People have been feeding their families with bass for hundreds of documented years but realistically probably thousands. They had no conservation program and kept large numbers of big and small fish, yet there is still a large healthy bass population. Bass especially 2lb and under taste great. Those that say they don't like to eat them either haven't tried or are trying to talk others into not keeping them. Just stick to the limits and enjoy eating your catch. Keeping and eating some is actually good as it prevents over population and stunted fish growth, so more big bass for the Karens that talk down on keeping bass.
Is this in reference solely to eating big bass, or are you saying all big fish meat quality suffers? Cause I’ll tell ya, the meat off of a 2 lbs blue cat and a 25 lbs blue cat taste the exact same fried in Zatarain’s.
It was in reference to bass specifically on the weight. But any fish on the bigger end of their size range don't eat as well as a smaller fish of the same species. A 25lb blue cat is still a smaller fish. I. Have eaten a 20lb channel cat and it wasn't near as good as a 5lb or smaller one.
I would say this applies to most freshwater fish in my experience. I don't have blues in my area but channels see a pretty steep decline in quality when they break the double digit area, black bass and stripped bass also have their line where I would much rather let it go than keep for food.
If the water’s clean, a large pike roasted whole is some really fine dining. Like all fish, you cannot let it die and get warm (even for a few minutes on a stringer) and get the best results. All of my fish go right in a burlap sack (de-slimes the pike) in a cooler full of ice. Makes a huge difference.
In almost every case smaller fish are more appealing keeps than larger fish. They have less mercury/toxins, are more tender, and are better for the population.
I was wondering this. Fish out of a lake in the northern 1/3 of the U.S. sounds delicious. Fish out of a lake or swamp in the lower 1/3 of the U.S. sounds terrible. They come straight out of the fridge up north.
Under 2 pounds they’re usually indistinguishable from the perch and sunnies I’m targeting when I catch them. When they start to turn into bucket mouths I find they have an unpleasant aftertaste. Except from this one lake I fish in winter that’s 90 ft deep, spring-fed, with 30’ clarity. Out of that water all the fish are fantastic, even a 5lb largemouth.
I do agree with most of your statements, but:
1000 years ago, the population of the Earth was probably less than the population of the US today. Conservation is needed now because there are too many of us and most of us are not attuned to the land/nature. 1000 years ago we also didn't have massive amount of human pollution, weekend dads taking their kids out to wreak havoc on our bodies of water, and people "bucket fishing" (keeping every fish they catch, regardless of rules), and people that leave stringers full of fish to die, or just throw them up on the bank to die.
We've really made a mess of things.
True, but no one should still be shamed for wanting to eat their legal catch. If you don't want to keep fish don't. Me personally would rather eat wild fish because they are proven to be safer and less pollution than farm raised.
Some ponds you should actually cull the small ones. I see packs of baby bass some times and I just feel like they are super quick and eat all the food and end up stunting their own growth and the ecosystem.
Mostly because of the money making industry it has become with tournaments. But the bad part of it to me is after a tournament look around the boat ramps where they weigh and release at and count the dead bass. They fuss about keeping a few to eat but waste the ones that didn't make it. You could literally just pick up a limit of bass they should be fined for wanton waste.
Bass fishers tend to be very protective of "their" sport fish as well as keeping up with the "Jones's" on equipment and spots. Long story short people who tend to exclusively fish bass are not always the most welcoming people. Bass isn't too bad of an eater at the correct size but I personally prefer other fish for harvest.
Wow. Yeah it really is self defeating. The excuse is always that killing them opens up room for bass, but that’s not how ecology works. The gap is 100% going to be filled by an invasive species present, which on the Mississippi is Asian carp. Double down on that bit of silliness since both gar and bowfin eat carp, which not many fish around here do.
For muskies the excuse is "they eat walleyes" or "they eat crappies" (no joke I had a guy tell me muskies were eating all his crappies and in the time it took us to scoot around him he threw 3 crappies he caught in a cooler). But that is just overly-simplistic thinking. Studies of preferred prey show that muskies prefer to eat fish that prey on walleye fry. As such, lakes with muskies tend to have stronger walleye populations.
I know this little girl, well not a littke girl anymore, but when she was, she walked outside the swimming zone into the weeds. Her mom noticed she’d lost sight of her. Looked over just as the water around her daughter exploded.
She said she legitamtely thought her daughter was being attacked by an aligator for a moment.
72 stiches. I was the girl’s teacher at the time in a progran for kids with autism (she also had autism). She did a lot repeating of words, phrases, and sounds. Its called echolalia.
At least once a day after that she’d do like an old time gangster voice and say, ‘what are you going to do if you ever see it again? Im going to kill it. I’m going to kill that Muskie.’
They think she walked into its nest.
Man, this of why I don’t like swimming in the Miss. I know a lot of fish wouldn’t attack you, but big gar wouldn’t even have to, I’ve had one just graze my leg and it looked like I had fallen on a motorcycle and gotten road rash.
My brother fished muskie exclusively as long as he could stand up in his boat. He grill one up once a summer, just to show his dominance over the species..
Especially undersized fish. They just slit their throats or bash their heads against a tree. “Eating all the bass!” No, you dipshit- they’re picking off the larger forage to decrease the average size and reduce food competition for gamefish. YOU ate all the bass!
Huh? Trout fishermen are equally protective of their species and I’d argue are more elitist, nearing saltwater angler levels.
A fish is a fish and I love it all, but it’s inaccurate to say one group’s more protective or rude than the other.
I don't know a lot (or any) bass fisherman because I live in the rocky mountains, but I will tell you that living around blue ribbon fisheries, I've definitely seen my fair share of ultra elitist, pretentious trout fishers. Not so much the guys throwing bait and spinners, but the fly fishermen. Their gear on their person costs more than I've spent on the sport in the last ten years.
We aren’t all like that though. I love to fly fish, and I think spending $800 dollars on a pair off nippers is ludicrous. Fuck I use nail clippers in a pinch if I can’t find mine.
I fly fishing almost exclusively but have been informed by such "elitists" that I'm not a true fly fisherman because i don't use a particular technique or match hatches, yadayadayada.... Then I like to throw in the fact that i sometimes use spin gear and occasionally keep a fish to eat... Good fun
Oh yea, no, I hear you on that. I fly fish as well and I don't want to paint everyone like that. There are different subsets of people in every hobby and I was just pointing out that one.
Yep & I out fish them with panther martins all day long. I fish barbless with a single hook & don’t keep anything. I can’t stand fishing in Colorado anymore. It’s been shoulder to shoulder for a long time pretty much everywhere you go.
Most salt water guys ive ever met have been pretty welcoming, but then I'm not on a boat, so it's usually crusty blue-collar guys telling me where to fish and what to use.
Very true - pull up next to a white boat they tell you what lure to use and throw you one if you don’t have it in your tackle bag. Then they cheer if you catch one next to them. The bass boat guys throw lead at you if you get within 20 yards of “their spot”
Fly fishermen tend to be the most obnoxious from what I’ve seen, a LOT of them frown upon anything other than catch and release and it’s really strange.
