Mic It's about the only way to target the resource, and without value there probably wouldn't be the attention given to keep the population healthy. They are a respectable fighter, including going airborne sometimes.
We always cut off the head, gutted them and cut the tail enough to pull the spinal cord out. We cut them into steaks, breaded and fried them. I always thought they had the consistency of chicken breast with a mild fish flavor, good eating for sure.
The strangest thing in my experience was when snagging in the Osage above the LOZ we would never hook anything less then 25#, with the exception of an occasional 12-15" fish. I could never understand the lack of fish between those sizes?