Eat More Bass

[Slowretrieve]

That's the title of an article in the new Field & Stream. Actually, the complete title is "Eat More Bass; Why Ray Scott Says You Should Kill Some Fish."

Thank you, Mr. Scott. For years I have been thinking the bass population would be better served by selective harvesting. I applaud Mr. Scott's concern for the fishery and his willingness to speak out when he sees ways to improve it.

[Moose1am]

I grew up keeping the bass that we caught. We ate them for dinner in the 1960's, 1970's and well into the 1980's. That was long before the modern day bass fishing tournaments.

However that was also before everyone and every one's brother had a boat and fished for bass. Today there are tons of new fishermen and women putting more and more pressure on the lake's bass populations.

Unless Mr Scott is a fisheries biologist with intimate knowledge on managing fish populations then I think he is someone that I would not care to listen to. I'll continue to listen to the Professional State Game and Fish Biologist who are schooled and paid to manage the fisheries.

One thing that would really help improve the fishery in most lakes is banning fishing tournaments that use money to draw in fishermen. When money starts being the primary focus in these tournaments then the fish suffer.

We will never know for sure or be able to really prove just how many fish caught and released improperly after a bass tournament expire afterwards to to improper handling during the tournament. Only the lakes bottom feeding turtles know for sure just how many dead bass are laying on the lake bottom.

I did see something today on TV that gives me hope for tournaments. It was the FLW Red Fish tournament weigh in. They actually had a big tub of water in a clear Plexiglas box. The fish that were being weighed were taken out of the live well and put into another smaller box with holes in the structure. This smaller box was then lowered into the bigger tank of water. The fish were weighed along with the water in the tub. Therefore the fish were only out of water for a few seconds during the transfer from the live well to the weigh in table's tank. Now that's progress if you want to see the fish's survival rates increased. The less you keep the fish out of the water the better it will be for the fish's after tournament survival rates. This method of weighing the fish at tournaments should be a requirement in the future. No more holding up the fish for 5 minutes to show off the catch. That stresses the fish way too much and could lead to higher mortality rates.

So in a way to avoid wanton wasting of the resource maybe Scott is right about eating some of the bass that we catch. I would much rather see the bass cleaned and eaten than put back into the water to die afterward due to excessive stress. Better we eat the fillets than the turtles.

Since we can't make more lakes easily we may someday have to limit the number of fishing hours to help grow the resources.

People that have huge commercial interests in sports are not the ones that need to be telling us how to manage the fish populations in our lakes.

Regards,

Moose1am

[crappie66]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-21-06 AT 01:16PM (EST)[/font][p]Exactly what I have been saying over and over, about time someone puts it in print in the media. Maybe now some of the strictly catch and release people will follow this mans guidance, just as they did with all the articles on catch and release many years ago.


Moose "Unless Mr Scott is a fisheries biologist with intimate knowledge on managing fish populations then I think he is someone that I would not care to listen to. I'll continue to listen to the Professional State Game and Fish Biologist who are schooled and paid to manage the fisheries."

The fisheries biologists are basically telling you the same thing, selective harvest, that is why they have limits, some lakes have minimums some have slots. If they thought all fish should be released they would have zero possesion limit.

[idbefishing]

I'm sure that Ray Scott is talking about selective harvest in a PRIVATE POND. This concept is nothing new in pond management. Pond: small body of water, limited food source, privately owned. Way, way different then public reservoirs, lakes that are large with more baitfish then all the predators in that body of water can eat. The size limit is 14" and up, which mean to take fish that are big, totally contrary with what Ray freaking Scott said. Selective harvest is to take out smaller fish so bigger one have more food to eat. There are not a single lake in Indiana that I'm aware of that have a slot limit. So if you're going to eat every fish longer then 14" then you'll end up with nothing but dinks which would be not what you wanted Crappie. It's not fair for our future generations to not able to catch sizeable fish in public body of waters because a few individuals wanted to catch bigger fish now. All of this talk is spawned from someone who stated that it harm the bass to hold it by the gill. Those fishes were caught and photographed on lake Guntersville. If all bass are catch and release until eternity on lake Guntersville, it wouldn't hurt a teeny tiny bit.

[DSPCHAMY]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-21-06 AT 04:57PM (EST)[/font][p]what a crock did you read the article?

""Id rather hear a 40-year-old man say he'd never eaten a bass in his life than have everyone taking their bass home to the table," Scott says. But in certain fisheries - farm ponds, especially - regular havesting actually benefits the fishing."

Field and Stream pg. 34 ph2 lines 10-15

I am sure these points were just left out of the discussion as an oversight, right?

Eating bass is not a taboo, but taking fish from public waters should be, as far as tournaments go they do damage the fishiries, but they also generate a lot of money for the economy around the lakes as well as for the lake itself. The fees that are paid to hold these tournaments go back to the DNR coffers to help pay for stocking and lake reserection projects.

There was a post on the KY site a few months ago about keeping fish alive in the well. It pointed out that fish do die, but even if you release a fish immediatly after it is caught it can die. So to use that as an argument you might as well say, lets not fish.

