hmmmm never quite thought of it that way Jeff

well said ernest!

I keep fish in the freezer. If I get the jones for some fish, I can just thaw some and BOOM!! Crappie filets.
I'm not in a position to go fishing whenever I get the itch. I keep the itch. As long s there is enough in the freezer, I catch and release. Mama says when there is enough. Keeping fish, just to be able to say you caught them, can turn into a waste. To each his own, and as JayDon says, whatever the law allows, just don't waste.
I do believe that catch and release has become a real hinderence to bass on some lakes. Something has to change there.
Not to be controversial at all, but I expect that the TP&W has a formula that includes harvested fish, built into the bag limits that are offered.
It's a good Topic Ernest! What's a hoe?

No need to release fish if they are of legal size.
Thats why size and bag limits have been established.
I'm keeping everything I catch if its legal. It doesn't go to waste. Properly prepared and frozen fish will last a long time.

JT

I thinks Ernest's crappie 101 musta caught on so good that he lost all his spots on CC, .
I'm kinda like Jeff. I know I am gonna loose some at the boat so there's more conservation right there.
About the bass, OK, I'll volunteer to keep all those trash fish and fix em up for the in-laws.

I don't think this post was intended to bash anyone. I do think Ernest is feeling a little guilty in his old age though, teaching crappie assasins and all.

Ernest,

Beat that dead horse too!!!!!!

Cool screen name...the best of both worlds.

Well, since my crappie season is basically November to the end of February, well before the spawn, and well after, where does that leave me?(heh-heh)

Funny that Mr Paty brings this up. I have a lot of non fishing friends that see my fish pics, and say , "boy i bet that one, or those, cooked up good!" They are flabbergasted when I tell them most, if not all, of those fish went back into the lake, creek, river, whatever and may still be there to this day!

They can't fathom releasing anything that at a restaurant or grocery store might cost them a pretty penny.

Which, by the way is the only exposure they get to fish!

When i explain to them that when someone catches as many fish in a year as many of us on this forum do, it just isn't practical to keep that many, some have a hard time understanding that too!

The fall back for them is "sell em". Then that whole can of worms on the legalities of such an undertaking have to be explained, and well, it just unravels from there!

When things like Ernest and I standing on the banks of a local creek, catching crappie after crappie on virtually every cast for several straight hours, to the point Ernest just quits counting and keeps catching, or when DTA and I get on a hump in midsummer and catch until we can't hardly lift our arms, or you get on a roll with the infamous hellpet with the master Billy Seaman, and he literally gives you the 5,4,3,2,1--FISH ON!countdown,pass after pass, it just is not practical by any stretch of the imagination to keep em!

Even on a smaller scale, like last Saturday at the Elm Fork, we caught hybrids, black bass, and white bass. Kept 9 Magnum Whites for a fish fry, and threw back probably twice that many, and except for the undersized hybrids, everything we threw back was legal!

Just like Bill Dance says, "keep what you can use, and release the rest!"

It's a combination educating/learning processs.

Rudy

I guess that I would like all my customers to release their fish (cause then I wouldn't have to fillet them), but I totally understand that if they want them...they're theirs to keep. Personally, I keep enough crappie in the late fall of the year to provide crappie for myself and my wife for all year, and relaese all my fish for the rest of the year. I doubt that any larger lake can be "fished out", but I certainly do believe that the 'big' fish population can be somewhat hurt, as I have witnessed that over the years at Cedar Creek. We use to have little trouble catching several fish over 2# on each fishing trip, and very little trouble catching limits. But neither is the case now. While you can still catch a 2#er or a limit, it's not the norm.

Release when you can, keep when you need, drink good booze and dip good snuff

Change the limit to ten fish,must be 12 inch's

Release when you can, keep when you need, drink good booze and dip good snuff

Thanks I like that Guy

TPWD has tested changing length and limits several times on different lakes and the results usually point back to the current rules as about right overall. On lake Somerville several years ago TPWD did one of these limit/length tests with whitebass. They wanted to see if a higher percentage of the whitebass population would get bigger then 12 inches so they raised the minimum length limit to 12 inches. After two years or so that the test was active the results were that the percentage of whitebass over 12 inches stayed about the same but the change in length limit made a lot of fishermen law breakers because they didn't know that Somerville had different rules. The experiment basically demonstrated that the forage base of any lake is what effects growth rate in fish like whitebass and not angler harvest (length limit)..

I've had TPWD people tell me that as well, and one that I talked with was directly involved with electro-shock surveys where white bass growth rate was directly linked to shad population for several DFW area lakes.

I release most of my fish, but when I do go out with a guide I take full advantage of them cleaning the fish and always keep a limit. That's a great benefit of a guided trip, and deserves a tip in my book.

I have a very small creek i take my fishing brats about 11 of them we catch carp crappie lmb blue gill perch. The only thing we leave with is trash im scared we would empty it quick. The youngest is 7 so ill be fishing that spot for another 11 years i hope. Thanks for the good reading and info

we rarely keep more than 500 a week