Keeping bass?

I fish the bank of Amistad, specifically Diablo East. On the way out there is a fish and boat cleaning station I believe. I ALWAYS see people at the fish cleaning station, sometimes with a net full of fish. I can't tell what they are cleaning, but looked from a distance like bass.
My question is: Do y'all keep bass that you catch? I have before when I was younger and would cook them, but recently I have been strictly catch and release.
I was especially surprised because it is about spawning time and anyone who knows about bass will want them to spawn to create more bass for the future.

It depends.....I follow the rules for each lake. If there is a harvest size limit, that means there is a reason for the removal of the size allowed to be harvested, and they should be removed. This is partof the management plan.

Most of the impoundments I manage are between a few and maybe 1000 acres, not so big by reservoir standards. My biggest problem has almost always been overpopulation of small bass, preventing the development of a trophy fishery.

Nowadays I fine tune the removal of bass to the point of determinig the sex of each catch and having different harvest rules for each sex. That requires a lot of educating the user group....but its for thier benefit and they usually understand and make good studies.

I won't keep anything I don't plan on eating. Unless it's mortally hooked of course. And that's only happened a few times in my life. That being said. I don't eat most fresh water fish, especially bass. Just don't care for it. It's the only thing I fish for. At least in the last 5 years or so.

It really bothers me when I fish Amistad in the Spring time and have to witness guys cleaning out the 7 to 9lb females at the cleaning station. I understand that a lake like that has many big females in it and the percentage they are keeping is most likely small but a big female is a help to the fishery, I love catching her and watching her swim off back into the lake.

I have never kept a bass to eat it, Strictly catch and release!!

I remember eating bass as a kid....nowadays I live and fish on the coast and like to eat flounder, croaker, and whiting.

Bass is a fish I make a lot of my living from and it is hard for me to eat one, understanding all too well how difficult and costly it is to make a bass grow.

OTOH, some of the lakes I manage have so many small bass that none of them can grow and I encourage folks to harvest (according to plan) all they can, even if they are feeding them to the cat or using them as garden compost.

You CAN take bass caught from one PRIVATE lake and release them into another PRIVATE lake, which my folks (customers) do a lot. Take bass from where there are too many and place them where there are not enough. BUT that is illegal in the PUBLIC sector.

Bass are delicious, they are my favorite fish.

Growing up in louisiana when i was young we kept bass to eat all the time, then as the times changed catch and release became the thing to do, when i wanted fish to eat and I was bass fishing I'd spend a small portion of the day finding whtes, hybrids or sac-a-lait to eat.

As i've learned more about eco systems and how bio mass affects a fishery I think i've changed my stand-point again.

I won't keep any fish during spawn, and I haven't kept any bass this year(or in a long time actually).

But I'm going to start, I'm going to start keeping a few bass here and there to eat but I will only keep fish between 14-16" on my home lake (this size range should vary depending on your water body).

My home lake is absolutely loaded with small fish, I know just me keeping some small ones here and there won't have much of a positive impact on fish size, but it's def not going to hurt the population either.


I think If more people kept more small fish it could definitely help.

Sometimes I wonder, when you look at other fish species, say whites for an example, most people that fish for those keep tons of them. Their numbers don't seem to be hurting any, are we going about this the right way.

On my home lake, I think more people fish for whites (that keep fish, and probably total too) keep fish on a regular bases.

There are ALOT of big whites on my lake, I catch them Bass fishing all the time.

I catch 2-3lb whites alot, and a 4.6 last year on a spinnerbait. (we don't have hybrids so they are whites)

If all those people are catching and eating whites, and we have a big healthy white population, maybe harvesting some blacks would be good for their population too.


I don't know what happened during the drought, but the lake was almost completely empty relatively speaking and it's back up to pool now, and was for most of last year.

I'm guessing there was a prety big fish kill with that much water missing, but now after a ful year of bieng ful again the weights have shot throught he roof on tourney weigh ins, and my average catch size has gone up too.

Is that from the lake being renewed so to speak, or is it from population density dropping and now the fish that are there have less competition for growth I don't know.

There was only a hand full of 4+ lb fish weighed in last year and now every tourney there are tons of fish in that size range, 5's 6's and 7's every tourney.


Something went right for the lake, also from a hystorical standpoint last time in the late 80's when we had back to back years of the lake being extremely low and filling back up again 2 year later it was on fire again.

Maybe even a compination of the two.


Anyway, got way off topic sort of, but yeah
Bass Are good, eat the small ones, they taste better anyway!!

