Remove or remain.

[Dave63]

I'll kill a few unders once and a while to add to the fish fry total. I don't mind it a bit and I don't think it hurts the fishery. At one lake in particular if MORE people would do it, it would improver the fishery tremendously.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by keithdog

I grew up in a home with 2 parents and 5 siblings. We were also poor. Not "dirt" poor, but it was always a struggle for mom and dad financially. My mom grew up in a house that was "dirt poor". The only meat and fish her family ate were what Grandpa shot or caught. Needless to say, in the house I grew up in, you ate what you caught. It was a necessity. My father in law was a big time Lake Michigan fisherman. He was after salmon and trout and did very well. He too kept all he could catch. And they ate a lot of fish. Today, things are different now. At the age of 52, I've learned a few things along the way. And while finances are still a challenge, I do practice catch and release, but I also keep a few from time to time. My wife would prefer that I bring home bass everey time I catch any. However, after explaining things to her over the years, she understands what I choose to do as far as keeping bass to eat. Some days, despite how well I do, I release them all. But if I know my family will all be home that day or in the next couple days, I will keep just enough to provide a nice meal for everyone. That is probably one out of every three trips out. And I only keep bass in the 2-3 pound range. I don't have any scientific study to go by. I just feel anything bigger is going to be a good egg producer and gentetically strong. But I do know there are families out there that are like when I was a kid, and I have no problem with their dad putting food on the table. Lifes necessities for his family and so it should be. I see a lot of guys throwing their catch back in now days, and most of the folks keeping their catch are pan fisherman. I think that as good stewards of the gifts God has given us, we need to respect those gifts, and do what we can to preserve them. Keep a few from time to time if you wish and release most of what you catch. Thats how I see it.

Spent a few years in a similar boat. Mom and Stepdad bought a small house on a private lake, back when I was around 11.
Stepdad lost his job due to the company shutting down, so times were tough (although I didn't fully realize it then).

One of my step bros and I became seriously hooked on fishing. Back then, we ate tons of bass and gills.

Nowadays, I'm 100% catch n release. No real values or plans in mind, I just don't feel like cleaning em. Plus, I prefer cows, pigs and chickens to fish.

If I get a craving for fish, I'll go to an all you can eat perch dinner

If I got it in my head that I should go catch some dinner, I'd be fishing for Gills, so Bass would still be free to go

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by IowaBasser

I can't rememeber the last largemouth I kept. We do eat most of the walleye we catch unless we only catch a couple and don't want to mess with cleaning them. 2 years ago we ate a nice stringer of mixed walleye and smallmouth from a small spring-fed cold-water river and they were absolutely delicious!

10 years ago I got access to fish a private farm pond in Missouri that was loaded with big bass and big crappie. The owner said I could keep a couple bass if I wanted to eat them, but insisted that I either kept every blue-gill and crappie or threw them on the bank. I never kept a bass. I kept most of the crappies and threw the bluegills on the bank. It was somewhat sad to throw fish on the bank - but this pond rarely got fished and it was his way to manange the pond. It seemed to work!

(P.S. The bass in my avatar came out of that farm pond and was released... I wan't able to measure or weigh it. I'm 6-2, 250 pounds and make most fish look small in pictures. I'm guessing that fish was around 5 pounds.)

You do know Gills are great eating, right?

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by IowaBasser

I'm 6-2, 250 pounds

Hey IB being a fellow of some considerable stature you would probably get a kick out of listening to a few Roy D Mercer clips. Given your age and locale he's likely unfamiliar to you and quite funny.

[kennethdaysale]

I really appreciate so many sincere responses from everybody. Amusing to see that so many of you decide to be C&R guys or not based more on your energy level and taste buds than any other factor. I am relieved that no one claimed to release fish because they felt it would amount to murder and incur the wrath of PETA.

[Mumpy]

They Shocked the Lake yesterday and Greg was very happy with the outcome. Shocked up about 12 Bass and all of them were over the 1lb mark. Just think 7 months ago these Bass were 2" long.

