Interesting article questioning the benefits of catch & release

[SLP]

I thought this was a pretty interesting read. Thought others might enjoy reading it.

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/...ease_bass.html

[Atomdata]

Interesting!!

But he mentions, "bass in the smaller classes (under the slot) must be harvested at a higher rate than currently popular."

Maybe I am misunderstanding...but wouldn't that be illegal?

Very good points about the difference in fishing from 20 years ago. I used to go fish in this area on a buddies boat and just in a few hours catch 5 -10 nice bass. Last week in a night tourny I caught 15-20 slots 13" but no keepers.

I have never kept a bass to eat. But not to say I would not mind taking a couple slots home occasionally for dinner. Illegal?

I also noticed he referenced the study on tracking bass and they return to their "home" which I had read previously. I caught a 5lb at Patoka last month way off a main point after bouncing a cb off a submerged stump. He had no visible marks from being caught before. I have been back to the same spot 4-5 times since and thrown everything at him and nothing. Did he learn or was he caught and moved (taken home)?

Somebody mentioned bass only remember things for 15 minutes....I call BS on that!

I really enjoy these type of debates about bass fishing....makes us start to think maybe we are being brainwashed by the marketing of the lure manufacturers......

Thanks for the link!

[SLP]

Maybe I am misunderstanding...but wouldn't that be illegal?

I didn't really understand that exactly either. I thought maybe he was implying that some limits should occasionally be relaxed.

I am not an expert on the subject, but I thought much of what he said in the article did make some good sense.

[Embrey]

Somebody mentioned bass only remember things for 15 minutes....I call BS on that!

i think a fish that got caught 10 minutes after breaking the line with the bait still in his mouth would agree with that

[flyfish]

... fish only remember things for 15 minutes...

That's what my wife says about me.

[SLP]

That's what my wife says about me.

LOL

Just tell here you are trying to think more like a fish

[numbuts]

i think it depends on the lake you fish and the reason for the slot. ky size limit is 12" but cave run lake slot is 13-16" making 12-13" fish legal to keep

[jastew]

i think it depends on the lake you fish and the reason for the slot. ky size limit is 12" but cave run lake slot is 13-16" making 12-13" fish legal to keep

Actually, whent there is a slot, you can keep any fish not in the slot range up to the bag limit. So at Cave Run, you can keep a 1 inch fish if you want.

[numbuts]

i would check with fish and game about that. barren river lake has a 12-15" slot and a 15" min size limit and you can only have 1 in the slot all others must be over 15"

[RoadToad]

Maybe I am misunderstanding...but wouldn't that be illegal?

No, it would not be illegal. A "slot limit" is different than a straight size limit. With a slot, let's say the slot is set at 12-15" (pretty common for largemouth bass). That means you can't keep any fish 12-15" inches long, but you can keep fish both over AND under that slot limit, so any fish <12" long is fair game. Of course, that's usually accompanied by a creel limit on the fish over 15", but generally you can keep all you want <12", and that's what the biologists WANT people to do when they set a slot. The whole idea is to thin out the dinks, because more dinks does not mean more big fish in the future. The problem is, hardly anybody will keep and eat those fish.

[SLP]

So you are saying at Lake Malone you can keep LM bass any size under 12"? Like mentioned, I don't know if people would even want to, but I guess I didn't understand that a lake with a slot would overrule the state regulation 12" minimum size.

According to the Regulations Lake Malone:

Largemouth Bass: 12 to 15-inch protective slot limit.

[RoadToad]

That's exactly what the regulation means; you can keep fish under 12" long at Lake Malone. The statewide creel limit would apply to all fish of any size. Here's the whole reg:
• Largemouth Bass: 12 to 15-inch protective slot limit. All largemouth bass caught between 12 and 15 inches in length must be immediately released.

That means exactly what it says, and nothing more. Anything 12-15" you gotta throw back, anything else you can keep. If you weren't able to keep anything under 12" it would amount to a 15" size limit, and the "slot" would be meaningless.