I stopped watching anything redneck made a while ago. Could care less about this guy and his opinions.

Not clicking on that

Some trivia in defense of catching and eating bass and other critters in South Louisiana south of I-10

I have an old friend that grew up and still lives in South Louisiana in the Atchafalaya River Basin in the Bayou Chene area. His name is Pierre Tourangeau. He’s graduated from high school with a GED degree and then he graduated from LSU, Baton Rouge on a full boxing scholarship.

Pierre is in his 50’s now, has a handful of kids and twice an many grandkids a beautiful 40 something YO Cajun wife with dark eyes. He’s fluent in English, French, Cajun and also speaks several other different South Louisiana bayou dialects including Creole, Choctaw and Redbone. He is not what we would call a “sport fisherman,” Where he grew up and lives today reminds me of Key West. It like going to a different country; different cultures, foods, languages and different values about meet hunting and fishing than say a bass tournament fisherman. He’s mot a catch and release guy.

Pierre says that all bass, Sac-a-lait, catfish, gar, turtles, bull frogs, crayfish, crabs, oysters, clams, ducks, geese, chickens, loons and those big white grubs about the size of your thumb all taste better after they have marinate a few hours in his special marinade that he uses all the time before he fries fish and other natural game.

He likes the Please Release Me marinade best because it’s saltier, sweeter and cheaper than the Rejuvenade marinade. He uses both marinades for squirrels, nutria, coons and opossums too. If it walks, crawls, swims, flies or slithers he eats it. Nothing goes to waste around his house and everything he cooks always taste great. What he and his family don’t eat; his coon dog, cats and pigs eat it. I learned that sometimes it’s better not to ask him how he makes food taste so good unless you really need to know how he does it. I don’t even ask him what it is. I just know it’s going to be good whatever he cooks.

Pierre says Please Release Me, Rejuvenade and G-Juice all have slightly different taste but both are excellent except the G-Juice marinade. It’s salty, but is not as salty as the others. He says the taste is a little different between the 3 marinades but all 3 have a basic salty taste but not as salty as Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning.

Those deep bayou Cajuns love hot, spicy, salty fried fish so he always adds a healthy portion of this fresh picked, roasted, ground Cayenne pepper after he fries the fillets. He roast and grinds fresh Cayenne red pepper that he grows in his garden.

He says either marinade baring G-Juice taste better than Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning, it taste so much better than brand name store bought Cayenne pepper.

He has tried others marinades and does not like or use the G-Juice marinade. He says the G-Juice makes the fried fish and other food taste bad. Makes the fish taste bitter, acidic like its’ been marinated in vinegar or cream of tarter (potassium hydrogen tartrate).

The locals cultivate and use Dandelion tea diuretic. Many people try to eradicate this weed with Round Up or 2-4 D. The bayou folk also use cream of tarter as a potassium supplement they use Dandelion tea as a diuretic because it depletes the body’s stores of potassium.When your potassium is low, muscle cramps are frequent.

So eat the bass and try the marinades if you like.

That's a 4 lb spotted bass on the right. Funny how I get criticized by the black bass enthusiasts for keeping spotted bass, and the striper enthusiasts for keeping stripers. Their reasoning is similar:

People like you are the reason why there are not enough BIG spotted bass/stripers in the fishery.

But the fishery in question is forage limited. Both the stripers and the spots grow more slowly because of the food supply. Science has shown you need to feed fish pretty well to have good numbers of larger fish.

Scientists have developed formulas for the expected weight of healthy fish - it's called the standard weight. If fish are too skiny - < 90% or so of the standard weight, you'll have very few or no larger fish. In my home fishery, spots average 80% of the standard weight, and striped bass average 83% of the standard weight.

If all the cattle on a pasture are skinny, the solution is to remove cattle from the pasture, so the ones that remain will grow to the hoped for size.

Catch and Eat or Catch and release? Like was stated, it depends on the body of water you are on.
Fisheries Management; a little of both plus habitat management and an excellent stocking program makes for the best conditions to grow numbers and trophy bass.

Personally I've never kept any bass or ate them until this year when I finally had the chance to try some and boy I was missing out.

I've fished for bass for close to 60 yrs and I have kept whatever I needed to eat. I never have or will feel guilty about that. As I progressed thru tournament fishing I practiced catch and release and thought it was great for tournaments. It's like everything else in life just do whatever you do in moderation. BTW a 2-3 lb bass filet is the best blackened fish there is!