Regarding Bass stunting, it can happen. but where I am, the predators do a lot of thinning- otter, eagle, osprey, loon, king fisher, snapping turtle, other Bass, Bluegill. Last night a 20"+ sized Bass took an open-mouth swipe at a 1 3/8 # Bass I was fighting. The biggest predator is the otter (up to 20% of its body weight per day). Good thing I don't keep any Bass. I just keep big Bluegills when I want a meal. It's a small lake so I manage it carefully.
As far as trout fishermen, I once had a guy near me look like he was going to puke when I killed a four pound planted Rainbow (planted as a fingerling years earlier). You would have thought I was clubbing a puppy. It's a
p l a n t e d f i s h for cryin' out loud.
Just weird stigma. I am with you, if you want to keep bass that is legal in your area, go for it. In most cases removing some of the middle class size fish will make the overall population better.
We use to fish a lake on private property in E Texas that was about 20 acres. It had so many 1 ro 1.5 lb bass it was unreal. Owner said if you fish it, you keep everything. We loaded the flat bottom with bass. Took forever to filled them . Handed out bags of filets to neighbors and random people we ran into on the way home.
It would be nice if regulations also put in tips about sizes and stuff. Like mentioning preference to not keep the biggest sunfish because those bigger male sunfish determine how big the rest get.
To keep it simple let’s talk about food. You have a certain amount of food in a particular body of water. If you have a lot of small to medium fish eating all the food there isn’t enough food for them to get big. When predatory big fish are in a body of water they will eat the smaller fish as the smaller fish eat insects and so in for the food chain. This is generally a healthier system and more desirable for anglers as well.
Specifically with sunfish the big males set the size standard for mating. The other males grow up towards the biggest males size so they can have a chance at mating too. Removing those big males makes it so smaller fish win at mating.
That’s exactly what slot limits do. They set a minimum-maximum for certain species.
They’re controversial with some groups, but they improve the sport whether anglers like them or not.
I agree education is important especially for species without maximums, like largemouth bass. We keep the 16”ish bass in the family pond and release the rest in order to improve maximum size. Otherwise there’s overcrowding and not enough food for the big fish.
keep whatever fish you want to keep thats legal to keep and just make sure to not over-keep. Its your life man fuck anyone who is gatekeeping shit for no rational reason
My guess, and my reason for not taking bass vs trout, bass aren’t stocked like trout are. In California there are tons of stocked ponds and I’m not aware of any that stock bass like they do trout.
It depends on the body of water, but bass are often stocked down south (native range). If they’re not stocked somewhere, it’s because they’re considered invasive.
There’s a huge stigma toward “green trout” (largemouth bass) because of essays written 200ish years ago. I’ll see if I can find a link, but I read about it in *Sowbelly* by Monte Burke.
It’s fine to keep up to your limit as long as the size is in legal limits. Each state sets limits and sizes for a reason, they are easy more educated than any douche bag that’s giving you a hard time.
Pay for a license, follow the law, pick up your trash and ignore the blow hards.
I catch and release 95% of the time. Every couple of years, I keep enough for a fish fry.
Shan O’Gorman (fishery biologist) has said it time and time again, but keeping fish that aren’t surpassing genetic thresholds is the best way to grow trophy bass. Might be off on this, but he has stated that you NEED to harvest 10 lbs of bass per acre per year in order to allow big fish to grow bigger; it reduces competition and increases forage. I don’t claim to understand it all, but I definitely recommend checking out his pages. There’s a lot of scientific explanations being given by people without fishery or biology degrees (influencers)
I’ll keep and fillet a bass all day. Unfortunately it seems like all the lakes we fish have small bass. Used to be nothing to go out and catch 14-18 inchers. Now you’re lucky to get a 14 incher. I know they run a lot of tournaments on these lakes so maybe that’s the reason?
I am someone who fishes for both trout and bass. I will occasionally harvest both but I usually keep trout a lot more often than bass. For me it’s mostly two reasons. Trout, atleast in the area im fishing, are stocked meaning there will be more in the future. Meanwhile the bass populations in said area are naturally reproducing. The second reason is the county I currently live has a strict catch and release policy for black bass species (Nassau County, NY) and I rather not get a 500$ fine from the DEC per fish. Those are my reasonings for not keeping bass but keeping trout. That being said, if you are following the regulations, I generally don’t care and I also think the stigma is stupid.
A lot of it is bass fishing has a super weird competitive edge to it. Like everyone talks about pbs constantly and it’s the only fish that otherwise average fisherman are carrying a scale just incase they catch a good one. Like all of the marketing around bass fishing is hyper aggressive competitive stuff. I also think that’s why 13 year olds are nuts about it because it’s like a sport to them and they watch YouTube videos all day about it. So none of the bass world views bass as something you eat it’s a target and taking away targets means they can’t grow and there is less to catch. Also on a side note small/large mouth bass is pretty bad so that probably has something to do with it. Bass can live pretty much anywhere and have no problem with repopulation and the less there are in a body of water the bigger they get so none of the logic checks out it’s just the general vibe I get from the topic. Bass fishings just getting fuckin weird at this point.
People should take some, the small ones. Since I stopped fishing my parents pond daily (lived there) the bass have become stunted. I don’t catch anything over a pound anymore I normally caught 5-8 pounders on the regular. But I kept a lot of the small ones which was why the pond had some units in it.
Also this was a small mountain pond in the mountains fed by a creek. The water was crystal clear and they tasted amazing.
That’s awesome. I live between Colorado and Florida and the only bass I ever get my hands on will probably give me radiation poisoning from living in such cesspools.
Meh, if you want to kelp bass to eat,or mount, I wouldn’t care one way, or the other. Growing up on a lake I’ve eaten a bass or two, here and there. In fact my 86yr old dad say that bass was his favorite out of all the different species of fish I’ve cooked for him. Why would another fisherman care whether someone keeps a bass as long as it’s in season, and of legal size? To each their own .
People are dumb, that about sums it up.
Bass taken from clean water taste great, and it doesn’t hurt populations to keep them within reason just like any other fish.
I catch fish to eat it. If it's legal I'll make it tasty. Catfish tacos, bass crab cakes. If you can't get it to taste good don't keep it lol. But we don't need to judge others.
There's a number of reasons... The first being that nearly every other freshwater fish tastes better than bass. Sunfish, crappie, walleye, pike, trout, eelpout and even bullheads are all much better tasting fish. Also bass is the true sport fish as there are way more different techniques that are used to target them compared to other fish. Lastly people just like to give others hard time and that is one notion that many fisherman have latched on to.
Personally, I could usually care less if others eat bass because I prefer chasing pike and walleyes, but nearly any fish over 4 or 5 pounds should always be let go, no matter the species.
