Keeping Bass 2024
ebob2435 reply :
I've been bass fishing for most of my life. Gave it up for awhile ,but back in it heavier than ever. I talked to a fish biologist the other day. They are draining a few older small lakes in our area ,so that they can dredge them out. I asked him about the larger lake in that area. Asked him why the larger fish were so hard to catch. He told me that there is to many 12" bass in the lake and that some of them need to be kept by the fishermen instead of releasing then all back. I've always released my bass over the years. What do you fishermen think about not taking bass for years has done to the bass population in the smaller lakes?
Felix77 reply :
Hard to argue with the pro. I would suspect this is the same around alot of lakes. Especially the smaller ones. Catch and Release is a great thing but most people don't read the fine print which states that you can keep some which are of legal size.
I think that bass isn't the tastiest of fish so that is part 2 of the equation. Kind of tasteless in my opinion.
JigMe reply :
Bass doesn't taste too great, I kept one and never again. Crappie or Walleye is a different story, yummie...
ebob2435 reply :
I can see his point about people keeping some to eat. I would hate to see any big bass eaten, but I don't see the harm in thinning the smaller ones out some. As far as taste goes, I wouldn't know but may find out. lol
ProCrafter reply :
We have several fisheries that have an over abundance of Smallmouth so the DFW instituted a raise in the keep totals from 5 to 10 per day to help bring the ratio back into check and we have seen a size increase from a 1-1/2 lb per fish average to a 2-1/2 lb average and still have alot of sub 12 inch fish and a shore breakfast of Bacon wrapped Smallmouth Filets and eggs is the Bomb!! Largemouth...no...yuk!!! 
Darren. reply :
I kept a bass or two when I was a kid. My Mom fried 'em up for me. Don't think I've kept one since then. Prefer to CPR 'em. Crappie. Eaten a few, but pretty much throw everything back in fresh water.
Salt? Still CPR, but if I were out with some buddies, we'd probably keep some of the good-tasting fare of the sea.
Teal reply :
I hardly ever keep fish. If i know i am going to be supplying a fish fry then ill make sure to keep them. (But when i play for keeps im targeting stripers, crappie, or white perch)
The only exception is Flounder. Everytime i go the Chesapeke bay for flounder fishing, im playing for keeps! and the way that trip works out is, there is a fish fry when i come home.
slonezp reply :
Bass tastes just fine, especially when it's caught in colder water
trailer reply :
From the state where road-kill possum is a cuisine, I love bass and crappie. No harm in keeping a few and frying them. Dinks of course.
Jig Meister reply :
I am going to start keeping a few this season to weed out the smaller ones. Fish is fish to me, and I eat for a nutrition stand point not so much for flavor, and oil + spices = good taste to anything.
nascar2428 reply :
My fishing buddies know they will have an extra limit if I go with them. If I'm catching em, I'm not cleaning em, and I'm not eating em. They know I just go to fish!!
Hyrule Bass reply :
part of the problem is if everyone caught and release in a lake thats loaded with 12inch or smaller bass, the fish become stunted and dont grow big because there is so much competition for food. i'll put it like this. say you have a small lake with a bunch of small stunted bass. most bass fishermen seem to be catch and release with bass. what they dont realize is theyre working against themselves if they want to catch bigger fish. by constantly returning the stunted fish to the water, theyre lessening the chances of bass growing bigger in that lake. What most strictly catch and release guys seem to forget is selective harvest can be a good thing too. keeping some of the smaller bass can be good for the overall fishery.
also part of the problem is some people putting bass up on a pedestal like theyre some kind of royalty or something. you know the type that gets ticked if they see someone keep a bass whether to eat or mount. or the type that wants to cry and/or feel bad if they hook a bass and it bleeds a little, or floats when they release it...
jignfule reply :
I haven't keeped any of my bass for years. I'd rather catch them twice then eat them once, But for pond management I can surely see the wisdom in harvesting the neccessary numbers.
