not released.

Your so right Geo..their are less and less Giant fish caught at Castaic's main lake and the lagoon. Even just good solid fish are fewer...

The other thing is this, the way I look at it, each time I release a bass I'm in effect restocking the lake one fish at a time.

There are not that many things we can do to make fishing better for everyone.

If you care, practicing catch and release in my opinion is the best thing most of us can do in the interest of good fishing for all.

You know something... I just went back and re-read my post. I never mentioned the fact that I ALWAYS practice Catch and Release in freshwater bass fishing. That might have been a good detail to include.

The population of saltwater fish is much greater than that of fresh. Besides if you look at the volume of saltwater compared to fresh, there's just no comparison. Where I live, we have a lot of small ponds and you cannot regularly keep bass because you'll see the impact very quickly.

It is interesting though if you read about lake and pond management, they say that there is a ratio that should be maintained in order to keep a healthy gene pool. Overly populated lakes and ponds can result in stunted fish. In those cases, it is recommended that "selective harvesting" be used as a means to balance the ecosystem.

Just something to think about...

BC

Yeah I've heard reports of those stunted bass with the huge heads and small bodies.

But I have only seen that in small artificial bodies of water..... like "CEMENT PONDS" where the bass were just thrown in there without regard for a top to bottom food chain to support them.

The other point brought up here is the gene pool. When you take out the trophy quality fish from a lake you really are taking a lot more away than "just one fish".

It's like the same thing in hunting........if you have two males and one female and you kill the female...... dude it's over.

Large females in that class spawn out over 2000 eggs per season and obviously their mama was from pretty successful stock.

I say catch your bass, take a good picture and throw it back.

Later........ geobass

Thats why alot of lakes do have slot limits.

But with people keeping fish,natural die off and mishandling of fish ending in death...i think if we do our part and release these fish, we will help sustain the population and keep it healthly. Most lakes I fish the fish are healthy not stunted at all.

There are issues we are not addressing in this general discussion ie: What is the bio mass per acre of bass in that particular body of water. Competition from other species, forage base, etc. Fact is, You can remove the apex predator in a given body of water and actually improve the system by increasing competition for the top spot. Larger fish are usually older fish and they are not as productive in their spawning. Their eggs are not as vital or strong, they don't produce as many as they did when they were younger. Don't take this as a license to remove big fish from a body of water indiscriminately, but the impact is not as severe as one might believe. My reasons for not killing big females is to hopefully preserve the gene line that has dispalayed a prominence for longevity and size. In the wild only one or two of a basses offspring for the year may reach harvestable (spawning)size. I would hope that they might be the bigger fishes offspring to promote the stronger line. This was the philosophy behind Texas' Save a Lunker program and you only need to look at Lake Fork to see the results. Instead of only 2 offspring reaching spawning size 80% of the captive lunkers brood reached that size. Quite a manipulation of the gene pool in a very short period of time.