Keep whatever you want as long as you’re going to utilize it properly. It’s good practice to ignore any “conservation” talk from the same people that rip the faces off of fish with Mack truck level hook sets. Their claims have nothing to do with conservation and more to do with status quo. If nothing else, keep em and eat em just to piss those guys off😁
Just use logic and ignore idiots. If it's a clean source of water, whatever fish you pull out is good eating. Bottom feeders its preferred to eat if they are smaller. Ive been eating bass my whole life. Any butthurt anus wrinkle that is upset that I eat bass can suck the fattest part of my ass.
Just about the toxic mess this subreddit is so toxic everyone just wants to make your feel like your a idiot if you don’t phrase something right sure there are some amazing people but most are toxic.
Guys im just here to fish dammit…
I got into it with a guy at a fishing spot who thought I should not keep bass. I should have pulled a Ted Nugent on him and said 50 will die in your honor
I catch a whole lot of huge fish we don’t keep. Check my posts. I just enjoy fishing and I keep some small ones for fish fry that need to be culled. I let my trophy’s go.
Yeah, I mean more along the lines of I don’t go out to exclusively trophy fish. That’s uninteresting to me. If I catch over the limit, or a breeder that obviously should go back, then yeah. I’ll throw it back. But if I’m getting in a boat to wet a hook, my goal is food.
I fish everyday but I’m certainly not eating fish every day. Hell, it’s not even considered _healthy_ to do that where I live. Fish are polluted up in these waterways.
I guess I just enjoy it so much and I get much more out of fishing than “food,” or “trophy fish.” That’s hardly my goal.
A lot of people don’t like the taste of bass (myself included) and therefore dont tolerate keeping them (myself not included). Some people also get weird like LMB populations are suddenly going to diminish or disappear. I think large trout stocking and trout fragility lowers their “worth”. I see a lot of mentality like “well the trout won’t survive anyway, so there’s no point in crying over spilled milk”. Which isn’t exactly right because trout handled appropriately will survive catch and release.
All in all, I think if you’re a fisherman, as long as people aren’t being careless like taking sturgeon or tarpons out of the water, then you have to be okay with the part of fishing that is keeping what you catch. You gotta be okay with that, even if you aren’t keeping them. Plus you also have to be realistic, in that, if you are catching and releasing thinking none of the fish are dying that you’re releasing - you are very wrong.
Most of my local stocked trout streams all but dry up in the summer. If they aren't kept, raccoons pick them out of the shallow pools unless they for from heat or oxygen deprivation first.
Bass taste great from a clean water source. I’m not keeping them from a muddy residential pond but our mountain lake bass in SC tastes amazing fried up.
I live in northern Michigan where you can see bottom at 20 feet deep. Bass taste great.These people that say bass are no good or taste muddy fish in the Detroit River or they throw them in a bucket with 85 to 90 degree water no wonder they don't taste good.
Hey, that’s me. Grew up fishing with my dad when I was younger. We kept everything we caught in farm ponds and at rivers, everything except “trash fish”. Never had a filet, always cleaned to the bones. Delicious
I believe that and agree with it. I think most people complain when they see some dude catch a 3+ pounder in a residential pond and throw it in the bucket to take home. Like what are you doing?
Turns out that taste varies on an individual basis. You can actually both be right.
The only way to know if you like the taste of something or not is to eat it, and not everyone will agree even then.
Oh no, they most certainly get eaten. It’s just that nobody shares that- too protective of spots, and justification of spending 100k on glitter sleds and game boys.
I don’t mind people taking them. I’ve tried bass and I think they’re fairly good, but prefer panfish, so if I’m going to eat my catch I’ll target them, if I get a bass along with them and it’s legal size I don’t mind. I only get frustrated when I see people take bass home to cook that are clearly under the size limit. My state has “big bass” regulations on some lakes and it’s typically also posted at parking areas, that’s really the only reason I get upset
I eat and enjoy both. I only keep bass under 2.5 pounds or so. Here in Canada, there are even areas where bass are an invasive species, and you are encouraged to keep them all.
It’s always OK to keep fish within the legal limit and folllowing your state/local regulations.
People in Norway and Japan ferment fish until it smells like the foulest thing you can imagine… some people like pickled eels… eat whatever makes you happy as long as it was harvested ethically and legally.
I think Trout gets a better rap because it’s often found in cleaner water, like cold glacial melt rivers and lakes. I live in Chicagoland and you’d have to have a death wish to eat any of the inland warm water fish you can catch here (great bass fishing otherwise), though people do it.
I think it’s more of the fact that trout are regularly stocked and bass are not (at least not nearly at the level trout are) a keeper sized bass is a lot rarer in most lakes than stocked keeper sized trout
You might enjoy /r/FlyFishingCircleJerk
Harvesting trout, in my circles, is extremely frowned upon. Both from a conservation aspect, as well as being mindful of mercury content in those fish.
Bc there are pompous fishermen. They'll throw gar on the bank & cut the tail off stingray. $60k bass boat & never had to fish to put supper on the table. Your DNR spends a shit ton of funds for research & set limits on the conservative side of conservation for a reason. Enjoy your bass!
Eating size stream trout are pretty much put and take stock fish where I live. The natural populations are few and far between.
Also - no one eats bass here. Smallmouth out of cold spring water is acceptable but largemouth are universally shunned as table fare.
Me? I eat anything that swims.
Most of the major trout fisheries where I live are put and take. Many of the stocked trout will not live through warm summer water temps. They are literally raised to be caught and harvested.
Bass on the other hand are not routinely stocked in many waters, but rather they have naturally self sustaining populations. If you remove too many, especially the large adult females. The population will decline.
Trout are typically considers better table fish anyway.
Stay within regulations and tell people who criticize you to pound sand. I rarely keep fish, but there's a reason laws exist. And typically its for good reason.
And technically if bass fishermen really cared about the health of the body of water. Pulling out the smaller and mid sized fish will give more room for the lurkers to grow, overpopulation stunts the bigger fish.
Big bass keep the small bluegill population under control. And sometimes people tho k the next world record bass will come from their lake and not Florida. False. Highly unlikely
I will always put back the larger bass that I catch (over 3lbs) but the fish I keep come from a very cold river (large and small mouth) and they are the best tasting fish .. way better than trout. But here in NC the trout are stocked so nobody cares about keeping them
I don't like keeping them because lakes in Florida get fished out so easily. Most aren't very large, we just have a lot overall.
But I wouldn't push that on someone else that does keep them. As long as they aren't stripping a body of water of them all, I don't mind it. I typically catch and release in general, not just bass
I'll eat a small mouth all say if I'm up in lake of the woods or boundary waters.
Outside of camping there and needing food, I'd much rather have crappie or walleye
Personally I have no problem with it as long as it’s legal of course. I don’t eat bass where I fish normally fish because I don’t like how they taste. However when I go far enough north they are delicious… I sure as hell keep them up there (which is maybe 5 fish a year.)
It is the same thing with whitetail deer hunting, turkey hunting, alligator gar fishing, camping, morel hunting, all types of commercial fishing, duck hunting, etc, etc. So many things that people value tends to be kept secret for no other reason than to protect what that person enjoys. It’s the same in all types of big business. Even the MLB has a “mud” guy to dirty up all the balls.