Jig Man reply :
I looked into stocking some of the ponds on one of my farms. I contacted a fisheries biologist and talked to him about the stocking and harvesting rates. He told me that to keep things balanced I would need to take out 21 bass for every acre of surface that they comprised. So my guess is the smaller lakes need to be harvested.
jhoffman reply :
Im gonna be the odd man out for a second time today. While there is only so much forage I dont think that has anything to do with you not catching them. Id bet its more than likely pressure shutting them down. Some lakes see wicked pressure, my home lake sees at minimum two tournaments a week every week the season is open. You could go draw a zero, hit a full moon about 3am and pull a 20lb sack.
---=Martin=--- reply :
I guess I'm in the minority that actually enjoys eating Bass :-) though recently I've only kept one for food; here in FL they tell us to eat 1 a month that's over 14 inches or 1 a week that's under 14 inches, due to heavy metal content. And they do taste good, especially in flour, egg, Italian seasoned gread crumbs and deep fried... oh yea baby!!!!
Red Earth, what you refer to is technically defined at "Smelly tree hugging hippie ******" LOL :-) though I still believe in treating the fish nice and do minimum harm if doing catch-and-release. If I'm catching to eat, fish get's pacified as soon as I have it off the hook (don't want it to suffocate, that just seams cruel) and then on ice it goes. I don't loose sleep if bass get's hooked by gills and bleeds like mad, or if it takes me 2 minutes to work that d**n hook out of it...
Sam reply :
If you ask a pond manager they will tell you, as proclaimed by Red Earth, that there can be too many bass in a pond and they will compete for the available food and not grow as fast or as fat as expected.
This is why pond managers tell you to harvest the smaller bass out of the pond.
I would sumise the same goes for a lake,
Did you know there is a "female bass lake only" in the USA?
You catch beautiful fat ladies cast after cast after cast.
No males, just females.
I cannot rememer the lake's name. Wonder if you can Google "female bass only pond" and find it?
CoBass reply :
Total C&R can definitely have an adverse effect on bass size when it comes to smaller waters. There is a pond I fish that is owned by a local water company. They stocked it with bass, bluegill, and perch for insect control and don't want to spend any more money on fish so they made it strictly C&R. With no fish ever being removed, there is an abundance of twelve inch and smaller bass in the pond. The original bass stocked have reached about 15-16 inches so they aren't big enough to eat the 12 inchers and with all of the competition from the smaller bass, the perch and gill fry get eaten up as soon as they hatch.
Removing a bunch of the smaller bass would reduce the competition for food and might actually allow some of the gills and perch to grow to a size where they would actually provide a decent meal for the bigger fish. This pond is only six years old and what the strict C&R has produced is one class of bass that are 15-16 inches long and growing very slowly, one class each of gills and perch that are too big to be eaten by the bigger bass, and tons of smaller bass that don't have enough food to push past that 12 inch range.
craww reply :
Ive found bass pretty good if you remove the skin. Takes away the strong "fishy" taste, (which I don't care for). It lends itself well to whatever its cooked in/with. My favorite way? Take some fillets and cook in a bed of pico de gio (sp?) on the grill. Healthy and delicious.
Hyrule Bass reply :
On 2/9/2013 at 4:15 AM, Sam said:If you ask a pond manager they will tell you, as proclaimed by Red Earth, that there can be too many bass in a pond and they will compete for the available food and not grow as fast or as fat as expected.
This is why pond managers tell you to harvest the smaller bass out of the pond.
I would sumise the same goes for a lake,
Did you know there is a "female bass lake only" in the USA?
You catch beautiful fat ladies cast after cast after cast.
No males, just females.
I cannot rememer the lake's name. Wonder if you can Google "female bass only pond" and find it?
ive heard of female bass only lakes, there was one featured on a fishing show last year, cant remember much about it though. there are more than one of these lakes in the country too
Southfork reply :
I personally hardly ever keep bass, but I would never look down on those that do.
