Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley: Keep a few fish

Keep BASS?!?! BLASPHEMY!

I saw this article on another forum site, and thought I would pass it along knowing the support of keeping bass around this site.:D

[url]http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100814/SPORTS09/308140094/Fish-can-get-stressed-out-in-summer-heat-too[/url]

Barkley, Kentuckycould use some keepers

Rister has a suggestion for bass anglers at Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley: Keep a few fish.
“There are hundreds of thousands of bass caught every year, but only about 20percent are harvested,” he said. “And we had two huge bass year classes back-to-back (2007-08). The fishery could take more harvest.”
Anglers at the two lakes can keep six black bass daily — any combination of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass — but hardly any do. Largemouth and smallmouth must be at least 15 inches long, but there's no minimum for spotted bass.
“More people could keep bass,” Rister said. “That's why we have the six-fish limit. It's OK to eat a bass once in a while.”

Not Blasphemy at all !!

Not all of them 10-12" Bass are going to grow up to be 8lb fish. The ecosystem of a body of water will determine how many "bigguns" survive. Removal of "some" only means more to eat for those that ain't got caught yet ;)
And don't snarl at those "perch jerkers" that you see putting a Bass in their livewell, or putting a knife to at the cleaning station .... they're actually doing you a favor !!

.... pappy

oh, and just so you know .. I quit eating Bass over 30yrs ago, 'cause Crappie taste better, anyway ... LOL !! I have & still do return all Bass caught ... but, got no problem with anyone else keeping theirs.

I can't tell the difference between the taste of crappie and bass personally. They're in the same fish family.

That being said, I rarely - if ever - keep any fish. I'm too lazy to clean them and would never get around to frying them up.

Probably would not hurt the LM population here if some folks kept some LM as they have exploded over the last few years..but anyone that fishes much here over the years also knows that the SM and Spots populations are down and I certainly would not recommend that...heck, if you read the KDFW's own fishing forecast for Ky Lake last couple of years you will see that the forecast states that for SM and Ky Bass and quote:

"Low to moderate number of keeper fish and low numbers of small fish"....that low numbers of small fish is indicative of the which way the SM populations have been going here.

No, I am not gonna change my colors...I am still a catch and release bass guide...but if you want to eat a few of the smaller just keeper LM, I don't see how it would hurt our populations any.

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;424585]...if you read the KDFW's own fishing forecast for Ky Lake last couple of years you will see that the forecast states that for SM and Ky Bass and quote:

"Low to moderate number of keeper fish and low numbers of small fish"....that low numbers of small fish is indicative of the which way the SM populations have been going here.[/QUOTE]

Where is the grass? The deep grass is mostly gone now.

[QUOTE=smashdn;424648]Where is the grass? The deep grass is mostly gone now.[/QUOTE]

Maybe you missed it but we had a near record flood with muddy water this spring...there is where you grass went.

yes eat a few. the biologists are the ones who have brought back the fisheries through science and conservation and they have determined that you can eat some according to the limits. green bass that are turned into golden brown bass are a real trophy.

There is nothing wrong with keeping a few for the table here and there. I think the bigger shame is when they are caught and killed for nothing but in the name of a tournament weigh-in. To practice selective harvest is not a bad thing. If the lake I am fishing has a healthy population of whatever harvestable fish then there is nothing unethical at all with keeping a few for the table. My guidelines for keeping bass are pretty straight forward - I don't keep any large fish (unless hooked bad and killed), I don't keep any brown fish (unless hooked bad and killed), I don't keep fish from waters where the population is limited or strained, and I only keep a few to have for an upcoming dinner meaning I don't load up and fill the freezer. Now apply that thought to Barkley / KY and that is where Paul Rister is coming from. There is a butt load of just-keeper LM in those lakes and keeping a few here and there isn't hurting the population. I would be more concerned about those 6 and 7 lb floaters after the tournaments which is a complete waste of a much more limited resource.

kc

When we hit up KY Lake every spring... we filet everything big enough to keep yet under 4lbs... we usually fill up two gallon zip loc bags with filets and have a huge family fish fry... Largemouth was made for beer batter....

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;424660]Maybe you missed it but we had a near record flood with muddy water this spring...there is where you grass went.[/QUOTE]

Didn't miss it. The question was mostly rhetorical and food for thought.

Not counting this year but in years past I had heard rumblings of spraying and killing of the grass. I don't know if there is any truth to it but I hear reports that the grass beds are a thing of the past on the KY side of KY.

There has been no spraying...we have not had much for grass beds last couple of years because of high dirty water during the time the grass is coming up. We had nice starts on big grass beds on the Ky end this spring before the flood, we were knocking the late prespawn good in them before the flood hit and took them out.

I personally will at the end of the season keep a limit of keepers about a pound to a pound and a half. Untill theres Ice on the water. As far as tourneys both of my clubs will take dead fish and filet them for an end of the year fish fry. It's like deer you have to cull them or there will not be a healthy population. Big fish yes I will always put them back. But the rest get tatar sauce and hushpupies.