"Olebiker" wrote in message
oups.com...
snipDo any of you folks
eat bass?

Dick Durbin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I eat bass. Managed harvest is part of the game management strategy of every
state game and fish commission. To some extent, it improves the health of
the ecosystem.

I have no scruples against harvesting game fish and serving them up for the
family. I would estimate that 95% of the black bass I catch go back in the
water, as do all the northern pike and the occasional musky. I happen to
like the taste of bass, especially battered and fried. I fillet a good
number of the legal-size walleye, striped bass hybrids, white bass, and
striper that come my way, too.

The C&R principle is so deeply ingrained in tournament anglers these days
that I often watch them release dead bass along with the lives ones after
the weigh-in. It seems like a waste (as well as creating a PR perception
problem) to see decent-size bass floating away on the surface for the next
hour or so. They'll not be wasted, of course; turtles will benefit from the
act, certainly. But sometimes I'll take an ice chest with me to a weigh-in
and will receive some of the fish that are weighed in dead. I live in a
neighborhood with many elderly folks, and they welcome a plastic bag of
fresh bass fillets, too.

I recall a medium-size lake in Arkansas where the G&F officer requested that
tournament participants toss every bass under twelve inches up on the bank
to die because the lake was over-populated with stunted largemouth. The
forage base was inadequate and the number of bass over three pounds was
steadily declining. If more anglers practices Catch & Keep in that case, the
lake's ecosystem would have benefited.

So, back to the question... killing bass? Yes, I do. I don't give bass any
special status. They're right in there with all the cows, hogs, chickens,
sheep, deer, doves, rabbits, squirrels, quail, shrimp, crab, lobster, and
other fresh- and sal****er fish that show up on the dinner plate and that
people kill on my behalf. Add to that all the plants that are killed for me
and the animals adversely affected by their harvest, and one could easily
make the case that death and destruction are part of my daily diet. That's
life.... and death.

Joe
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