Sorry if it's been posted before. This article is a bit dated (2006) but should still be pretty relevant today and I think a lot of people might not know these things. I only CPR the Bass I catch, but that's just my personal choice because I fish a small area. I have also been led to believe that Black Bass aren't good eating.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/didyouknow/inland/catchrelease.phtml
A small quote

I have been saying it for a long time that many of our Texas lakes have TOO MANY fish to be a consistent big fish contender lake. Taking those small fish home for the frying pan is providing more food for those in the lake.

The downside to that is TPWD has to balance fishing quality (getting bit) with a true trophy management plan. Usually people want one or the other and our state guys are trying to balance that.

I think I might bring some Bass to the dinner table. Anyone eat Bass? How is it? I don't think I have ever ate one, but they have some nice looking filet's (sp).

I will eat bass long before catfish... I like them fried.

mortality is 50%, that i find hard to believe, i have never been to a lake that i felt is over populated.

lake limestone is most of the time a tough lake to even catch small keepers at, so how in the world is taking them out going to help.

Maybe he means 50% on only the bass they studied? the article doesn't go into that much detail.
I have seen stunted fish from ponds that are overpopulated but not a lake. But then again, I don't have a boat to actually observe those kinds of conditions either.

I love me some Catfish any way you can cook it.

I have no problem keeping 15-20 bass a year. If you ask me, they're almost as good as Crappie. Definitely the 2nd best fish in my opinion.

Don't know about the claim of 50% bass mortality rate ...unless that lakes have lot of tournaments being held on the waters..

The many lakes we've fished recently have all had very healthy bass with good fat on them throughout all seasons and no one seems to be harvesting many bass to eat. Just doing tournaments and catch and release certainly adds significantly to the annual total bass mortality rates and that seems to keep the overpopulation issues in check.

Mother nature has always taken care of her own and always will.

We have had limits on deer, and when mother nature decides not to give a region any rains for a few years, drought conditions, theres a die off, and deer rebound under bascially the same bag limits year after year.

Lakes are the same way, take away the cover and forage bases are thinned and fish don't gain weight.

History shows this time after time. Where was all those big fish at on Falcon and Amistad all these years? THey just didn't stock them all at once. They were there all along.

Tournaments prior to those lake filling didn't show the big sack results as they do since the lakes filled up after a decade of droughts and 60-90 ft low.

You could change the bag limits on game birds hatched on the ground, but until you get a handle on all the fire ants killing the hatches within minutes, bird hunting will never rebound unless fire ants are dealt with first.

We didn't have commorants like this either back in the 70's, they eat there fair share of fish daily, something that wasn't accounted for years ago.

Mother nature takes care of her own, always will.

Fishing survived the depression years when everyone fished for supper.

Fishing survived when 15 fish limits were brought to the scales on metal stringers.

What mother nature doesn't control is the grass eradication by man or the amount of water sucked out of lake that won't ever grow grass due to the water levels fluctuating.

Cover gives bait fish a chance to spawn and survive, those two things make a fishery thrive.

Nice post Hook'emUTbass, I tend to agree, mother nature knows what's best.
I really liked this quote.

Got some in the freezer right now. They're not my favorite fish to eat, but they eat just fine. It's a nice change up in your menu rotation.

BTW all of mine are unders from a slot lake.

When Ray Bob was a slot lake I would occasionally keep a couple unders to make a meal. Keep them alive in the live well and fillet them alive for best taste. eating them fresh that day. Fry them up just like crappie or sand bass. Not nearly as good as crappie but better than sand bass. My opinion.