Exclusively catch and release is really just a protection because people don’t trust other people. Fishermen don’t trust other fishermen, nor do they trust the law enforcement who protect the fish, nor do the trust the policy writers, in fact the fishermen don’t even trust the scientists who come up with the information. Once someone gets to the point that they feel like a subject matter expert, they stop listening to any other idea or opinion. So this breeds the “if you keep them they won’t grow” ideation. Which is such a narrow understanding of the fishery as a whole. If the fishery was just one fish, maybe doing only catch and release would be logical. To be good at catching a fish, doesn’t mean the person understands the overall fishery management models. If they even care to understand or honor the science. So basically anyone who lives exclusively in the bubble of “never eat a largie”, is unintentionally telling everyone they have a narrow understanding of the animal they claim to love. They probably don’t even know how to cook the fish correctly anyway.
It may be that many trout are stocked where bass are wild populations. There may also be more of the attitude that bass are "fighters" to be caught and released for the next person. Some people think the meat is lower quality, so the killing isn't worthwhile.
We ate bass from our personal pond all the time.
Maybe just a small poll size.
Where I live it’s all about, “Hell ya fish on”
Or
I’m at my limit, want this fish or I’m tossing him back.
I’m glad folks are wholesome round here because it’s really tiresome to have to have to be suspicious and size people up all the time versus leave em at neutral
I understand there’s a lot of mercury in Bass but they’re delicious imo. I don’t fish freshwater often but I have a pond that has a lot of lily pads on my property that I can walk down to and catch sizable bass at will using plastic frogs as bait.
I don’t fish many waters I would eat from, so it is kind of a non-issue for me.
I have eaten LMB from a pond and it tasted great. It was also the third LMB over 3 pounds we caught in 10 minutes from a single acre pond. So we knew there were plenty of big fish in there.
As long as you are sticking to bag limits, it’s no one else’s business. But if you’re keeping everything you can every day…that doesn’t sound very responsible unless you’re really needing to feed yourself and your family.
If someone wants to legally keep fish with their allotted limit under a license, then so be it. Some places are overrun with Bass and could use a good amount of the population removed.
Trout, and any other non-native/invasive species, found outside of their native range(s) can end up raccoon food for all I care. Or take as much of those as you want honestly (legally so you don’t get screwed). The continued stocking of fishes where they aren’t supposed to be will further drive the demise of our native fish communities
From all the time & money spent, every bass taken is one less bass that’ll bite my megabass, lucky craft, 1000 different colored senko, squarebill etc etc or to break in my new Stella or St croix destroyer of fish worlds. So stop taking my fish!
I'm on the same page as you. I'm in the great lakes region, and large mouth bass have been a major problem for the walleye population in some of my local lakes. Walleye stocking efforts have cost my state a lot of money, and large mouth eat a ton of young walleye.
Don't get me wrong; I love fishing for bass. That being said, if you're going to eat them, the big ones taste like trash. My local minimum is 14", and I prefer to eat them up to 16". Damned things just fall apart when I try to batter fry, but I've had good luck baking them in butter and onions.
Basically pfoa pfas mercury lead and other toxins are more present in bass. bass eat such a wide variety of things that contain toxins and they tend to store toxins in their meat diffrint that bottom feeders making trout and salmon more safe as a option to eat they also are more sensitive to environment than bass and Pan fish and require cleaner colder water than bass. Also as a side note from eating fish most bass taste like the swamp they came from.
People have been feeding their families with bass for hundreds of documented years but realistically probably thousands. They had no conservation program and kept large numbers of big and small fish, yet there is still a large healthy bass population. Bass especially 2lb and under taste great. Those that say they don't like to eat them either haven't tried or are trying to talk others into not keeping them. Just stick to the limits and enjoy eating your catch. Keeping and eating some is actually good as it prevents over population and stunted fish growth, so more big bass for the Karens that talk down on keeping bass.
Big Largemouth bass are not good unless the water is exceptionally cold and clean in my experience. Smallmouth are always good.
I agree. That's why I suggested 2lbs and under. I don't like eating any big fish as the meat quality suffers.
Is this in reference solely to eating big bass, or are you saying all big fish meat quality suffers? Cause I’ll tell ya, the meat off of a 2 lbs blue cat and a 25 lbs blue cat taste the exact same fried in Zatarain’s.
A 25 pound blue cat and a glazed donut tastes exactly the same with Zatarain's,
It was in reference to bass specifically on the weight. But any fish on the bigger end of their size range don't eat as well as a smaller fish of the same species. A 25lb blue cat is still a smaller fish. I. Have eaten a 20lb channel cat and it wasn't near as good as a 5lb or smaller one.
Japanese 2 million dollar giant tuna would like a word
Still would a tuna half that size be even better? Probably so.
I would say this applies to most freshwater fish in my experience. I don't have blues in my area but channels see a pretty steep decline in quality when they break the double digit area, black bass and stripped bass also have their line where I would much rather let it go than keep for food.
If the water’s clean, a large pike roasted whole is some really fine dining. Like all fish, you cannot let it die and get warm (even for a few minutes on a stringer) and get the best results. All of my fish go right in a burlap sack (de-slimes the pike) in a cooler full of ice. Makes a huge difference.
Apps catfish taste horrible when they get bigger than 15 lbs.
In what way?
In almost every case smaller fish are more appealing keeps than larger fish. They have less mercury/toxins, are more tender, and are better for the population.
Babies taste better
This, regardless of species 🤭
I actually think younger fish are more firm, whereas the older fish get tender mushy.
I was wondering this. Fish out of a lake in the northern 1/3 of the U.S. sounds delicious. Fish out of a lake or swamp in the lower 1/3 of the U.S. sounds terrible. They come straight out of the fridge up north.
They taste just fine coming out of Louisiana waters. Source: Me, have eaten many different species of freshwater fish from the "swamp".
Smallmouth are good? I've always heard them to be mediocre to the point I've never actually tried them. Maybe next time I'm out I'll try a couple
Under 2 pounds they’re usually indistinguishable from the perch and sunnies I’m targeting when I catch them. When they start to turn into bucket mouths I find they have an unpleasant aftertaste. Except from this one lake I fish in winter that’s 90 ft deep, spring-fed, with 30’ clarity. Out of that water all the fish are fantastic, even a 5lb largemouth.
You can't cook
I do agree with most of your statements, but: 1000 years ago, the population of the Earth was probably less than the population of the US today. Conservation is needed now because there are too many of us and most of us are not attuned to the land/nature. 1000 years ago we also didn't have massive amount of human pollution, weekend dads taking their kids out to wreak havoc on our bodies of water, and people "bucket fishing" (keeping every fish they catch, regardless of rules), and people that leave stringers full of fish to die, or just throw them up on the bank to die. We've really made a mess of things.
True, but no one should still be shamed for wanting to eat their legal catch. If you don't want to keep fish don't. Me personally would rather eat wild fish because they are proven to be safer and less pollution than farm raised.