Man I can't wait till next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by Mumpy

They Shocked the Lake yesterday and Greg was very happy with the outcome. Shocked up about 12 Bass and all of them were over the 1lb mark. Just think 7 months ago these Bass were 2" long.

Man I can't wait till next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Mumpy just out of curiosity are those bass feed trained and fed pellets or is it just natural forage?......Those are amazing growth rates. Likely to stir debate from the guys who didn't like the look of those "Biwa" bass earlier in the winter..................Love it!

[Mumpy]

They are fed Pellets, the other cool thing is we shocked up Bream that were 2-3" 3-4" and 4-5" which shows that the Bream are breeding, spawning and growing. Greg said that the Lake is better than he had expected which goes along with what he told us the last time it was shocked. He told us then that he expected our Lake to turn out better than Foxworthy's. The Bass I posted a Picture of is from Foxworthy's lake, That's a 28 Month Old Bass. So we're expecting 5LB LM in 2013 early 2014.

[merc1997]

any fishery needs to be managed to produce to its full potential. smaller bodies such as farm ponds really have to be stayed on top of in the way of management, and that includes taking fish. without this management all the fish will get over populated and stunted. the same can be said for managing dee herds. if they over populate, the result will be smaller deer, and a very good chance at getting disease and all dieing. there is certainly nothing wrong with taking some fish home to eat, but you do not have to put a knive to everyone, especially the bigger ones. if the bigger ones spawn, you will have genetically bigger offspring for the most part. it is up to all of us to wisely manage our resources.

[Dogmatic]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

There is no right or wrong in anyones position on C&R, and much like voting, how much impact can one mans actions have?
@dog...try to help your brother to understand that there are only two ways to solve his stunting problem #1 remove a bunch of bass or #2 spend wads of money dumping minnows or shiners or crawfish in his pond to eat. #1 is way more fun and cheaper.

I'm working on it, but I think there is another option, let's say #3, stocking a few more big bass. In addition to removing a few of the cats, along with #1, and #2(Is there a down side to stocking crawfish?), I think the place could be fantastic in a couple years. I think he is hestant, mainly because there has always been a plan to expand the size of the pond, by at least four fold, so turning a roughly one acre pond into a four acre+ pond has delayed serious management.

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by Dogmatic

(Is there a down side to stocking crawfish?)

No...but understand that even if you put copious amounts of craws in an established pond the best you will accomplish is a brief snack. Crawdads are very expensuve food, plus whatever weight they might gain will be short lived. Not saying it's impossible to get them to take hold and be self sustaining...just expensive. Fat head minnows or golden shiners are a better option.......*side note* if you buy craws make double sure they don't sell you "burrowing" craws, they can damage the dam and muddy the water.

[IowaBasser]

Originally Posted by MallenManson

You do know Gills are great eating, right?

Yup, I've eaten my share of bluegills, in fact we still keep a few at my dad's lake house. If he hasn't caught enough walleye for a fish-fry we'll clean a dozen or so bluegills depending how many people we plan to feed.

[nofearengineer]

The preference between bluegill and walleye really only depends on the shape of the bread you have on hand.

[Tavery5]

Man I like those bluegill, when we were kids my brother and I would sneak into the local sandpit and catch big slab bluegill until we could just barely drag the basket out of there. Take them home and clean them up, and chow down.... good memories.

[basshunter21]

So far in my bass career I havent kept one bass. I love eating fish, but I have never had to urge to try bass.

I was planning on getting a propane fish fryer this summer and am planning on harvesting a few nice bass and having a nice little fish fry.

Im sure bass isnt bad at all fried.

[Dave63]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

The preference between bluegill and walleye really only depends on the shape of the bread you have on hand.

If I could catch walleyes as easy as I could catch bluegills, I wouldn't eat anything else!

[Dogmatic]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

No...but understand that even if you put copious amounts of craws in an established pond the best you will accomplish is a brief snack. Crawdads are very expensuve food, plus whatever weight they might gain will be short lived. Not saying it's impossible to get them to take hold and be self sustaining...just expensive. Fat head minnows or golden shiners are a better option.......*side note* if you buy craws make double sure they don't sell you "burrowing" craws, they can damage the dam and muddy the water.

