Catch and release or catch and cook? What you you do?
 

I'm interested in hearing from other fisherman regarding catch and release vs. catch and cook. I was reading another thread about rock bass over-population and the competition with smallmouth and other species - it is a real problem. It occurred to me that folks who are taking smallies out of the lake to keep are only contributing to the problem. I've never been one to take fish home for the dinner table (but I have said if I ever catch a trout or salmon on accident, I would keep it and clean it :) - i don't know why i have that bias but i do) Just wondering how others feel. I love the sport and I love seafood, it just never appealed to me to catch and keep small mouth/large mouth gamefish for the dinner table. What say you?

Personally, I have never kept a small or large mouth bass I have caught from Lake Winnipesaukee. The only fish I have kept over the years are salmon because my Mom likes to eat them so much.

On the rock bass side, we have started killing them based on the feedback of so many fellow fisherman.

My six year old has caught about 35 fish off our dock in Alton this summer(he keeps track). Roughly 20 have been rock bass. He understands they are not good for the lake. What do you suggest is the best way to kill them?

I catch and release. Have no issues with people taking the legal limit, but I kind of feel leave the sport fish alone bass and eat the salmon trout etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HKTx5WFcs0

Catching fish
 

Pretty much catch and release except for trout and salmon. I grill those for dinner. Salmon freezes well, but I prefer trout fresh!

Rock Bass is another story, I let them die on the floor. Leave them on the dock and the predators takes them away!

catch, take photo if worthy, if a rock bass, send them down to Davey jone's locker

I slice them up gill to gill from the underside so the head flopping and they will die quick and be food for other fish and what not. Sometimes we leave them in the motor well and wait for them to die and then toss them back in, but I will tell you sometimes its well over an hour before they die, that's the problem they are way too resilient, I've had some out of the water well out longer than an hour, thinking they are dead put them back in the water and they swim away, which is why i just slice them up now

No matter what you decide they'll be someone that won't like it!

Bass too fun to eat?
 

In 4 years my son & I have kept 3 fish to eat. 2 big white perch and 1 huge, for NH, bluegill that was entered in, and won, the F&G trophy award that year for kept bluegill. If we knew about the catch & release category I would have preferred releasing the 'gill.
I fish smallies 95%+ of the time and enjoy them to catch far more than for eating. The population is self sustaining so every fish on the plate is one that wont reproduce.
If/when I ever get to Salmon/Trout trolling I would probably eat a few due to the very healthy laker population, the stocking of rainbows, & the short life & stocking of salmon. Though with hook wounded salmon at around 25% it seems that population is really heavily pressured and that would put them last for me to keep.

I dont bother killing rock bass because I dont think it has any substantial effect on the population. I hope the little buggers experience a cyclical crash but I dont feel I can have an impact on that.

As I am mostly new to the lake I dont remember "the good old days" so I am not missing them. I can find healthy adult smallies almost every trip. Still looking for my 5 pounder though. Can be challenging at times to get 'numbers' but thats part of the fun for me.

Good fish to me are salmon, lake trout and rainbows. I used to bass fish many years ago but no more.
Any legal sized fish is kept for the table. We’ve had a pretty good season so far and the family loves the filets whenever we have a fish feed. I’ll keep a large white perch but all bass go back. I’ll kill the Rockies however.
With a limit of 2 of any fish (trout/salmon) we aren’t depleting the stocks so much and it’s a thrill when a big one comes to net!

C'mon man...
 

You gotta start keeping those rockies if you are a fish eater. Think rocky stuffed Salmon. :D

Haven't eaten one in decades...
 

But, back then I was a lousy cook.

A friend recently sent me this and I am tempted to give it a try.

http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Fish-Re...oms_Recipe.htm

If you filet the little buggers for me! ;)

Good to hear I am not alone!
 

Glad to read that others share my sentiment regarding releasing smallies and largemouth. We don't keep and kill rockies but maybe we should. We catch them from time to time and on slow days they are better than catching nothing but, when it comes to counting how many 'fish' we caught on any given day, we don't count them at all. We do enjoy how they water ski across the surface when we do catch them but other than that - we throw them back. They have zero fight. Catching a rockie is identical to catching lake weed and reeling that back along the surface.

Catch and release for everything except Rock Bass. Over the past 35 years fishing the lakes I have only kept a handful of game fish, probably less than 5. When fishing with my sons grandfather years ago he would have liked to keep many more of them but I would only let him keep ones that were mortally wounded. Personally I have zero desire to eat them. Even though I like seafood.

My Son and I pretty much only fish for LM & SM bass, but always try to return what ever we catch back to the lake unharmed when ever possible hoping someone else who really needs or wants that fish will catch it again someday.

Sometimes we leave them in the live well all day with no water and let them die if we don't throw them back (dead) right away. Without a doubt Rock Bass are resilient, have seen on a couple of occasions after a 1 & 1/2 drive home (with no water in the live well) and have fish that are still alive Never been able to do it yet but have always wanted to see if we put an intentionally wounded one back in the water close to an Eagle if they would pick it up.

Kinda surprised no one has mentioned keeping rock bass for garden fertilizer.

Recent Past Event On Lake Sunapee
https://lake-sunapee-living.com/even...fishing-derby/

Love yellow perch …..anyone seen any?
Seems like the white perch have taken over.

begging for a no limit rock bass Tourney on Winni

Haven’t seen any yellow perch this year only whites, rocks and smallies besides the target fish, salmon rainbows and lakers.

Just recently...
 

Couple weeks ago caught a few smallies next to a large cloud of baitfish showing on the depth finder so I dropped night crawler pieces down on a bare hook to see what the cloud was made of and it was mostly sunfish & yellow perch. At least the ones that were big enough to be hooked. One more smallie hit a tiny piece of worm, one smallie followed a 6" perch up and one smallie grabbed a small sunfish that grabbed my worm bit. All of this was in 30 fow in a big bay.
A few of the yellow perch were almost eating size at around 7" max.

Bass
 

I fish every day off of my dock and the Rock Bass were pretty much all-day from morning to evening until the water got warmer in June. Then it became all smallies ever since. Some days I am skunked and some days I get 3-5 of them in two hours. Some pretty darn large. I have yet to catch a Larry Largemouth.

I confess I have had thoughts of marching them right into my kitchen, but in truth I always catch-and-release. Everybody should eat the Rock Bass as they are an invasive species of little ecosystem contribution, and you can fill your pail with 6 or 7 of them in 2 hours.

Eating rock bass...The video!
 

Just make sure to remove the tiny flesh worms first...Yum or yuck?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...CED9&FORM=VIRE

Probably a delicacy to the Japanese or somebody!