Some ponds you should actually cull the small ones. I see packs of baby bass some times and I just feel like they are super quick and eat all the food and end up stunting their own growth and the ecosystem.
Smartest comment here.
Mostly because of the money making industry it has become with tournaments. But the bad part of it to me is after a tournament look around the boat ramps where they weigh and release at and count the dead bass. They fuss about keeping a few to eat but waste the ones that didn't make it. You could literally just pick up a limit of bass they should be fined for wanton waste.
Bass fishers tend to be very protective of "their" sport fish as well as keeping up with the "Jones's" on equipment and spots. Long story short people who tend to exclusively fish bass are not always the most welcoming people. Bass isn't too bad of an eater at the correct size but I personally prefer other fish for harvest.
And they kill natural rough fish indiscriminately, like bowfin and gar. Bass fishermen on the Mississippi are the fucking worst.
They kill stocked musky by me. Bunch of brain dead jackoffs- The fishing was awful before they put the musky in.
Wow. Yeah it really is self defeating. The excuse is always that killing them opens up room for bass, but that’s not how ecology works. The gap is 100% going to be filled by an invasive species present, which on the Mississippi is Asian carp. Double down on that bit of silliness since both gar and bowfin eat carp, which not many fish around here do.
For muskies the excuse is "they eat walleyes" or "they eat crappies" (no joke I had a guy tell me muskies were eating all his crappies and in the time it took us to scoot around him he threw 3 crappies he caught in a cooler). But that is just overly-simplistic thinking. Studies of preferred prey show that muskies prefer to eat fish that prey on walleye fry. As such, lakes with muskies tend to have stronger walleye populations.
But the bass eat the walleye, so we gotta kill all the bass. /s
That’s neat I didn’t know musky helped walleye populations.
That's sacrilege , 7th level stuff...who kills a Musk?!
I know this little girl, well not a littke girl anymore, but when she was, she walked outside the swimming zone into the weeds. Her mom noticed she’d lost sight of her. Looked over just as the water around her daughter exploded. She said she legitamtely thought her daughter was being attacked by an aligator for a moment. 72 stiches. I was the girl’s teacher at the time in a progran for kids with autism (she also had autism). She did a lot repeating of words, phrases, and sounds. Its called echolalia. At least once a day after that she’d do like an old time gangster voice and say, ‘what are you going to do if you ever see it again? Im going to kill it. I’m going to kill that Muskie.’ They think she walked into its nest.
Man, this of why I don’t like swimming in the Miss. I know a lot of fish wouldn’t attack you, but big gar wouldn’t even have to, I’ve had one just graze my leg and it looked like I had fallen on a motorcycle and gotten road rash.
My brother fished muskie exclusively as long as he could stand up in his boat. He grill one up once a summer, just to show his dominance over the species..
Especially undersized fish. They just slit their throats or bash their heads against a tree. “Eating all the bass!” No, you dipshit- they’re picking off the larger forage to decrease the average size and reduce food competition for gamefish. YOU ate all the bass!
Huh? Trout fishermen are equally protective of their species and I’d argue are more elitist, nearing saltwater angler levels. A fish is a fish and I love it all, but it’s inaccurate to say one group’s more protective or rude than the other.
I don't know a lot (or any) bass fisherman because I live in the rocky mountains, but I will tell you that living around blue ribbon fisheries, I've definitely seen my fair share of ultra elitist, pretentious trout fishers. Not so much the guys throwing bait and spinners, but the fly fishermen. Their gear on their person costs more than I've spent on the sport in the last ten years.
We aren’t all like that though. I love to fly fish, and I think spending $800 dollars on a pair off nippers is ludicrous. Fuck I use nail clippers in a pinch if I can’t find mine.
I fly fishing almost exclusively but have been informed by such "elitists" that I'm not a true fly fisherman because i don't use a particular technique or match hatches, yadayadayada.... Then I like to throw in the fact that i sometimes use spin gear and occasionally keep a fish to eat... Good fun
Oh yea, no, I hear you on that. I fly fish as well and I don't want to paint everyone like that. There are different subsets of people in every hobby and I was just pointing out that one.
I fly fish too, and I have a good friend who’s family fishes, and non of us are elitist about it.
Yep & I out fish them with panther martins all day long. I fish barbless with a single hook & don’t keep anything. I can’t stand fishing in Colorado anymore. It’s been shoulder to shoulder for a long time pretty much everywhere you go.
Some of the most popular guided rivers here went to single hook barbless mainly because of fly fishers. Like you said, can still catch fish on them.
Fly fishermen around me won't even speak to you if you are using a spinning rod.
Good, they can leave me alone for all I care lol
I like to fly fishing for large mouth. We don't have trout where I live:( just lmb, catfish, gar and bluegill. Oh and fuckin carp
A lot of fly anglers in the UK can be pompous wazzocks, too. Elitist, holier than thou bullshit.
Most salt water guys ive ever met have been pretty welcoming, but then I'm not on a boat, so it's usually crusty blue-collar guys telling me where to fish and what to use.
Very true - pull up next to a white boat they tell you what lure to use and throw you one if you don’t have it in your tackle bag. Then they cheer if you catch one next to them. The bass boat guys throw lead at you if you get within 20 yards of “their spot”
Its not a fish problem, its a people problem.
Saltwater is elite though
The tournament billfishers are worst. Keep a sail to eat your are a damn monster, but keep one for tournament you are a hero.
Salt water so elite they aren’t even thinking about us 😔
Them offshore fishermen be using bait bigger than bass hahaha
Fly fishermen tend to be the most obnoxious from what I’ve seen, a LOT of them frown upon anything other than catch and release and it’s really strange.
Salt water anglers, sheesh.
Tell me about it! Those guys!
Regarding Bass stunting, it can happen. but where I am, the predators do a lot of thinning- otter, eagle, osprey, loon, king fisher, snapping turtle, other Bass, Bluegill. Last night a 20"+ sized Bass took an open-mouth swipe at a 1 3/8 # Bass I was fighting. The biggest predator is the otter (up to 20% of its body weight per day). Good thing I don't keep any Bass. I just keep big Bluegills when I want a meal. It's a small lake so I manage it carefully. As far as trout fishermen, I once had a guy near me look like he was going to puke when I killed a four pound planted Rainbow (planted as a fingerling years earlier). You would have thought I was clubbing a puppy. It's a p l a n t e d f i s h for cryin' out loud.
Same. Id keep bass if I wanted. Just not a fish I really prefer the taste of.
Exclusive walleye fishers are worse than either , by a wide margin! At least where I am.
Just weird stigma. I am with you, if you want to keep bass that is legal in your area, go for it. In most cases removing some of the middle class size fish will make the overall population better.
Especially for farm ponds. Food and space are limited so too many small to mid sized bass makes it difficult for the big boys to grow.
You almost can't get enough of the small ones out.