Dave Hull reply :
Every body of water has a certain "carrying capacity". In the same manner that an acre of pasture can only support x number of cows an acre of water can only support x lbs of fish flesh.Obviously all bodies of water don't have the same "carrying capacity". To simplify let's say a body of water can support 500 lbs of fish per acre. That could be comprised of 500 1lb fish or 100 5lbers . So yea if there are an overabundance of small fish then there is no room for anything else so removing some smaller fish frees up resources to support larger ones too.
So there is nothing wrong with eating bass and throwing them all back in certain waters can be a mistake that leads to stunted fish. Just keep the smaller ones because removing trophies removes the genetics that may have lead to it's size. BTW stunted fish can sometimes be identified by the fact that the seem to have larger eyes than normal for it's body size. A bass's eyes continue to grow larger throughout the life of a fish just like a humans nose does.
Bass are tasty! They are of the sunfish family. Although I prefer members of the perch family for the table I eat bass on occasion. They are mush tastier (to me) than trout or catfish.
greyleg33 reply :
This is a known problem and can happen on some pretty good sized waters. As well as over populating the fish also learn not to get caught.
I haven't fished there for years but at one time Lake Shasta had a 12" size limit. It was amazing how many 11 3/4" fish came out of that lake.
SudburyBasser reply :
Up here in Canada the C&R ethos isn't the religion that it turned into down there. I would wager that most people keep the worthwhile fish they catch. Myself, I tend to C&R most of the bass I catch but I do bring some home occasionally for eating. Personally, I rather like the taste of bass. Tastiest of fish? No, but they aren't bad eating at all.
On a slightly related note we had a debate about this a few months back after I posed the question.
WRB reply :
Every pond, small lake or larger lakes have there own ideal predator to prey ratio for maximum harvest rate per man hour of fishing. Fish biologist tend to manage lakes optimum harvest rate of number of keeper size fish (bass) for each lake they are managing. The biologist preform electro shocking to physically count the number and size of bass per acre to determine if the fishery is being maintained properly. If they find an abundance of a year class, they will have anglers target that class to reduce the numbers or put a slot limit in affect to protect a low population year class. If everyone fishing the lake ignores there recommendation then there management suffers and the goals isn't achieved.
If a lake or pond is never fished and the predator and prey ratios are unmanaged will the lake or pond suffer a catastrophic population crisis? More than likely everything will balance, nature has away of doing that. The problem is introducing man into the equation, the ultimate predator. Ounce we start fishing. A fishery we tend to set everything into a spin and out of balance.
Catch and release doesn't mean catch release and survive, a small % (3 to 10) of every bass you release doesn't survive, so there is a harvest rate and usually the largest and smallest population of bass tend to get over harvested where there is heavy fishing pressure. The biggest bass are the most vulnerable.
Tom
Bluebasser86 reply :
I've seen lots of ponds and small lakes with a large population of stunted bass. Usually there isn't much forage to go around so that combined with the crowded conditions just doesn't allow the fish to get larger and thinning them out is the best way for them grow larger. It will help the overall population of the pond/lake also when the bass population is kept in check. I don't personally keep them but I've filleted plenty of bass for land owners who granted me permission to fish their ponds as long as I'd give them a few fish to keep. The smaller ones taste way better than the big ones. I remember trying a piece of a larger bass my dad caught when I was little and any keeper sized fish we caught came home with us, it could have been a plate of moss and mud and I wouldn't have been able to taste the difference.
SirSnookalot reply :
Your legally caught fish is entirely your business what to do with it, throw it back, eat it or mount it. For the ones that have an opposite view, let them do as they see fit. I c&r as I don't like the taste of bass, wouldn't eat anything out of these Florida freshwater canals and as mentioned above mercury content, especially for pregnant women, and it just isn't bass, some saltwater species too like swordfish.
If I'm not going to keep them I certainly won't leave them on the bank, sure I'll toss one to a bird once in while, just for the sake of thinning them out. I don't want the flies, the buzzards or any other critter coming to feast on them, that may be health issue.
