Last Couple of Weeks

[Sam]

Just to add a little controversy - I eat bass. Ya' betcha I do.

I also eat crappie, white bass, catfish, walleyes, big perch, suckers, and most anything edible I can get to bite. My wife and I really enjoy a good meal of filets, and when I go fishing that's what I try to bring home.

I use some judgement with that. I don't kill smallmouths. They're just too rare and pretty. I put real big (5 lb.+) largemouths back too - immediately and back to where I caught them, not halfway down the lake. The big ones are usually females, and keeping them means a lot of little bass don't get hatched. Anyway, the real big ones are older fish and probably carry more mercury than smaller bass.

But I'll eat every legal Kentucky bass I can catch. I think taking Kentuckies out of the lake helps the fishery. Also, on the rare occasions any legal bass is gut-hooked and dying - I'll keep it.

I figure Conservation knows what the limits should be, and it's pretty seldom I get a limit of bass anyway. What I do catch is going in the skillet, with the exceptions above - and I don't feel bad about it.

The people who should feel bad are some of the tournament fishermen. Quite a few times I've come in an hour or two after a tournament weigh-in in the summertime and seen dozens of big bass floating dead near the tournament dock. I know they have a hard time keeping fish alive in hot water, but that's a lot more wasteful than keeping and eating them, in my opinion.

So you don't need to worry about guys like me cleaning out the lake, but I know where most of the fish I catch belong. Right next to the fried 'taters.

[SKMO]

Just to add a little controversy - I eat bass. Ya' betcha I do.

But I'll eat every legal Kentucky bass I can catch. I think taking Kentuckies out of the lake helps the fishery. next to the fried 'taters.

Sam - My curiousity got the best of me. Please explain how killing every legal Ky bass you catch helps the fishery.

[Sam]

SKMO - Well, Kentucky (Spotted), Largemouth, and Smallmouth Bass are all top-of-the-food-chain predators. They compete for the same resources within the lake - and the lake is capable of supporting a certain number of pounds of black BASS, no matter how that capacity is divided between the species.

In short, if 100 pounds of Kentucky bass are removed from the lake, 100 pounds of Largemouth or Smallmouth bass will replace them and occupy the same environmental "niche".

Kentucky (Spotted) bass are slower-growing and smaller than the other two species. Conservation Dept. statistics show that the majority of Kentucky bass never reach that 15" length limit at all. They die of natural causes first, and become food for the turtles instead of for people.

I've been in favor of a 12" minimum length limit on Kentuckys at Tablerock for years. That would cut back on their competition with the other species for food and habitat and should result in more and bigger Largemouths and Smallmouths. Someone here pointed out that some people are opposed to that because casual fishermen can't tell the difference between a Kentucky and a Largemouth - and such a rule change would cause many undersize Largemouths to be kept and killed.

I'm afraid that's right. It's a good point, and I don't have an answer for it.

But I still think it's good for fishermen who can tell the difference to remove legal Kentuckies from the lake. It encourages the growth and numbers of Largemouths and Smallmouths that have the capacity to become 6 or 7 pound "hawgs" - something Kentuckies can never be.

[Phil Lilley]

I've heard guides say the the spots are their "bread and butter" in the summer months, being able to catch them off points using night crawlers- easy fishin' for their clients. So I'm not sure they would be favorable to the idea that they should be taken for the reasons you stated. But I'm not a guide- I just repeat what I hear. And in saying that, I wonder how many of these guides who drop shot spots like this keep them. I'm think specifically of guides out of Big Cedar, not to be picking on them. Alot of "sunday fisherpeople" like to take fish home, especially if they're paying big bucks for a guide. So what do you do? Blue gill?

Personally, I don't keep bass, except white bass. Actually I don't fish for them much but when I do catch them, they go back. Not for any other reason than... just because.

But what about the idea that big bass eat more and leave less for the others, say, like in a farm pond... not that TR is a farm pond. Too many big bass will keep the population of smaller ones from gaining a foothold. Then there's the situation of too many medium-sized bass for the food base.

One other observance and I'll quit... does fishing pressure really effect fish populations that much? In a big lake like TR? I mean, with all the catch-n-release fisherpeople now---and I think there's something to be said that these c&r fisherpeople are better equiped and skilled than the sunday-fisherpeople who are after fish for the skillet generally---does the harvest of bass really hurt enough to effect the population. If so- how much?

[crappiefisherman]

speakin of controversy,,,,,I bet johnny morris has nitemares knowing his multimillion dollar industry is hosting 275 doll;ar a day guides to fish with nitecrawlers.heeeeheeeeheeee

[Phil Lilley]

$275?!?!? Try $350 - $400 plus.

[Fishin' Freak]

I will throw my 2 cents worth in on this matter--not that it really matters. I have always been a catch and release guy when it comes to bass. I am a bass fisherman except when the crappie and walleye (on BS) are biting. I agree with Phil in the regards to the fact that most skilled bass fisherman support catch and release and the average sunday fisherman is not as well equiped to but together a nice "stringer" of bass. I know there are expections to this rule just like every other rule but the large majority of fisherman who catch consistent numbers of bass support catch and release. I hate to see a nice bass cleaned just like 99% of you all do but if someone wants to keep a couple and they do enjoy the taste of bass (which I don't see how they can) then let them do so with the guidelines set by the Department of Conservation. I am not a guide either and from a guides standpoint I could see it a bit frustrating because you make your living on being able to catch nice numbers of bass. In my opinion limits were set to help manage a fishery not to try and hurt it and with bass fishing I feel confident that 90 plus % of bass fisherman support catch and release and that is a good thing for the sport. As I said I am a bass fisherman and I don't keep them but I also hear the same arguement from walleye fisheman and I will keep every keeper walleye I can legally keep and I will eat everyone of them (because they don't taste like bass)!

[Phil Lilley]

FF- good points. I am a trout fisherman and feel the same way when someone says "I love smoking a big brown... there's nothing better!" I've had to put a knife to 2 keeper browns in my day and it was after someone caught it in my boat with me "guiding them" as a friend. Just so happens it was the same guy- a doctor from Springfield. They were caught 3 years apart, if you wondering.

Anyhow- I hate to see a big rainbow die for the same reasons as all other c/r people- I want to see them swim away to fight another day; they have survived multiple hooksets and heron pokes-- and to see one get caught with power bait like the 11.5 pounder... well if he was that stupid he deserved to be stuffed.

But you know what I mean. They do set limits for a reason and I don't think it's my place to judge someone who likes to eat fish or have one mounted. I have a 8.5 lb largemouth on my dresser... caught in 84 on BS and it's the only one I'll ever mount. They all the look the same anyhow.

Spawning fish are different story. Poaching short fish or overlimiting is another.

[crappiefisherman]

lilley i was talkin to the guide with the 16 foot richline.twenty dollars worth of worms, hooks and baloney sandwiches.

[Phil Lilley]

Sorry- was refering to Bass Pro's guides.