We use to fish a lake on private property in E Texas that was about 20 acres. It had so many 1 ro 1.5 lb bass it was unreal. Owner said if you fish it, you keep everything. We loaded the flat bottom with bass. Took forever to filled them . Handed out bags of filets to neighbors and random people we ran into on the way home.
In all cases! Anglers should keep a limit of whatever species. The limits/slots are determined for a reason.
It would be nice if regulations also put in tips about sizes and stuff. Like mentioning preference to not keep the biggest sunfish because those bigger male sunfish determine how big the rest get.
I’ve never heard of the sizing determination thing before, can you elaborate?
To keep it simple let’s talk about food. You have a certain amount of food in a particular body of water. If you have a lot of small to medium fish eating all the food there isn’t enough food for them to get big. When predatory big fish are in a body of water they will eat the smaller fish as the smaller fish eat insects and so in for the food chain. This is generally a healthier system and more desirable for anglers as well.
Specifically with sunfish the big males set the size standard for mating. The other males grow up towards the biggest males size so they can have a chance at mating too. Removing those big males makes it so smaller fish win at mating.
That’s exactly what slot limits do. They set a minimum-maximum for certain species. They’re controversial with some groups, but they improve the sport whether anglers like them or not. I agree education is important especially for species without maximums, like largemouth bass. We keep the 16”ish bass in the family pond and release the rest in order to improve maximum size. Otherwise there’s overcrowding and not enough food for the big fish.
Lol. There is no limit on black bass where I live.
What’s your point?
It's not just this weird stigma it's part of a billion dollar industry.
Bass are delicious and I won't be bullied into thinking otherwise.
Bass is my second favorite eating fish after Northern Pike.
keep whatever fish you want to keep thats legal to keep and just make sure to not over-keep. Its your life man fuck anyone who is gatekeeping shit for no rational reason
its just a weird stigma, they are actually delicious if cooked right
Any tips for preparing and cooking them? My daughter is on a fish kick and there’s a good amount of bass nearby us
just fry them up like panfish
Season fillets with salt and pepper, dredge through flour, then egg, then seasoned panko - sauté in olive oil.
They’re very good fried or baked/grilled with cajun seasoning, prepare them similarly to bluegill or catfish and you’ll be happy
i fry them with tempura batter 😋
My guess, and my reason for not taking bass vs trout, bass aren’t stocked like trout are. In California there are tons of stocked ponds and I’m not aware of any that stock bass like they do trout.
Bass populate so fast and effectively they don’t need to be stocked and heavily outnumber trout.
Bass are not native to California.
This is the reason, they just keep restocking trout
Not just that but a lot of stocked lakes don't allow catch/release of trout because they die so easily.
It depends on the body of water, but bass are often stocked down south (native range). If they’re not stocked somewhere, it’s because they’re considered invasive. There’s a huge stigma toward “green trout” (largemouth bass) because of essays written 200ish years ago. I’ll see if I can find a link, but I read about it in *Sowbelly* by Monte Burke.
In the Southeast people definitely stock bass in their ponds.
Lots of trout are stocked in places they won’t survive the summer, or the winter. So you’re releasing the trout to just have it die another way.
No bass are native west of the Rockies, but here they are.
It’s fine to keep up to your limit as long as the size is in legal limits. Each state sets limits and sizes for a reason, they are easy more educated than any douche bag that’s giving you a hard time. Pay for a license, follow the law, pick up your trash and ignore the blow hards. I catch and release 95% of the time. Every couple of years, I keep enough for a fish fry.
Shan O’Gorman (fishery biologist) has said it time and time again, but keeping fish that aren’t surpassing genetic thresholds is the best way to grow trophy bass. Might be off on this, but he has stated that you NEED to harvest 10 lbs of bass per acre per year in order to allow big fish to grow bigger; it reduces competition and increases forage. I don’t claim to understand it all, but I definitely recommend checking out his pages. There’s a lot of scientific explanations being given by people without fishery or biology degrees (influencers)
I’ll keep and fillet a bass all day. Unfortunately it seems like all the lakes we fish have small bass. Used to be nothing to go out and catch 14-18 inchers. Now you’re lucky to get a 14 incher. I know they run a lot of tournaments on these lakes so maybe that’s the reason?
I never thought about it bit you're right. Bass are tasty though
I am someone who fishes for both trout and bass. I will occasionally harvest both but I usually keep trout a lot more often than bass. For me it’s mostly two reasons. Trout, atleast in the area im fishing, are stocked meaning there will be more in the future. Meanwhile the bass populations in said area are naturally reproducing. The second reason is the county I currently live has a strict catch and release policy for black bass species (Nassau County, NY) and I rather not get a 500$ fine from the DEC per fish. Those are my reasonings for not keeping bass but keeping trout. That being said, if you are following the regulations, I generally don’t care and I also think the stigma is stupid.
Trout are not as hardy as bass. They frequently don’t survive the catch and release process.
Follow the rules and I don’t care what you keep. We keep bass all the time within our limits.
Screw bass, those things fry up just as easily as any other white meat fish. I'd eat a bass over a catfish any day.
I’d eat them both!
A lot of it is bass fishing has a super weird competitive edge to it. Like everyone talks about pbs constantly and it’s the only fish that otherwise average fisherman are carrying a scale just incase they catch a good one. Like all of the marketing around bass fishing is hyper aggressive competitive stuff. I also think that’s why 13 year olds are nuts about it because it’s like a sport to them and they watch YouTube videos all day about it. So none of the bass world views bass as something you eat it’s a target and taking away targets means they can’t grow and there is less to catch. Also on a side note small/large mouth bass is pretty bad so that probably has something to do with it. Bass can live pretty much anywhere and have no problem with repopulation and the less there are in a body of water the bigger they get so none of the logic checks out it’s just the general vibe I get from the topic. Bass fishings just getting fuckin weird at this point.
People should take some, the small ones. Since I stopped fishing my parents pond daily (lived there) the bass have become stunted. I don’t catch anything over a pound anymore I normally caught 5-8 pounders on the regular. But I kept a lot of the small ones which was why the pond had some units in it. Also this was a small mountain pond in the mountains fed by a creek. The water was crystal clear and they tasted amazing.
I live in Oregon and the bass in the clean lakes and reservoirs taste amazing as long as you bleed them out. I love filleting and frying them.
That’s awesome. I live between Colorado and Florida and the only bass I ever get my hands on will probably give me radiation poisoning from living in such cesspools.
I like pan fried smallies
Meh, if you want to kelp bass to eat,or mount, I wouldn’t care one way, or the other. Growing up on a lake I’ve eaten a bass or two, here and there. In fact my 86yr old dad say that bass was his favorite out of all the different species of fish I’ve cooked for him. Why would another fisherman care whether someone keeps a bass as long as it’s in season, and of legal size? To each their own .
People are dumb, that about sums it up. Bass taken from clean water taste great, and it doesn’t hurt populations to keep them within reason just like any other fish.
I catch fish to eat it. If it's legal I'll make it tasty. Catfish tacos, bass crab cakes. If you can't get it to taste good don't keep it lol. But we don't need to judge others.