Good post Steven. There is nothing wrong with keeping 5 of the smaller fish to eat. When I was fishing Amistad every week there were several older couples that lived on River St. that I would bring in 5 fish for them to eat. They enjoyed the visit and I certainly enjoyed providing them with a meal or two.
Fish is the most healthy meat you can eat and you should thank about going back to your younger days and keeping a few to eat.

Wow, thanks for all of the information everyone!
Well it sounds like I will get back to my roots of eating what I catch (after spawn that is). It just seemed odd that so many people are taking fish, I thought most bass fishermen were catch and release.
I am new to the strictly bass fishing scene, I was a get a line wet with some worms on the end and see what I catch. I would keep and eat almost all catfish.
IIRC I loved when I got to eat a bass I caught, plus it is a cheap dinner.
I guess I should start keeping smaller fish, on Amistad what is a good size to keep?
I do enjoy protecting the enviroment and if I can do my part by controlling the population by keeping one every now and then, by gosh I'm gonna do it.

I know I was at Amistad last month and stopped by the cleaning station and 3 guys had 15 Bass, one had to be close to 8 pounds, It is there right and legal for them to keep those fish, still causes a sick feeling to my stomach and I guess thats my right.

Keeping fish to eat is fine and keeping a few bass wont hurt nothing and yes they do taste good if cooked correctly like chicken or steak or anything else cooked. I choose not to keep bass buts that me, I wonder though lets say everyone started keeping there limits, There is a lot who are just catch and release like me, If every guy who fishes for bass every weekend or weekday and kept there limit, I would suspect you would see a dramitic drop in Bass population, I would think if the population would drop then you would see either smaller legal limits kept or a state wide slot or something to protect healthy populations. I guess that is why I wish they would change how many can be kept for cleaning. The numbers would be crazy if everyone kept 5, Think about this, how many guys and gals fish on a weekly baises state wide, lets say 65% of those caught and kept daily limits,just seems like it would make a impact to me.

I probably kill enough accidentally to "control the population" without killing any intentionally. There are other fish to eat if I want to eat fish.

Agree with DHolding, if everyone starting taking home limits there would be a noticeable impact.

If a lake is overpopulated with little fish then probably a lot of them should be taken out. I don't see that problem in the lakes I fish.

I would just rather catch them than eat them. I have caught the same fish over 7 lbs three times in two years. I would have caught it exactly zero times if it had been eaten by a helpful angler when it was a small fish. I know that's old-fashioned thinking but it makes sense to me.

+1

There is nothing wrong with eating any kind of fish if it's a legal fish, although the big ones don't taste as good. To all the people saying" If everyone took 5 out a day it would make a big impact....", the conservation people take it into account that ? % of people will be catch and release and ? % will be take homers. When and if the tides turn on the % of C & R they will adjust the creel limits and or the length limits. They put these limits in effect to try to make the best fisheries possible, for #'s and size. If your lake has the same size fish in it I would be harvesting some, it will help. If your lake has all year class of fish in it (signs of a healthy population), I would release them. I would also note if your catching a lot of fish with say a 7 # mouth but a 4 # body that is a sign of a fish that is not nutritionally healthy. A bass' mouth will continue to grow its entire life. But if it is mal-nutritioned the body will lag behind.

I will keep bass once, maybe twice a year to eat. I apologize to them every time.

I think keeping a ton of the smaller fish would really help things out. I wonder what the predation numbers are for 10"-15" eating fry / fingerling / baby bass are. I think they numbers are high. This size fish, I'm sure are cannibalizing huge numbers of spawned bass.

Vicious cycle.

Keeping fish is a double edged sword in my opinion. You keep the population down which will increase the food supply to grow larger fish, but reduce the numbers you may catch.

You also catch and retain fish, thus eliminating fish that become "conditioned" or "educated" to being caught.

I personally am not a fan of keeping many fish at all, but I respect anyone's lawful choice.

Bass are yummy

Heard a guy in Midlothian had put several bass from 6-9 pounds in the pond behind his house during the last year or so. A Fisheries Biologist told me that the hundreds of shad and small fish that use to be there are all gone because a small (maybe 1/2- 1 acre) pond was not big enough to provide enough food for that guys big bass. I can understand taking a few small fish when they are abundant but I haven't taken a LMB out of a pond since I was 14...

Many people saw me catch a bass over ten at a pond in January. Everyone came running over with cameras. I carefully took the hook out and placed her back (full of eggs). All I heard was;
"I would have cooked that big hawg"
"How could you release that fish"
"Man, are you crazy?"

