I remember liking the taste of bass, but they
are worth far more to me in the lake than in the pan or stomach, and I
haven't killed one to eat in maybe two decades

At the endo of most club tournaments I fish there are some dead fish - and on
some of our lakes the fisheries biologists say we need to keep all the spotted
bass we catch. Those are what I usually eat.

I made a personal rule back in the early 1970s, before catch and release got to
be a fanatical religion, that I would not keep a bass over 2 pounds. The
smaller ones are better, anyway, and that size bass here in the south has less
than a 25 percent chance of survival for a year regardless of fishing pressure.
Ronnie

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