White bass have very short life spans. Most die of old age. Texas Parks and Wildlife monoters their numbers and adjusts the various parameters of the limits. Where I fish above Lake Livingston it is 10" and 25 fish but a few years ago it was 50 fish and at one time the size was 12" As near as I can tell they are doing a pretty good job and the fishing is still pretty great. I imagine that most of the caught white bass are caught during the spring spawning run. I believe if you would study their spawning method you would see that unlike other longer lived species fishing for the spawning females has less effect.

They run up the creeks in mass drop their eggs and leave. The flow of the water during the spawn will have more to do with its success than the number that made the trip. A couple of time in recent years rains and floods up near Dallas have almost killed the spawn. The rising river waters made the currents in the creeks actually run backwards. This both confused the poor fish to no end and then the water sat slack for a long time until FINALLY the waters went down. The eggs are dependent on current to move them along and prevent them from getting buried in stagnant holes. That is why they run as far up the creeks as they can. I have seen them in less than 6" of water still fighting their way up from one pool to the next until there just wasn't any water left for them to run in.

As long as most of the fish are dying uncaught and the numbers are good and steady then let the people that like to eat the fish have all they want. Most of them probably won't even fish for them again until next year. Personally I hate cleaning fish for several hours and since I basically live within a mile of the river I don't stock my freezer like I used to when I couldn't fish several times a week like I can now.

I hate waste but understand that if you like to eat fish and don't live on the water like I do sometimes then when they bite you want a bunch to bring home for the freezer.

For those of you who come to a fishing forum and get upset that someone else caught fish.Puppies and kittens!

The end! I hope? See ya'll on the water. Tight lines!

Nice mess of fish by your son, tell him congrats and hope he does well all spring.
Getting kids out fishing is a great thing for them and our future.

I am going to try and catch some large mouth for a change, hopefully catch five legal ones for the grease
Bass

The combined limit for any combination of largemouth, smallmouth, Guadalupe and spotted bass is 5 fish per day.

Largemouth & smallmouth
Minimum Length:14 inches

As a 12 year old, I asked Mr. Tim, why we had to keep so many fish, because surely the lake would run out of crappie by next year, if everyone did that...Mr. Tim (75 at the time) stated..."Boy, I been catching all the crappie I could since I was your age and bringing all my friends to help, and we got more crappie today than we ever had...you just can't catch them all, no matter how hard you try" ....just about that time I caught a sandie and he told me to put him on a stringer and catch as many as you can...them thing breed like mice and they hurt the crappie population, he said...now sir, that conversation happened 46 years ago...so when you see fit, you are more than welcome to apologize to the forum members for your "out of touch with reality rant"...basically, we ain't buying what you are selling...and voodew, I am addressing the original poster...I just liked your comment and sought to expand on it!

large mouth are my favorite fish to eat...I like to filet at least a 6lb bass and leave the skin and scales on...put it on the smoker for a while then put onions and tomato slices on it and cover with foil....man you talk about lairipin.

Not my favorite to eat, but I keep every legal one I catch...and yes, they are very good on the half-shell!

Think or assume whatever you want. I just spent 3 days on the Sabine River last weekend, and you bet I came home with my two day possession limit of sand bass, plus a few crappie. So that makes me a bad person? Well, let me clue you in to something since you're jumping to all sorts of conclusions about people when you don't know the first thing about any of us. Those 50 fish I brought home will be the only sand bass I keep all year long. Yep, I will C&R all sand bass, striper, and hybrid I catch until the spawn next year. Sure, I will keep a fair amount of blue cats in the next couple of months as well, but that will be enough to get my family and I through the year for fish. And I'll C&R any catfish that lands in my boat weighing over 10lbs.

So, what does your judgemental [censored] have to say about that? Yes, your post offends me completely, because you chose a public forum to air out your ignorance and in doing so insulted a large number of people you know nothing about.

Us Catholics will need a lot of fish to eat right now. Great how the spring spawn coincides with lent.....

Thanks bluesea. Only way to get peoples to post their catches. Keep them pictures coming. Ha!

I don't need to say anything...the guilt and shame on your faces is obvious...glad yall learned your limits, I mean lesson.