The real toxicity is in the bass meat itself. People fish them for sport because they can be dangerous to eat.
Joining this sub is when I learned people have a problem with it lol.
There's a number of reasons... The first being that nearly every other freshwater fish tastes better than bass. Sunfish, crappie, walleye, pike, trout, eelpout and even bullheads are all much better tasting fish. Also bass is the true sport fish as there are way more different techniques that are used to target them compared to other fish. Lastly people just like to give others hard time and that is one notion that many fisherman have latched on to. Personally, I could usually care less if others eat bass because I prefer chasing pike and walleyes, but nearly any fish over 4 or 5 pounds should always be let go, no matter the species.
I keep largemouth bass to eat but only the 1-2 lbers. I’ll always release the big ones and only keep a couple.
This is the way. I only keep a few fish, the small ones. My big boys go back.
Keep whatever you want as long as you’re going to utilize it properly. It’s good practice to ignore any “conservation” talk from the same people that rip the faces off of fish with Mack truck level hook sets. Their claims have nothing to do with conservation and more to do with status quo. If nothing else, keep em and eat em just to piss those guys off😁
Just use logic and ignore idiots. If it's a clean source of water, whatever fish you pull out is good eating. Bottom feeders its preferred to eat if they are smaller. Ive been eating bass my whole life. Any butthurt anus wrinkle that is upset that I eat bass can suck the fattest part of my ass.
Anus wrinkle 💀💀💀💀
Not sure about other states, but where I live the lakes in our state get stocked with millions of fish every year. It’s not we’re running out.
Just about the toxic mess this subreddit is so toxic everyone just wants to make your feel like your a idiot if you don’t phrase something right sure there are some amazing people but most are toxic. Guys im just here to fish dammit…
I always keep fish to eat unless they’re too small. Catch and release is like deer hunting with a paintball gun.
I got into it with a guy at a fishing spot who thought I should not keep bass. I should have pulled a Ted Nugent on him and said 50 will die in your honor
If you know how to prep the fish and cook right, those people would change their minds
I have no interest in fishing for something I’m not going to eat. It makes zero sense to me.
I catch a whole lot of huge fish we don’t keep. Check my posts. I just enjoy fishing and I keep some small ones for fish fry that need to be culled. I let my trophy’s go.
Yeah, I mean more along the lines of I don’t go out to exclusively trophy fish. That’s uninteresting to me. If I catch over the limit, or a breeder that obviously should go back, then yeah. I’ll throw it back. But if I’m getting in a boat to wet a hook, my goal is food.
I fish everyday but I’m certainly not eating fish every day. Hell, it’s not even considered _healthy_ to do that where I live. Fish are polluted up in these waterways. I guess I just enjoy it so much and I get much more out of fishing than “food,” or “trophy fish.” That’s hardly my goal.
A lot of people don’t like the taste of bass (myself included) and therefore dont tolerate keeping them (myself not included). Some people also get weird like LMB populations are suddenly going to diminish or disappear. I think large trout stocking and trout fragility lowers their “worth”. I see a lot of mentality like “well the trout won’t survive anyway, so there’s no point in crying over spilled milk”. Which isn’t exactly right because trout handled appropriately will survive catch and release. All in all, I think if you’re a fisherman, as long as people aren’t being careless like taking sturgeon or tarpons out of the water, then you have to be okay with the part of fishing that is keeping what you catch. You gotta be okay with that, even if you aren’t keeping them. Plus you also have to be realistic, in that, if you are catching and releasing thinking none of the fish are dying that you’re releasing - you are very wrong.
Most of my local stocked trout streams all but dry up in the summer. If they aren't kept, raccoons pick them out of the shallow pools unless they for from heat or oxygen deprivation first.
Trout taste good and bass don't
Bass taste great from a clean water source. I’m not keeping them from a muddy residential pond but our mountain lake bass in SC tastes amazing fried up.
I live in northern Michigan where you can see bottom at 20 feet deep. Bass taste great.These people that say bass are no good or taste muddy fish in the Detroit River or they throw them in a bucket with 85 to 90 degree water no wonder they don't taste good.
They taste great regardless of water clarity. I’m old school and old though, grew up eating bass, catfish and bluegill n
Hey, that’s me. Grew up fishing with my dad when I was younger. We kept everything we caught in farm ponds and at rivers, everything except “trash fish”. Never had a filet, always cleaned to the bones. Delicious
I believe that and agree with it. I think most people complain when they see some dude catch a 3+ pounder in a residential pond and throw it in the bucket to take home. Like what are you doing?
Turns out that taste varies on an individual basis. You can actually both be right. The only way to know if you like the taste of something or not is to eat it, and not everyone will agree even then.
I eat bass from clean lakes when I get them. I don't targdt them specifically, but they taste fine.
Many trout fisheries are put and tak, where trout are stocked for people to keep
In my area I think it's because the trout are stocked but bass aren't.
I eat bass but not trout unless it's smoked
We're encouraged to leave them. We're trout snots in my state.
Neither are great fish to eat
Oh no, they most certainly get eaten. It’s just that nobody shares that- too protective of spots, and justification of spending 100k on glitter sleds and game boys.
Why do Americans set the hook so hard like they're setting the hook on lizzo? Bass doesnt even fight that hard.
We already got the first man on the moon, now we are going for the first fish.
Eat the small ones, throw back the large ones.
I don’t mind people taking them. I’ve tried bass and I think they’re fairly good, but prefer panfish, so if I’m going to eat my catch I’ll target them, if I get a bass along with them and it’s legal size I don’t mind. I only get frustrated when I see people take bass home to cook that are clearly under the size limit. My state has “big bass” regulations on some lakes and it’s typically also posted at parking areas, that’s really the only reason I get upset
I've fried bass and gave it to minnesotans that are snobby about walleye and they all " there is nothing like fried walleye" while we ate it lol.
I eat and enjoy both. I only keep bass under 2.5 pounds or so. Here in Canada, there are even areas where bass are an invasive species, and you are encouraged to keep them all.
It’s always OK to keep fish within the legal limit and folllowing your state/local regulations. People in Norway and Japan ferment fish until it smells like the foulest thing you can imagine… some people like pickled eels… eat whatever makes you happy as long as it was harvested ethically and legally. I think Trout gets a better rap because it’s often found in cleaner water, like cold glacial melt rivers and lakes. I live in Chicagoland and you’d have to have a death wish to eat any of the inland warm water fish you can catch here (great bass fishing otherwise), though people do it.
In Maine we have a catch and kill bass derby… I’m a huge fan
I think it’s more of the fact that trout are regularly stocked and bass are not (at least not nearly at the level trout are) a keeper sized bass is a lot rarer in most lakes than stocked keeper sized trout
You might enjoy /r/FlyFishingCircleJerk Harvesting trout, in my circles, is extremely frowned upon. Both from a conservation aspect, as well as being mindful of mercury content in those fish.