My simple answer was, "I'll catch her again someday! And after she lays those eggs, my Grand Kids can catch fish here some day while I sit in a CHAIR AND WATCH!" :-)

Nuff said I guess!

i dont keep my bass. i did as a kid but now that i have really became more of a bass fisherman i think i grew a respect for the fish. sand bass on the other hand... DELICIOUS!

Man, I was just thinking about some fried bass today. Now for those opposed to keeping and eating bass because it hurts the population, think about it...How often do you actually catch 5? How often are even one of those five a trophy fish? C'mon lets be real, the fish don't bite every day.t the population much at all.

Taking of small fish talk made me think a bit of the 'What happened to fork after 1992' thread.

Bass, Florida Largemouth 2012 683,531 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2011 685,049 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2010 513,224 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2009 682,702 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2008 501,220 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2007 501,174 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2006 501,313 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2005 705,986 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2004 515,041 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2003 732,049 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2002 692,258 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2001 218,240 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 2000 510,737 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 1999 710,761 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 1998 694,211 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 1997 698,037 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 1996 697,731 Fingerling
Bass, Florida Largemouth 1995 692,281 Fingerling

Maybe?

I mostly fish a small private lake. We have to harvest some fish or they overpopulate and stay small. This is the time of year when I'm bringing home bass every trip. It's easy to identify the males, I'm trying to take out as many as I can.

Bass are delicious. I like to Shake n Bake 'em.

10 inch best are good eating...

I am not against keeping bass, I was just curious as to why people were keeping them. Now I know a little more about population control (like I'm going to make any difference in Amistad) I will keep some every so often. I love eating fish and it always seems to taste better when you catch and cook your own, although its probably a mental thing.

Me too. ^^^^^

If I'm fun fishing and catch a limit of 14 to 16 inchers I will keep them. Bass are even better than crappie in my opinion.

How do you determine if a bass is male or female? Other than size of course??

I don't keep bass. Crappie are better tasting to me. I don't mind people keeping some bass as long as they follow the laws for each lake. I do not like to see big bass getting put in grease but people have that right. The big got big for a reason.
My son likes catfish and whatabuger fish ( lol).

Question brings to mind news items I saw a year or few ago about anti sport fishing laws in Europe. Forget which countries, think maybe Germany was one. Any fish you catch you must keep (with the understanding you'll be eating them). No more catch & release. There are organizations working hard for the same kinds of laws here, a big first step to banning fishing altogether.

The smaller ones are good eating if you use the boneless skinless fillet cleaning method. Once they get real big (over 20 inches) I think the risk of heavy metals on a real old fish is not worth it. Mount him or throw it back.

TPWD needs to change the limits on LM bass. scrawl the size limit back to 12 inches, increase the max number to 10 and only allow one over 20 inches.

Please post that question as a new topic. Would love the read the responses.

If I am hungering for fish I hit Long John Silvers or the Flying Fish Restaurant in Firewheel

When I was a kid everybody kept bass. There was no such thing as "catch and release". It was "hook 'em and cook 'em".

Seems to me the fishing was BETTER then, not worse. We didn't have Florida strain bass in Texas so we didn't grow the giants we do today but fishing overall was great.

The greatness of this country is that you can have your opinion, I can have mine, and it all works out.

I wish they would only allow one fish over 21 to be retained for harvest state wide. Also be alowed to weigh fish over 21 for a tourney that were going to be released this would keep all happy. As far as mounting one check fish scale or lake fork taxidermy replicas are better than the real thing now. Small bass need to be retained for sure helps the big girls grow and they need to stay and grow. You think that sight at amistad was bad you should have seen the cleaning stations at falcon the last two years I saw three guys with 15 coming out headed to the cleaning station the smallest was six pounds. That will make you sick lol. Bass are one of the best tasting fish around better than talapia in my oppinion so eat up on the small ones. rhe big one on the end got a gill ripped out and wouldn't take off tryed to revive for 20 min.

Southern California has a lake that is catch and release only. It is Lake Barrett. We see very few big bass in this lake. It is full of 1.5 to 2 pound bass that are called Barrett "clones" by the locals. It is not unusual to see catch numbers in the 60's to 70's in the opening month. A slow day is 20-30 bass. I don't know if the reason for this pattern is the catch and release policy. The local lakes that have a 5 fish limit tend to have more large fish. These lakes have records of 18 to 22 pound large mouth bass. These lakes also stock trout in the winter months. The bass stack up when the stocking truck arrives. Bass love rainbow trout. I also like the taste of bass.