I agree with most of you.
First off its not a big deal most likely no one would have caught it again anyway.
But replicas are better these days. They look better and there isnt the price difference there used to be.
And a legal fish you catch is yours no doubt you do what you want but its also a free country and others can voice their opinions on it.
But I think what gets me is the fact that this is a 5 acre pond. I fished lots of small lakes less than 50 acres and these lakes are alot different than a big lake. Many of the small lakes in the state arent very good because of quality fish being kept. I know one 40 acre lake Smokey Valley or Carter Caves that used to be incredible. It was the first trophy lake with a 20in size limit. Then it got lots of pressure which for its size was only a couple boats a day. People kept lots of fish out of it then they couldnt find any more trophy fish in surveys so they dropped the size limit to 15in. But people kept keeping bass and now they cant find anything over 15in so this year there is no size limit on the lake. It doesnt take many fish being kept to ruin a small lake. If two boats fish a small lake everyday and 3 quality fish a week are kept on average the lake wont be very good for long. People keeping bass ruined one of my favorite lakes. I would prefer any small lake have a 2 fish limit and only bass 12-14in could be kept. There are lots of small lakes across the state that have undersized populations of bass because any decent bass get harvested. Again nothing against him keeping this fish but the fact that many people who posted on this thread said they would do the same and my guess is most would keep a bass alot less than 10 and its no suprise our small lakes dont produce more big fish. I dont blame people for keeping fish thats their right. Its the states fault for making overharvest possible. They would rather let people keep bass from a lake and end up with a population of undersized bass than put strict regulations on these lakes and make them incredible. My suggestion would be 2 months of the year allow harvest of 12-14in bass with a 2 fish limit that would be enough to keep the population balanced.
With catch and release the more you fish the less bass you keep for the most part so the people who catch most of the bass put everything back for the most part. But on small lakes the fish are easier to catch for the most part so alot more get harvested. Somebody said that fishing on that lake was difficult well if it was a catch and release only lake it would likely be very good but instead its a hard lake. I guess thats worth a few people being able to take the occasional fish home. Again I dont blame the kid just making a point.
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