For What Reason Do You Not Release

[Bonefish]

I have been looking at the pics of fish caught at Cedar lately and it seems a lot of the big bass caught goes home. Everyone has the right to take their fish home to do whatever they want to with them if they are legal under state regulations. If a picture of a bass is taken only for show and not eaten, this grabs me in the gut. Bluegills, crappie and channels are fine eating, but I hate to see these big bass taken out just for show. I would like to see someone take a state record out of Cedar someday. It does my heart good to see a big bass released for someone else to catch another day. I just had to get this off my chest.

[CHRISC]

I don't like seeing the big ones kept either, to me they don't even taste good once they get over 3lbs!!

[Chubminnow]

If I think it would look good on my wall then I'm going to keep it...it doesn't have to be a state record but it has to be a big fish. I'm not insane about it either, I'm not talking about 6 largemouths, 17 stripers and 4 smallmouth adorning the walls of my home, I'm only talking about one of each species that I really like a lot, which is the species I just mentioned. For eating you can't beat crappie, bluegill and stripers...I never keep largemouths nor smallmouths, only way I will is if I think it's worthy of going on my wall at the house. Some don't agree and that's ok with me, to each his own.

[jwp]

The only bass I've kept in the past two years was a 3 lb LM with a broken lower jaw. I will also keep Kentucky spotted bass but I haven't caught that many this year when I was hongry!

JWP

[bob46]

I believe Ive only eaten bass twice in my life, one I caught and one someone else caught I let them go, I do not mount fish either If they are bid I kiss them on the head and send them on their way. Like the ohter guy said long as there legal. I like crappie walleye and blue gill.

[jamesdenson]

i release everything i catch because im to lazy to clean them. joking but the only thing i keep is panfish stripers or eyes and any bigmouth over 10 wich i have never caught or smallies over 7 never caught one of those either my walls are bare.

[Hershey102]

This thread reminds me of an Ellen Degeneres quote:

“I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.”

Funny quote. My self-esteem or self-worth is not tied to displaying for others how great a fisherman I am. I am a great fisherman because I practice conservation and want to share with others the fun of catching a big fish.

[first2fish]

These are my c&r guidelines....if you want to keep bass to eat then keep the bass that are below 3 lbs. Bass that are above 3 lbs are the ones that produce the most eggs during the spawn. I have a freind that was fishing a lake about 50 acres and keeping the 4-5-6-7 pounders out of it to eat. After about 3-5 years later he doesnt understand why he cant catch any big ones out of there. My thinking is that now that he has taken a lot of the bigger bass out of there that there isnt enough big bass to produce enough eggs to support that lake. And who knows how many others have been also keeping the big bass out of there. Anyway thats my rule of thumb that i go by and will keep going by ! Release those big ones guys so the fishery will stay healthy !

[know1]

i release everything i catch because im to lazy to clean them. joking but the only thing i keep is panfish stripers or eyes and any bigmouth over 10 wich i have never caught or smallies over 7 never caught one of those either my walls are bare.

The first part is pretty much me. I'm too lazy to deal with cleaning them.

I'll bet I haven't kept a fish in over 3 years and in the summer time I'm mostly fishing for catfish and crappie.

As for putting one on my wall, I probably will never do that. I'm not really a fan of hanging them on the wall - a picture is good enough for me. Also, I'll probably never catch one big enough

[kygorski]

I like to eat fish, I will keep most of my fillet size pan fish, and smaller spotted bass. I dont think bass taste that good, and will not clean a catfish. All my musky have been returned, but you alwayssee guys holding musky that arenot trophy fish, and they go home. As for wall mounts,my first 7+ lmb was the same as a car payment. I wouldn't do it again. My son has about six thousand bucks worth of wall mounts, and a cousin of mine at least double that amount.Why? But anyone who wants totake anykind of fish home as long as its legal has that right. and I'm not against it.I'm also for closed seasons on spawning native fish, did it for years, and still fished for othjer species. It worked for yrs. But new thinking has led to outting a spawning fish in a live well, dragging it all over and relesing it miles away, has caused problems in some northern lakes. I wonder what will happen to all those wall mounts when my cousin dies, probably a dumpster,his wife raised heck when they found out how much it cost to move them. My sons sit in his lake house, alone and for sale with the other furnishings. Mine, got crushed in moving, along with a costum loomis rod, niether has been replaced.

[Bonefish]

The other day I made a fishing report on Cedar and made the comment that I did not like to fish the trees. Trees like on Cedar are tough to fish with most any lure, unless you are flipping or pitching. I will get some heat on my way of thinking, but I don’t see much sport in hauling in bass on a rope unless you are fishing tournaments where every fish counts. However, flipping and pitching with heavy line prevents bass from being broken off and most likely being trapped to die on the line. I just don’t enjoy getting bass wrapped around trees and loosing lures and possibly killing the fish. I look at fishing like I do my motorcycle ridding. Anyone can buy a powerful machine that will go very fast in a straight line, but the real challenge comes when you ride the curves on roads like the “The Dragon” and the “Cherohala Skyway” on a GSX 750. It is the challenge of “what works” on any particular day and “fight of a big fish” that keeps coming back to the water.

[burt.fishin]

I have been looking at the pics of fish caught at Cedar lately and it seems a lot of the big bass caught goes home. Everyone has the right to take their fish home to do whatever they want to with them if they are legal under state regulations. If a picture of a bass is taken only for show and not eaten, this grabs me in the gut. Bluegills, crappie and channels are fine eating, but I hate to see these big bass taken out just for show. I would like to see someone take a state record out of Cedar someday. It does my heart good to see a big bass released for someone else to catch another day. I just had to get this off my chest.

I TOTALLY AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!! I to would like to see a record caught out of cedar someday.