Loop_Dad reply :
On 2/9/2013 at 4:07 AM, mvorbrodt said:I guess I'm in the minority that actually enjoys eating Bass :-) though recently I've only kept one for food; here in FL they tell us to eat 1 a month that's over 14 inches or 1 a week that's under 14 inches, due to heavy metal content. And they do taste good, especially in flour, egg, Italian seasoned gread crumbs and deep fried... oh yea baby!!!!
Red Earth, what you refer to is technically defined at "Smelly tree hugging hippie ******" LOL :-) though I still believe in treating the fish nice and do minimum harm if doing catch-and-release. If I'm catching to eat, fish get's pacified as soon as I have it off the hook (don't want it to suffocate, that just seams cruel) and then on ice it goes. I don't loose sleep if bass get's hooked by gills and bleeds like mad, or if it takes me 2 minutes to work that d**n hook out of it...
There is a Chinese marketer near my place. They have a huge fish tank in the fish meat section. They have probably 50-100 bass swimming in there. So I bet some Chinese dish consists of bass.
I don't keep bass, but I'm prepared to keep if the fish is injured. (This thread made me thinking though.)
mvorbodt, what's the humane way to kill a bass?
WRB reply :
If bass are caught from clean cold clear water they are excellent table fare.
I will keep a bass that is bleeding to eat because they are good firm white meat from the lakes I fish. My wife is from MN and grew up eating walleye, they didn't eat bass there because they were mushy, not firm meat. Now she is happy when I bring home a bass for dinner and that doesn't very happen often.
Over crowding or over population of small lakes or ponds usually occurs when the larger predators are missing; big fish eat little fish. Some times the pond that didn't have a bass population gets planted with 1 year class bass and they over run the pond because there isn't any larger bass to start with. Good pond management requires several year classes of bass to balance the ecosystem.
Tom
Tuckahoe Joe reply :
I mostly catch and release but every once in a while Ill keep a couple smaller ones. I haven't had a chance yet to try walleye or crappie so I don't really have anything to compare it to but the couple of times my girlfriend fried up the bass I brought home they were amazing. I think somebody else already mentioned flour, egg, and italian seasoned bread crumbs. Like I said, mostly catch and release and if it's a big I always throw it back but theres nothing wrong with keeping a few legal fish every now and then as long as your not just stocking up your freezer.
---=Martin=--- reply :
On 2/10/2013 at 3:44 AM, LoopDad2 said:There is a Chinese marketer near my place. They have a huge fish tank in the fish meat section. They have probably 50-100 bass swimming in there. So I bet some Chinese dish consists of bass.
I don't keep bass, but I'm prepared to keep if the fish is injured. (This thread made me thinking though.)
mvorbodt, what's the humane way to kill a bass?
LoopDad2, last time I killed bass to eat, I put it in a plastic bag (Ziploc) to have a better grip, and took few strong swings against a concrete bench. The top of it's head got pretty smashed up, so I figured it did the trick. I guess that would be humane as opposed to let fish suffocate :-/
Caylub reply :
That sounds pretty horrible bro. I saw a guy fillet some catfish and then throw them in a hole and bury them. The fish were still alive filleted out when he was throwing dirt on them. I figure that is the absolute least humane way of going about it. That same guy tried to tell me fish don't feel pain. What do you guys think?
WRB reply :
It's hard to imagine we have a generation of anglers that have never killed fish to eat. Fish are a renewable resource and good source of food. It's OK to buy fish fillets from a market and not think about how those fillets got there. I blame the the fathers of these anglers for not taking their kids out and teaching them how to humanly treat fish or animals they plan to harvest for food.
Simple method is put the live bass in a ice chest with crushed ice. This will keep the fish fresh and it will die in a few minutes. If that bothers you, knock on the top of head between the eyes with a solid hard object, then put the fish in the ice chest.
