Smallies

[njfisherman1975]

If the guy isn't breaking the rules...I can't fault him for keeping the fish. No problems here man!!! Nice fish!

[Lard Almighty]

Not only was jc perfectly within his rights in keeping those fish, it seems like he was also acting responsibly. He kept four smaller fish for an immediate need, i.e. dinner for six people. He didn't keep everything he caught, he didn't keep his limit just because he could, he didn't pile more dead fish into an already stuffed freezer. For those who do wish to keep fish to eat (and there are quite a few), this is the kind of behavior that needs to be encouraged.

I don't keep bass to eat, mainly because I don't like the way they taste. But I applaud the hell out of guys like jc that approach fish consumption the way he does. No matter how much hate some of you guys are giving him, he has my full support!

[Chrisper4694]

Keeping smaller fish helps Make big fish ecosystems. Think about it...you have x amount of forage and y amount of bass. If that forage is shared between many average sized fish you get a stunted growth effect (you know those lakes where every bass is 12-15"). If you cut out some small legal fish you get more forage for the bigger fish to grow even bigger. I know this is super over simplified but check out how the guys down south grow monster largemouths in their private lakes. I'll give you a hint, they aren't releasing small fish.

That being said, nice catching!

[NJSquatch]

to each his own...as long as it is legal

i would rather catch a fish multiple times than keep it once....personally i release all the game fish for others to enjoy and hopefully catch again one day...

i tried eating bass once and didn't like the taste.....i guess if it was fried it might have taste better....that being said you could probably fry your shoe and it would taste good....