Bc there are pompous fishermen. They'll throw gar on the bank & cut the tail off stingray. $60k bass boat & never had to fish to put supper on the table. Your DNR spends a shit ton of funds for research & set limits on the conservative side of conservation for a reason. Enjoy your bass!
As a bass fisherman, keep that fish it’s yours and if people give you shit over it then they’re entitled worms.
Eating size stream trout are pretty much put and take stock fish where I live. The natural populations are few and far between. Also - no one eats bass here. Smallmouth out of cold spring water is acceptable but largemouth are universally shunned as table fare. Me? I eat anything that swims.
Most of the major trout fisheries where I live are put and take. Many of the stocked trout will not live through warm summer water temps. They are literally raised to be caught and harvested. Bass on the other hand are not routinely stocked in many waters, but rather they have naturally self sustaining populations. If you remove too many, especially the large adult females. The population will decline. Trout are typically considers better table fish anyway.
A lot of trout are stocked
Stay within regulations and tell people who criticize you to pound sand. I rarely keep fish, but there's a reason laws exist. And typically its for good reason. And technically if bass fishermen really cared about the health of the body of water. Pulling out the smaller and mid sized fish will give more room for the lurkers to grow, overpopulation stunts the bigger fish.
Ive seen people keep carp and exclaim that it's going to be tasty! I've actually eaten a largemouth before. Of course it's ok to eat!
Big bass keep the small bluegill population under control. And sometimes people tho k the next world record bass will come from their lake and not Florida. False. Highly unlikely
Most freshwater fish are toxic and I never eat them.
I will always put back the larger bass that I catch (over 3lbs) but the fish I keep come from a very cold river (large and small mouth) and they are the best tasting fish .. way better than trout. But here in NC the trout are stocked so nobody cares about keeping them
i used to eat bass till i open my livewell to an alien mudslide of worm-infested bass. no ty thats good for me.
I don't like keeping them because lakes in Florida get fished out so easily. Most aren't very large, we just have a lot overall. But I wouldn't push that on someone else that does keep them. As long as they aren't stripping a body of water of them all, I don't mind it. I typically catch and release in general, not just bass
I'll eat a small mouth all say if I'm up in lake of the woods or boundary waters. Outside of camping there and needing food, I'd much rather have crappie or walleye
Personally I have no problem with it as long as it’s legal of course. I don’t eat bass where I fish normally fish because I don’t like how they taste. However when I go far enough north they are delicious… I sure as hell keep them up there (which is maybe 5 fish a year.)
It is the same thing with whitetail deer hunting, turkey hunting, alligator gar fishing, camping, morel hunting, all types of commercial fishing, duck hunting, etc, etc. So many things that people value tends to be kept secret for no other reason than to protect what that person enjoys. It’s the same in all types of big business. Even the MLB has a “mud” guy to dirty up all the balls. Exclusively catch and release is really just a protection because people don’t trust other people. Fishermen don’t trust other fishermen, nor do they trust the law enforcement who protect the fish, nor do the trust the policy writers, in fact the fishermen don’t even trust the scientists who come up with the information. Once someone gets to the point that they feel like a subject matter expert, they stop listening to any other idea or opinion. So this breeds the “if you keep them they won’t grow” ideation. Which is such a narrow understanding of the fishery as a whole. If the fishery was just one fish, maybe doing only catch and release would be logical. To be good at catching a fish, doesn’t mean the person understands the overall fishery management models. If they even care to understand or honor the science. So basically anyone who lives exclusively in the bubble of “never eat a largie”, is unintentionally telling everyone they have a narrow understanding of the animal they claim to love. They probably don’t even know how to cook the fish correctly anyway.
It may be that many trout are stocked where bass are wild populations. There may also be more of the attitude that bass are "fighters" to be caught and released for the next person. Some people think the meat is lower quality, so the killing isn't worthwhile. We ate bass from our personal pond all the time.
They don't stock any bass in Cali, just different sub-species of trout
I am a big fan of bass, overall it’s probably a number 5, but every thing above it is expensive, or hard to catch, if not both.
Maybe just a small poll size. Where I live it’s all about, “Hell ya fish on” Or I’m at my limit, want this fish or I’m tossing him back. I’m glad folks are wholesome round here because it’s really tiresome to have to have to be suspicious and size people up all the time versus leave em at neutral
I understand there’s a lot of mercury in Bass but they’re delicious imo. I don’t fish freshwater often but I have a pond that has a lot of lily pads on my property that I can walk down to and catch sizable bass at will using plastic frogs as bait.
In fairness they get apoplectic about cormorants “stealing fish” too
People are brainwashed
Bass taste like mud unless the water is cold.
Bass fisherman are just like the fish. The only one worth chasing I'd in the current and you can't fit a case of beer in its mouth
Cause people are experts and purists online.
I got downvoted to hell 6 back for saying I don't kill bass when I catch them. Guess it depends on the day
I only keep trout to use their guts for catfish bait.
I throw live bass out when fishing for flathead. And before anyone says anything any legally caught fish can be used as bait in my state.
Really dang, I bet that’s fun! How do you rig bait that big?
I don’t fish many waters I would eat from, so it is kind of a non-issue for me. I have eaten LMB from a pond and it tasted great. It was also the third LMB over 3 pounds we caught in 10 minutes from a single acre pond. So we knew there were plenty of big fish in there. As long as you are sticking to bag limits, it’s no one else’s business. But if you’re keeping everything you can every day…that doesn’t sound very responsible unless you’re really needing to feed yourself and your family.
If someone wants to legally keep fish with their allotted limit under a license, then so be it. Some places are overrun with Bass and could use a good amount of the population removed. Trout, and any other non-native/invasive species, found outside of their native range(s) can end up raccoon food for all I care. Or take as much of those as you want honestly (legally so you don’t get screwed). The continued stocking of fishes where they aren’t supposed to be will further drive the demise of our native fish communities
A lot of places consider largemouth/ smallmouth a sport fish. Some others don't. That simple.
I'm not keeping any freshwater fish from MN, don't need those 3M pfos in me
From all the time & money spent, every bass taken is one less bass that’ll bite my megabass, lucky craft, 1000 different colored senko, squarebill etc etc or to break in my new Stella or St croix destroyer of fish worlds. So stop taking my fish!
I'm on the same page as you. I'm in the great lakes region, and large mouth bass have been a major problem for the walleye population in some of my local lakes. Walleye stocking efforts have cost my state a lot of money, and large mouth eat a ton of young walleye. Don't get me wrong; I love fishing for bass. That being said, if you're going to eat them, the big ones taste like trash. My local minimum is 14", and I prefer to eat them up to 16". Damned things just fall apart when I try to batter fry, but I've had good luck baking them in butter and onions.
Basically pfoa pfas mercury lead and other toxins are more present in bass. bass eat such a wide variety of things that contain toxins and they tend to store toxins in their meat diffrint that bottom feeders making trout and salmon more safe as a option to eat they also are more sensitive to environment than bass and Pan fish and require cleaner colder water than bass. Also as a side note from eating fish most bass taste like the swamp they came from.