I was thinking of just catching the craws from some local creeks that have "copious" populations, would those craws be bad to introduce to a pond? They would only be a supplement, and hopefully establish a population, just like when I dump "unused" shiners in there after a fishing trip.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

Hey IB being a fellow of some considerable stature you would probably get a kick out of listening to a few Roy D Mercer clips. Given your age and locale he's likely unfamiliar to you and quite funny.

Would that be Roy by God Mercer???

One of my favorites was:

When was the last time your boy had his *** whooped?

My son has never had his *** whooped!

Well, maybe that's the problem then....

[screwballl]

I think it is more about the specific location.

In several of the local lakes, most people keep everything they catch, regardless of size or type of fish (sometimes even illegally). As a result, I tend to release more in these locations for a better chance for them to hide a few years and spawn a few extras.

In other lightly fished areas, there is a decent balance thanks to nature so keeping a few healthy fish to eat isn't going to really hurt much.

If something changes, then I change my tactics for those specific locales.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

I have caught slack on posting tales from the "Morgue Slab". But some fail to read that we are following orders from the lake manager. And it goes, anything under 3 is to be kept, and anything over must be immediately released without the intent to mount and a proof of the mount has to be provided within a year.

I really don't have any emotional ties towards CNR now. I used to ride the band wagon about releasing everything, but started noticing the demise in the places we fished and started reading up on basic pond management. Now, if I fish a place a couple of times, I just go off of personal judgement with what we're catching. If we are slaying juvies and the occasional decent fish, we will start keeping them. But I do always follow the regulations set by the management.

[MallenManson]

Bubba, on the subject of the Morgue Slab (and I've read the moronic anti posts in the past ), youi either follow those rules, or you don't get to fish there. Tends to be a no brainer

I have to say, in Northern Michigan, to cnr or not to cnr, doesn't seem to be an issue. Maybe it's due to the Northern Pike, maybe it's due to the fact that we don't have the crazy growth rates, like the South does.
It all ends up being fat, healthy bass (you've all seen the pics I've posted over the last few years), in ALL the lakes I fish, and most around here don't eat bass

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by MallenManson

Would that be Roy by God Mercer???

One of my favorites was:

When was the last time your boy had his *** whooped?

My son has never had his *** whooped!

Well, maybe that's the problem then....

Not one to take my own thread off course but...................
Roy Mercer has got to be one of the funniest guys ever on the Radio
some of my many favorites......"bowling ball fungee"......."meow say toungue"....."it ain't nuthin for me to kick a supply mgrs A$$"

@bubba-bruiser...that's the kind of level headed common sense approach to C&R I hoped to get everyone thinking about when I started this thread.....thanks

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by Dogmatic

I was thinking of just catching the craws from some local creeks that have "copious" populations, would those craws be bad to introduce to a pond? They would only be a supplement, and hopefully establish a population, just like when I dump "unused" shiners in there after a fishing trip.

Unless that pond is virtually devoid of bass you couldn't put enough craws in there with buckets to establish a population even if you were running one of those Old West community fire drill bucket brigades.

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

Not one to take my own thread off course but...................
Roy Mercer has got to be one of the funniest guys ever on the Radio
some of my many favorites......"bowling ball fungee"......."meow say toungue"....."it ain't nuthin for me to kick a supply mgrs A$$"

@bubba-bruiser...that's the kind of level headed common sense approach to C&R I hoped to get everyone thinking about when I started this thread.....thanks

LMAO! I have several burned CDs of him. I need to break them out
If I remember correctly, wasn't he the one who talked about usin French Wigglers on Lake Madonna (which was always open)?

[bassfishkansas]

I usually only keep a few in the fall, so that I am sure that they are all spawned out, and the ones that I keep are medium-sized. I throw back the small ones so that they can become big, and I throw back the big ones so that others can catch them and experience the same thrill that I had. I also do this in order to keep the biggest, healthiest ones in our lake to pass down their genes.