Tom
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
I've always used the 'icky stick' to dispatch a fish. It is quick and to the point, and seems to be more humane than any other method I've found. They die almost instantly.
tnriverluver reply :
On 2/9/2013 at 2:58 AM, slonezp said:Bass tastes just fine, especially when it's caught in colder water
This is the truth. I have been catching and keeping smaller 11-13 inch bass since late in the fall. Our local lake has a 14-18 slot and you seldom even catch the smaller fish until late fall or winter. Small bass out of 50ish or colder water is my favorite eating fish. Bigger fish never get kept by me even if from lakes where it is legal.
gallowaypt reply :
Since someone brought up total bass lbs per acre of water, it made me think of my half acre pond. We put around 30 bass in it this last season after digging it deeper during a bad dry spell. There are probably about 70 lbs of bass, give or take, in the half acre pond. I have stocked the pond with around a total of 150-200 bluegill, ranging in size. There are also plenty of insects/frogs around the pond during the spring and summer. If the avg. size bass is around 2 lbs, do you think we should catch and keep a few of the smaller ones, or let them do their thing and see how it plays out over the next few seasons?
gallowaypt reply :
Forgot to mention that the pond is shaped like a bowl and only gets deep (10 ft max) in the very middle. Sorry for thread jacking-not my intent!
bass1980 reply :
I think the real problem with some smaller lakes/ponds are the passionate fishermen. Many of them keep trophy bass and release anything not trophy in their minds. They think these little buggers will one day be a trophy while taking all the trophies. They are just stunting the bass population. When some people bring legal size bass home to eat they look down at them like the people that are keeping bass are lower class.
---=Martin=--- reply :
On 2/10/2013 at 9:33 AM, WRB said:It's hard to imagine we have a generation of anglers that have never killed fish to eat. Fish are a renewable resource and good source of food. It's OK to buy fish fillets from a market and not think about how those fillets got there. I blame the the fathers of these anglers for not taking their kids out and teaching them how to humanly treat fish or animals they plan to harvest for food.
Simple method is put the live bass in a ice chest with crushed ice. This will keep the fish fresh and it will die in a few minutes. If that bothers you, knock on the top of head between the eyes with a solid hard object, then put the fish in the ice chest.
Tom
that's what i did last time more or less. except i used concrete bench against bass's head, than ice.
trailer reply :
On 2/10/2013 at 9:33 AM, WRB said:It's hard to imagine we have a generation of anglers that have never killed fish to eat. Fish are a renewable resource and good source of food. It's OK to buy fish fillets from a market and not think about how those fillets got there. I blame the the fathers of these anglers for not taking their kids out and teaching them how to humanly treat fish or animals they plan to harvest for food.
Simple method is put the live bass in a ice chest with crushed ice. This will keep the fish fresh and it will die in a few minutes. If that bothers you, knock on the top of head between the eyes with a solid hard object, then put the fish in the ice chest.
Tom
Amen. Where do you think steaks come from? And chicken breasts? I don't think it's wrong to keep fish and if you don't want to keep them that's ok too. I do side with Ted Nugent: animals DO have rights...to garlic and butter on the grill.
WRB reply :
A bowl shaped 1/2 acre pond without any cover or structure elements can not sustain a bass fishery very long without constant food source being replenished. The real problem is no nursery area for the young of the year to survive. The bluegill that are under 4" will be eaten by the bass 2 lbs and over at a rate of about 2 bluegills per week per bass. This upcoming spawning season, the bass will spawn, the bluegill will raid the nest because they are egg eaters and bass fry eaters. The bluegill will spawn shortly after the bass, the bass will target the smaller size bluegill and birds will target the both the bluegill and smaller male bass protecting nests. Some bass fry will survive only to be eaten by the other bass, big fish eat small fish. Crawdads, salamders also raid the spawning nest of both bass and bluegill, it's a jungle in your small pond, survival of the fittest, 24-7.On 2/10/2013 at 2:16 PM, gallowaypt said:Forgot to mention that the pond is shaped like a bowl and only gets deep (10 ft max) in the very middle. Sorry for thread jacking-not my intent!