The point of the article is taking smaller bass is good, but your really can't do that from our lakes in Indiana. There just arent enough quality fish out there to do it.


I posted the following on the Spinnerbait article, well I will amend it to make some of you happy:

Just like Marie Antoinette said let them eat cake. Well let them eat panfish, or bass from private waters.

[Topwater2004]

A lot of the postings have some good points here.

I have about 14 strip pits to fish with an abundance of bass. The only ponds that have a good population of big bass are the ones that are fished and harvested, reasonably.

That being said, I also agree that when fishing a public lake, such as Waveland, or West Boggs, where predators are at a premium, it would be in the best interest of the lake to release your fish.

A lake the size of Monroe, with all the pressure that it gets from tournaments, I doubt that keeping the bass would hurt because many of them caught in tournaments will suffer a death due to being handled all the extra time in the hot weather. Some of the highest quality tournaments try to do a good job with their handling system. I am sure B.A.S.S. and FLW have a much higher success rate than your average club tourney.

The DNR recommends releasing bass immediately in the types of temperatures seen typically from June through August.

Bass are great table fare, I caught 45 bass in 3 hours on Sunday in the soupy rain and cloudy cover. They will be eaten this weekend when the temps drop a little bit. Caught them all on a Fat Free Shad in Citrus Green color, it definetely was the color, nothing perked them up like that lure did. Caught them in very clear water, and they were very willing to come up and strike it on about the first 3 or 4 cranks.

topwater

[MikeAxsom]

This is an old argument that never seems to get resolved. For some reason this has become an almost entirely emotional issue to many bass anglers, and often has very little to do with the realities of fisheries management. All our size and bag limits are founded in concepts that encourage and allow the "harvest" of the resource, while protecting populations to ensure they remain viable. Somehow, these arguments seem to always become polarized to the point that some folks take the position that anglers should keep no bass, and others seem to think they should keep them all. Neither position is correct. But taking a bass home on occasion, provided it meets legal requirements, is not a problem from a management perspective. Furthermore, if you or someone you know enjoys eating fresh fish, taking home a legally caught bass that has suffered some trauma and thus may well not survive anyway, is a more responsible use of the resource that throwing it back to be wasted. The bottom line is that practicing catch and release does not mean you can't keep one now and then, just as keeping some does not mean you have to keep them all. If you can't discern the difference, the regulations are there to help you determine what “enough” is. Fishing is supposed to be fun, guys. Chill out a little and enjoy your time out there.

[Slowretrieve]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-22-06 AT 11:39AM (EST)[/font][p]"It'll probably shock a lot of people to hear me say this," he admits. "Well, I'm sorry, but we're not going to hell for filleting a bass."

Scott, Ray. "Eat More Bass." Field & Stream; July 2006: 34.

[crappie66]

Very well said Mike Axsom.

Exactly the way I feel about it, this may be the first time I agree with you.

[MikeAxsom]

Sorry for spoiling your perfect run.

[DSPCHAMY]

>[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-22-06
>AT 11:39*AM (EST)[/font]
>
>"It'll probably shock a lot of
>people to hear me say
>this," he admits. "Well,
>I'm sorry, but we're not
>going to hell for filleting
>a bass."
>
>Scott, Ray. "Eat More Bass."
>Field & Stream; July 2006:
>34.


Hence my statement about eating bass is not taboo. This article is not telling everyone to go out and eat bass. Further more it is not telling you to stop catch and release activities, if anything it is reiforcing the message. Which is not what the initial messages were stating. To alot of the posters points this is about selective harvest and pond management. Not resevoir management.

For the most part the title of the article was to get a reaction and get people to read it. With more than 50% of the article being about the taste and best ways to cook it, I can hadly think it was a knock on catch and release fisherman.

Eat all the bass you want I dont give a ****. There is just no reason to go throw a 20+ or hell 16+ bass in the fryer or to lightly pan saute it as the article suggest.

Go bend a rod and have some fun

[Moose1am]

I agree. Well said Mike. We all three agree on this subject. :)

One this that should be said is that a lot depends on the water's we fish. Each water is different in size, depth, cover and numbers and types of fish. They should be managed by the DNR officials who have the knowledge to property set the limits.

One thing that really bothers me is seeing someone not following or knowing the fishing regulations. That really throws the DNR management plans for a loop if even a few people don't follow the fishing limit regulations.

It would not take long for a few fishermen to deplete the resources on a small body of water that has only a few good structured areas where fish congregate.

Even on a larger reservoir the small mouth bass population can be effected by just a few good fishermen in the winter months. This is because the small mouth bass all school very tight together in certain spots on these lakes and they are very vulnerable to fishermen who know where and how to catch then at this time of the year. Now in the spring and fall these same small mouth bass are more scattered and it's harder to put a big dent in their population on these types of reservoirs.

It all depends on the body of water. For example a river is a much different environment that a lake. The moving water will concentrate different fish in different spots. A large Reservoirs with a big **** that is used to generate electricity can have a flow though the reservoir at times and then at other times its a lotic system.

It's not a simple thing to do, manage the fisheries. There are a lot of variable that have to be considered. It's hard for even the professionally trained biologist to manage lakes.


Regards,

Moose1am