"Ronnie" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 31, 8:39 am, Olebiker wrote:
On May 31, 8:14 am, "Joe Haubenreich"

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.

Joe,

Good call on changing the title of the thread. I thought about that
last night.

I guess what got me about the pictures was the fact that these guys
were harvesting four to seven pound fish. That's their breeding
stock. Where do they think the next generation of bass is going to
come from? As the old folks back in the country used to say, "Don't
eat your seed corn."

Bass here start spawning at about 12 inches so a four pounder has
spawned at least three or four times - its genes are already in the
gene pool. I personally don't keep bass over two pounds but it has to
do with ease of cleaning rather than any desire to preserve brood
stock.

For eating purposes... back when there was no size limit and the bag limit
was ten I would keep them from 10-12" as they were the best tasting. The
smaller ones taste more like panfish. Not quite as much flavor as a
bluegill, but a similar flavor. The bigger ones are kinda tasteless to me.
They make a good platform for the addition of other flavors to create
culinary works of art, but they don't have a lot of their own flavor.

I pretty much don't keep any bass unless they are gut hooked these days
simpley because the ones that are legal to keep (13+ inches) have started to
lose their flavor. If I want fish to eat I'll go out on a summer morning
with a couple kids and try to nail a boat limit of the small schooling
stripers we get around here.


--
Bob La Londe
Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River
Fishing Forums & Contests
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



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