Bass Fishing!

[Coosa]

I have a little conservation lake close to my house that I fish a lot. Lots of times I keep the ones under the 12-15 " slot but usually release the ones that are over as they are pretty tough to come by.

[Al Agnew]

I love to eat small largemouth, up to about 14 inches. I keep about 10 per year out of my small pond, and have access to a large private lake that is underfished and overpopulated, with consequent slow growth rates, and keep all I can out of it when I occasionally go there.

There is nothing wrong with eating bass, but in my opinion, the ethical angler knows the water he's fishing, gets to know the rules AND the rationale behind the rules. If I'm fishing waters where the bass are fewer but larger, and these waters are getting heavy fishing pressure already, and have, for instance, a 15 inch minimum length, I am going to be releasing all the fish for two reasons...one is that fish over 15 inches are inferior table fare, and two is that they are probably getting pounded hard enough already. But if I'm fishing a lake that has lots of little fish and not many big ones, and has a slot limit, I'm probably going to be keeping fish under the slot.

Same thing with spotted bass in the Meramec river system. I'm often going to be keeping them all up to my legal limit (12 fish, no length limit) because I know they are not doing the smallmouth OR the largemouth any favors. And I'm not going to be keeping largemouth or smallmouth from those waters because I think they are already suffering from spotted bass encroachment. (Of course, the only problem is how wormy the spotted bass usually are--I may end up feeding them to the coons and possums after I get home.

[Amery]

If a biologist says it then you MUST believe it.

I don't understand the hate for the biologist. I assume you criticize the Corp of engineers too. Their findings are based on science and they absolutely have the best intentions in mind, whether you agree with them or not.

[fishinwrench]

I don't understand the hate for the biologist. I assume you criticize the Corp of engineers too. Their findings are based on science and they absolutely have the best intentions in mind, whether you agree with them or not.

I don't "hate" biologists, they are just looking for stuff to "study" and trying to keep busy to justify their phoney-baloney jobs so the paychecks keep coming.

If I was one of them I'd prolly do the same thing.

What bugs me is everyone automatically accepting what they say as iron-clad gospel.

[Flysmallie]

trying to keep busy to justify their phoney-baloney jobs so the paychecks keep coming.

Hey that's what I do!

[Amery]

How is their job phoney? It's more real than almost any other job on the planet. A phoney job would be like....a preacher.

[Ketchup]

^^^^. Thats a silly statement

[fishinwrench]

How is their job phoney? It's more real than almost any other job on the planet. A phoney job would be like....a preacher.

I'll give you that one. LOL

[fishinwrench]

For a biologist to impress me he'd have to teach me something that I can't learn from a Google search.

In trade I'd be happy to teach him/her a few things that they couldn't Google.

[rps]

I think the sentiment among many locals is along the lines of "these fancy pants scientists don't fish these here waters ever day like I does, so why should they make the rules? "

I kind of see that logic.

I'm a biologist, published in molecular genetics. I'm currently a genetics professor. I can lecture about inbreeding depression until my students fall asleep (usually within five minutes), but to really know the subject, it would be useful to live in southwest Missouri or Arkansas for a period of time.

My mother was a prominent breeder of purebred dogs. Co author/editor of Medical and Genetic Aspects of Purebred Dogs. I was raised discussing when it was time to outcross a line and risk hip dysplasia and deafness for the benefits the outcross would offer. Appropos your joke, my mother's favorite line when observing certain families was, "Well, I certainly wouldn't have repeated that breeding."