Tom
gallowaypt reply :
Thank you for the insightful post Tom. We did put several cedar trees in the very center that I forgot to mention. Should we add any other structural elements (if this is even possible) to help add more nursery areas? I just don't want the fish that we already have in there to die because of my lack of pond management. Thanks
TNBassin' reply :
Every year we stock up our freezer with bass, as we have big family fish fries. We don't keep them when we have enough in the freezer though. You guys that don't like the taste of bass must not know how to cook it lol. It's amazing.
aharris reply :
I don't think there's a thing wrong with a man (or woman) keeping a few fish for a meal but I would rather see them keep a few smaller males than a 6 lb female. Throw those big girls back please.
Loop_Dad reply :
On 2/10/2013 at 10:17 AM, Snakehead Whisperer said:I've always used the 'icky stick' to dispatch a fish. It is quick and to the point, and seems to be more humane than any other method I've found. They die almost instantly.
SnakeheadWhisperere, what is 'icky stick'? Is that something to piece through the fish or something?
Big Bassman reply :
When I was young I always brought home a legal limit and we had fish frys all summer for our family. Once the tournaments started growing popular and B.A.S.S. came along I started C&R. Nowadays me and my boys keep a few to eat but rarely. I may rethink this after reading this post? As far as bass tasting good, we all think they are great, but it makes a big difference how you clean them! I think I need to research this topic more thoroughly. Compliments to the poster and all posting.
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
On 2/11/2013 at 11:31 AM, LoopDad2 said:SnakeheadWhisperere, what is 'icky stick'? Is that something to piece through the fish or something?
If you meant to say 'pierce' through, then yes. The tool is called an iki spike or ikijime, but you can use an awl or a sharp knife. I have always called it the 'icky stick' because when I was a kid it seemed icky, so naturally I thought that's what it was named for 
You are basically piercing through the flesh and puncturing through the brain, causing immediate brain death. It's at the end of the spine between the lateral line bend and eyes. If done right the fish will have a spasm and arch it's back, then quickly lose it's color. It's probably best to have somebody show you first, or look up fish anatomy to locate the brain. It may take several tries the first time you do it.
IMHO not only is it inhumane to keep a fish alive for consumption (e.g. tossing it on the shore, in a bucket, etc.) but it also ruins the flavor of freshly caught fish because the flesh will become contaminated with various acids, etc. This is possibly the reason that some claim that bass is mushy or flavorless.
ebob2435 reply :
Thanks! For all the replies. The lake I'm talking about is about a 60 or 70 acre lake. Built in the early 40's. It's not but a 10 min. drive from my house ,so I try to fish it often after work. Gets medium pressure from fishing, because of not being able to catch very many fish. But we did C&R a 3 1/2 lber the other day. I know it has big'uns in it. Just hard to catch. Also during the summer it has about 30 foot of lily pads around a third of the lake. I fiquier thats where they stay. Thanks again. Dave
MCS reply :
I think that is a good part of the problem in the retention ponds near me. Too many small stunted fish, but mian reason being I don't keep any is these ponds are filled with runoff from storm drains and I find that to be a little suspect when feeding to my kids, in addition to bass not being a prefered fish to eat.
Christian M reply :
I saw this same thing happen at one of my favorite lakes. It's a golf course lake and didn't receive much pressure until about 4 years ago. We would go most days and catch 5-20 bass easily, but they were all in the 1-2lb range. Every once in a while we would hook a monster, 5-7lbs, and I even heard stories of guys catching state record fish and releasing them so the lake would stay off the radar. I had a friend catch a 9.14 there, about a pound shy of the state record, and both my PB's came out of this lake 6.5. Yet every one of the lunkers had huge heads, big eyes, with skinny bodies. My buddy called the DNR and suggested that there wasn't enough forage and too many bass. That season they came with a truck stacked with barrels of shiners, fathead minnows, and killies, and have continued to do so. I haven't really fished the lake too much. I've been traveling further to fish bigger bodies of water, but my fishing buddies tell me the fish are looking much more stout and fat. OMHO I've found that the lakes with more predators (musky, hybrid stripers, pickeril, cats, & trout) yield healthier bass populations.
