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[Guest]

Looks like it swallered a softball.

[Gavin]

Looks like it swallered a softball.

No kidding...Very nice!

[MissouriFisherman]

I caught this Smallie last fall on a Southeast Missouri stream. 19 1/4"

We go on a two day float and we always camp out on the bank and eat our first day's catch. We had more than enough, so I turned it loose!

[MOsmallies]

Uh oh... here we go.... This really isn't the place to mention eating smallmouth. Most everyone on here is die hard catch and release especially on stream Smallies (even if legal). They just take so long to get big. So I'm hoping that the fish you kept and ate were goggle eyes or spotted bass. The only reason I'm saying anything is that you appear to be fairly new to the forum and I don't want you to get hammered by a bunch of people. I hope I'm not coming off as a d!ck

That's a beautiful, big smallie, so I'm glad it was released! The markings are unreal! Congrats on the great catch and welcome to the forum.

We go on a two day float and we always camp out on the bank and eat our first day's catch. We had more than enough, so I turned it loose!

[countryred]

Beautiful fish ! Love the coloring. Glad she got turned loose to get bigger and make more smallies.

[Justin Spencer]

Uh oh... here we go.... This really isn't the place to mention eating smallmouth. Most everyone on here is die hard catch and release especially on stream Smallies (even if legal). They just take so long to get big. So I'm hoping that the fish you kept and ate were goggle eyes or spotted bass. The only reason I'm saying anything is that you appear to be fairly new to the forum and I don't want you to get hammered by a bunch of people. I hope I'm not coming off as a d!ck

That's a beautiful, big smallie, so I'm glad it was released! The markings are unreal! Congrats on the great catch and welcome to the forum.

For me all bets are off if I'm camping on the river. I will first keep goggle-eye or spots and large mouth, but if it comes down to it I will eat a legal smallie or trout if it will fill my belly. With so many locals taking limits out of rivers day in and day out, I don't feel too bad about keeping a few when camping on the river. And they sure are good.

[Gavin]

Justin has a point...I'll keep a fish or several if I need something to eat......No guarantee of a legal fish though...Might have to break out the cast net and fry minnows on a river with restrictive limits.

[Al Agnew]

Many Missouri rivers have enough smallmouth that keeping a few is not going to harm the population any. On those rivers, I have no problem with people keeping a few to eat. But...

On all except the clearest sections of the clearest streams in the Meramec river system, the smallmouth ARE suffering. I hate to see anybody keep one out of the Bourbeuse, Big, or the lower half of the Meramec.

On small, wading size creeks, a handful of people keeping a limit a few times a year can actually have a huge impact on the numbers of legal size fish. If you insist upon keeping smallmouth (or any game fish) from this type of creek, dang it, do it in moderation! Don't pound it until the fishing deteriorates, fish it once or twice a year, or at least keep fish from it once or twice a year only.

Finally, in keeping with the original point of this thread, please don't keep big fish. There aren't all that many of them, they take a long time to get that big, they don't taste good at all compared to the smaller ones, and they are simply much more valuable in the stream than in a skillet. If you catch one that you think is the fish of a lifetime and want to have it mounted, fine, but be sure it really IS likely to be the fish of a lifetime. Or photograph it and have a replica made.

On the special management streams, ask yourself what the point is anyway of keeping one smallmouth over 15 inches, or over 18 inches. You can usually fill a limit of largemouth, spotted bass, or goggle-eye, while one 15 inch smallmouth isn't going to make much of a meal, not to mention that they don't taste as good anyway. Why are spotted bass or largemouth less valuable than smallmouth, you ask? They aren't, except for spotted bass where they are non-native, but you can keep enough SMALLER largemouth or spots to make an excellent meal, while in those special management streams, the only smallmouth you can keep is not going to be as good to eat.

[Guest]

Definitely a lot more fun to catch than to turn into turds...

My biggest smallie last year.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Justin has a point...I'll keep a fish or several if I need something to eat......No guarantee of a legal fish though...Might have to break out the cast net and fry minnows on a river with restrictive limits.

Reminds me of a little story. Whanna hear it? Here it goes....

Many, many moons ago, a friend and I decided to go camping and eat only what we caught. We were on a small creek in SWMO that I had always caught a ton of Goggle eye and very respectble Bluegill. It also has a nice population of channel cat and that is really what we planned on dining on.

We packed a sein, Coleman stove, taters and onions, a can of Crisco, cornmeal and flour, rods, sleeping bags and a ton of beer. We were on a private gravel bar of one of our school friends and we had no worries.

We set up and start getting bait. Soon we were fishing. And fishing, and fishing. We fished the rest of the day and on into the night. We went up and down stream hitting hole after hole. NOTHING! At least we didn't go hungry. We ran back to town, ran around a little, got some McD's and went back to camping.

Next morning, or afternoon, whichever it was, we decided we weren't leaving until we ate some fish. So we hit it again. But boy was we seining some really nice shiners. Really big. So, we get a couple dozen of the biggest. We fired up the stove, and to tell you how hot it was this weekend, when we opened the can of Crisco, it was already melted!. We just poured it in the skillet.

We took those big ol' shiners, squeezed the guts out, rolled in flour and cornmeal and fried them. We used the heads and sort of like a handle and we ate them. And really they were pretty dang good! I would actually recommend them. That was 25 years ago and my dad still like to tell the story of how my friend and I had to eat our bait. And I guess we did too.