48 replies to this topic

[ctf58]

First let me say I do practice Catch and Release. I've only ate Bass 1 time and it was a deeply hooked fish that went belly up.

With that being said what do you guys and girls think about catch and release in a large reservoir like Kentucky Lake. I've read plenty of articles "for" and for lack of a better word "against" the practice. I know there are some big bass in KY lake, but I wonder what would happen if keeping your catch was encouraged for something like 2 years or a slot limit encouraging fishermen to "Keep" 15" to 18" bass for a couple of years. Do you think that by reducing a certain year class of bass for 2 years could or would benefit the fishery? I know that Ky Lake is huge but you always here "95% of the bass live in 10% of the water". The catch rate might fall the following years but would the 18'+ bass have a chance to grow faster and with less competition? Just wondering if that little nudge would help or hurt on a lake that size.

If a small lake (500acres or smaller) can overpopulate why can't a larger lake?

[Flukeman]

You are looking at the wrong end of the equation. You need to be looking at the food end (bait fish) of the lake to even decide if it is overpopulated. If there is plenty of food, there is no issue of too many bass.

[Nitrofreak]

You are looking at the wrong end of the equation. You need to be looking at the food end (bait fish) of the lake to even decide if it is overpopulated. If there is plenty of food, there is no issue of too many bass.

I agree here too, as far as catch and release, I do the same thing, I have no problems with people who eat bass at all, I do it from time to time myself, they are very tasty fish, but what I really really hate is people who kill the fish for no reason other than to have it as a trophy to show off to their friends etc...

[Raul]

You are looking at the wrong end of the equation. You need to be looking at the food end (bait fish) of the lake to even decide if it is overpopulated. If there is plenty of food, there is no issue of too many bass.

Nicely put.

[Colton Neal]

Sometimes catch and release is necessary if a population isn't doing well. Other times catching and harvesting is helpful to a lakes health due to overpopulation. Also, it depends if lake management wants bigger fish or more fish to catch. So then they'll make a creel limit or slot limit accordingly.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

Stick with the rules and regulations of the state and there shouldn't be a problem.

[aclark609]

I agree with you on keeping smaller fish to weed out the competition for bigger fish in some lakes, but Kentucky Lake is known for its massive shad population, from what I've read and heard, so I don't think it would be a problem as much on that lake, but also, for a fish to grow to a massive size, it has to have the genetics as well as a prime food source that is readily available. The share lunker program would do wonders with that if everyone who caught a double digit bass would participate. Is the share lunker program still around?

[grimlin]

My buddy takes home Bass every so often.....I have no problems with it to be quite honest. He follows the rules and regulations.


I'm strictly C&R for the most part.

[Bass-minded]

I fish a small pond in my neighbor's property. Besides him and me, there are very few who know about it. The fish population is great, and every once and a while I will take a bass home to eat. But, if some how everyone in the area found out that there are a lot of nice fish in there, and I saw that the population was hurting; I would practice catch and release and encourage every angler who fished there to do so also.
Hope this helps.

[tomustang]

If its on your neighbors private property, than those poachers that come around to steal his livestock should be met with a gun

[WookieeJedi]

If it is too small, I toss them back; or if I only wind up with a couple. I'm not going to clean just two fish. Since I am in the deep South, I turn the really big ones back too. Any fish over 7 from around here just isn't going to taste right.

[SirSnookalot]

If its on your neighbors private property, than those poachers that come around to steal his livestock should be met with a gun

In a civilized society the police are called.

[tomustang]

In a civilized society the police are called.

No one would poach in a civilized society

[Bass-minded]

Just to clarify things, I live in the country, my neighbor is nice and doesn't run people of with a gun( at least not as long as I've known him).
But I set my own sort of slot limit; I tell myself that I can only keep 1-2 lb bass. It saves the larger fish and the many smaller ones too.

[ctf58]

I was using KY lake as an example. Yes there is plenty of shad, but I also hear how if we have a very cold winter and there is a shad die off that it will hurt the growth rate the following year. I was thinking about this because in deer hunting. I some states with a healthy population they have implemented a system of a slot limit of a certain rack size, be it by width or points, to encourage deer the opportunity to reach trophy size and data has shown that it is working. I think it would be interesting to see what if anything would happen. It would not hurt the fishermen that practice catch and release other asking them to help by taking a few home. Or the Dept of fish and wildlife could use all the tournaments as a way to collect fish in the "slot" for removal/ relocation.