Quote Originally Posted by stripernut View Post
brandon, im almost certain baby jesus cries each time a smallmouth passes away.
an idian shamin told me that if you fillet a smallmouth you will get leprecy
I cry a little bit when I clean 'em. But man, they sure do taste good!

I will keep a few creek smallies for the table. Bass are pretty good. Keeping bass won't hurt the population. Anyone who has a small pond will know this: The fewer bass (say for one year) the more bluegill the next. The more bluegill, the higher the bass survival rate that year and average size.

Keep a few. It will help the baitfish population, which in turn, helps the game fish population. That is why a lake full of dinks (like three springs lake in BG) will stay a lake full of dinks unless the population is thinned out.