First let me say this...I'm a creek smallie fisherman and I release all the bass I catch. If I want a meal there are better fish to catch. I don't fish for males on the nest, but I will sure fish for the big girls that are in the area. Females aren't locked in to one nest and may even spawn with more than one male.

I'd like to see almost all creek bass go back just because they're a small and fragile ecosytem that can't recover as easliy as a larger body of water.

That being said...taking a bass off a bed is no different than keeping it at another time of the year. It's gone regardless. It doesn't matter when you take it out of the population. Keepin spawning fish is really no different scientifically than keeping at another time, it just depends on how each fisherman looks at it.