Well, you wont catch me killing one but, if you would keep your 15.00 lucky craft lure out of there territory then they would not destroy it, lol, but all fish destroy lures all the time, also why dont people go destroy the tree's (or rocks) they get their 15.00 lures stuck in ?

Good Point James N! There ought to be a lot of destroyed trees for all the lures they've destroyed.

DON'T lay them on your boat carpet...after the slime dry's your boat will reak for months...learned this the hard way years ago.

Mounted mine . Wish I would of mounted the 11 3/4 #er. Get more ?'s about the Grinnel than my bass.

Bob - When did I post that? Lol, oh...looks like about two years ago! Wow.

I'm just glad to see that things have changed!

I would certainly never consider any NATIVE TEXAS species a threat to any "desirable" species. They are not hurting anything, after all, they've been coexisting with our native fish far longer then we have hehe.

If a Bowfin destroyed my 15 dollar lure, I'd suck it up, say cool Texas fish, and let it go, then buy another lure.

Killing the fish because you tricked it into biting your lure, just like a bass would, doesn't make sense to me.

Lip it....you'll do that....ONCE!

Quit buying expensive Lucky Crafts!

$15.00 LURE!!!!! HS! I THINK SOMEONE JUST GOT HIT IT THE HEAD AND ROBBED AND IT WASN'T THE FISH!!!

Now I see why you have to vent your frustrations for being a DA by killing and wasting an innocent. WOW!!!

Did I already say "WOW!!" ?

TPWD says: "It is unlawful to leave edible fish or bait fish taken from the public waters of the state to die without the intent to retain the fish for consumption or bait."

Good point TBend, but those MN yankees do know how to elect a Governor (Jessie Ventura) unlike LA.

As for Grinnel, Jack's (chain pickrel), Gar and such, I kill on site because they deplete the young Bass population and not for any other reason. A gar for example must eat it's own weight everyday to survive. That also includes baitfish etc.

Just my .02

Bass Border...That doesn't make much sense to me.

Gar, Chain Pickeral, Bowfin, etc...All are NATIVE TEXAS FISH. There for, they have been coexisting with Largemouth Bass, and all our other native fish, for many thousands of years.

They are not depleting anything!

If you go after and kill all the fish that "eat baby bass" and "eat baitfish", well, you better start killing all Catfish, all Sunfish including Bluegill and Green Sunfish, all White Bass, all Striped bass, all Hybrids, all Redfish, All Crappie, and what else?

Oh, right, Largemouth bass ALSO eat other largemouth bass, especially young bass!

All the various species do is promote HEALTHY competition and natural selection among the fish that survive, which then creates a healthy population. You have a smaller population of bass, but the overall fish size is larger and the fish are healthier.

Once again, these fish have successfully co-existed and kept each other in check for thousands of years.

If it works in nature, why mess with it?

Do you really want a lake filled with nothing but trillions of stunted bass?

Oh, but I do agree with you on Ventura, lol.

<sniff> ok Starless, your right I'm wrong.

In that case, I suppose I should kill my son as I am fairly sure he does the same thing...

I am going to have to call you on either ignorance, BS, or both regarding your posts on this subject--probably both.

Your statement regarding the eating habits of gar seems to be ignorance or BS. I truly doubt that a 40 pound gar eats that much fish in a day. If it does, it must be jet powered from all of the excrement it releases.

Could someone post some factual support for the position that native species should be removed from our waterways to improve types of bass fishing people like to pursue. I would like to see some evidence before making my mind up that natives should be removed from some of our artificial impoundments to improve bass fishing.

Anecdotal evidence of Grandpa saying that they taste bad is evidence that should be considered; however, more objective observation is usually more useful. Legality and non-legality of actions is also useful, but should come out of a quality analysis of the issue rather than go into it.

I am looking more for the answer to the question, "What is best for our fishing resources if we are trying to optimize _________?" Different people would fill in the blank differently. Starless puts some priority on catching multiple species, some natives, big fighting fish -- some bass fisherment want numbers of fish -- some want big bass -- some want trophies.

By the way, for anyone who would try to optimize big fighting fish, largemouth is one of the worst species on which to concentrate--try striper, catfish, smallmouth, or carp instead.