An old man at the marina recently asked me why I throw my fish back in the lake and I replied because I had plenty of bass in the freezer. I also mentioned that I like to eat them sometimes but not my favorite fish to eat. He said "son you are not cooking them correctly then". I asked "how do you cook them?" He said to filet the fish and place on a board, pre heat oven to 300 deg, add pinch of salt, lemon pepper, pinch of Tabasco, and place in oven for 20 mins. When done, throw away the fish and eat the board! Ha! Ha! Heard that joke a long time ago....maybe Jerry Clower.

Seriously, I enjoy eating fresh bass fried but rarely keep any these days.

I ended up buying a stand up freezer just to hold the fish I catch. While I've eaten bass and they do taste good fried, I have red snapper, grouper, tuna, mahi and AJ in the freezer. With so many delicious salt water fish to eat, these days bass are just catch and release for me.

I have discovered that the fillets blacken nicely with butter and Zatarain's or other blackening spice, so I will occasionally keep a couple for my wife and me to enjoy.

All fish taste like dirt.

Catch and release.....”I’ll have the all you can eat shrimp, please”

I thought it was more like Eagle...

Growing up in the 60s my father was a bass fisherman and in those days nobody even thought about “catch and release”. We ate bass 3 or 4 nights a week. My mother came from an English family were the only spices they new of were salt and pepper. Have you ever been to an English food restaurant? No, because there food sucks. I eaten a life time supply of baked bass. For me it’s catch and release.

I think they taste lousy compared to crappie or saltwater fish both of which i usually have so I toss them back.

I wonder when someone will invent an arrow that will enable bow hunters to hunt with tranquilizer darts instead of broad heads.

100% Catch and release is for Team Ropers and Calf Ropers.

I keep enough legal little guys for my wife and I to have a fresh meal that night. LM are tasty if you know what you are doing.

What about steer wrestlers?

I cull out 2lbs and below from my 3 acre pond each spring and fall. They are great fried or baked!

I prefer Crappie or Bream. We have access to a private lake that needs the Bass number lowered so we will have a tournament and keep enough fish to feed about 30 people. Have the weigh in at 2:00 PM, release the large ones and filet the smaller ones. Move to the park, fire up the fish cookers and fry away. Fresh is the best.

Grew up eating them. Also had access to some sand pits at one time that were way over populated. You could catch 100 or so 12 inchers in an hour or so every day. Stocked alot of local ponds and ate plenty. Pan grilled with a little butter and lemon is pretty good but hard to beat salt/pepper and corn meal.

I'll occasionally clean a few under slot fish to eat. But with the high mercury level warnings for LMB, I don't eat them often.

Couldn't agree more!

5 pound flathead is hard to beat. Always a wonderful bonus. Reminds me of running lines as a kid back in Lampasas.