tugsandpulls reply :
im a cook and work in a restaurant ill keep some lmb in the right slot size and cook them at work i think they taste good
PondBoss reply :
On 2/10/2013 at 7:59 AM, Caylub said:That sounds pretty horrible bro. I saw a guy fillet some catfish and then throw them in a hole and bury them. The fish were still alive filleted out when he was throwing dirt on them. I figure that is the absolute least humane way of going about it. That same guy tried to tell me fish don't feel pain. What do you guys think?
Just nerves man and muscles moving around. Like cutting the head off of a chicken, it will still run around for a few minutes headless, but I'm sure it's dead. I wanna say that fish don't feel pain and I am pretty sure studies have been done to prove this, but in all honesty fish don't speak so who the hell knows. I personally manage a few small bodies of water and take every fish I catch under 16 inches out. Since I have started doing this the average size has gone up by almost a pound. As said before, ideally 15-20 lb of fish need to be removed per acre per year. The reason I take all the small fish from my waters is there are still too many fish in it and I only am able to get to the water 10-12 times a year.
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
On 2/13/2013 at 1:25 PM, PondBoss said:Just nerves man and muscles moving around. Like cutting the head off of a chicken, it will still run around for a few minutes headless, but I'm sure it's dead. I wanna say that fish don't feel pain and I am pretty sure studies have been done to prove this, but in all honesty fish don't speak so who the hell knows. I personally manage a few small bodies of water and take every fish I catch under 16 inches out. Since I have started doing this the average size has gone up by almost a pound. As said before, ideally 15-20 lb of fish need to be removed per acre per year. The reason I take all the small fish from my waters is there are still too many fish in it and I only am able to get to the water 10-12 times a year.
There have actually been numerous studies that show that fish most definitely do feel pain, and most controlled studies reach these same results. How they interpret that pain, and whether it causes suffrage to the fish is a different question (nobody knows but the fish.) I do understand the logic of thinning the herd. I just choose to do so in a humane way. I've killed lots of fish in my life, so I too am guilty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_fish
fadetoblack21 reply :
It all depends on where I'm fishing. One of the lakes I fish alot is a private lake that is grossly overpopulated according to the survey done last year. Me and my fishing buddy are about the only ones who target bass, so we keep quite a few for fish fries. If I'm fishing on a well maintained lake with a healthy population, I will most likely CR, but sometimes will take some dinks home for dinner. We love us some fish in our house!
PondBoss reply :
On 2/13/2013 at 1:48 PM, Snakehead Whisperer said:There have actually been numerous studies that show that fish most definitely do feel pain, and most controlled studies reach these same results. How they interpret that pain, and whether it causes suffrage to the fish is a different question (nobody knows but the fish.) I do understand the logic of thinning the herd. I just choose to do so in a humane way. I've killed lots of fish in my life, so I too am guilty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_fish
I know that I read something about fish not having pain receptors somewhere, it may have been in the mouth, but I'm not sure. Fish don't scream or make noise that I can hear, so anyway to get the sides off of them is humane to me.
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
On 2/13/2013 at 2:34 PM, PondBoss said:I know that I read something about fish not having pain receptors somewhere, it may have been in the mouth, but I'm not sure. Fish don't scream or make noise that I can hear, so anyway to get the sides off of them is humane to me.
Fair enough.
The problem I see is that it's still a popular misconception to many that harvesting the bigger fish is the right thing to do. Of all the bass I saw other anglers harvesting on the Potomac last year, most were 4 lbs. or larger (completely within the law.)
related General Bass Fishing Forum topic
previous topic
most viewed General Bass Fishing Forum topic
© 2024 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.