[kawishiwi]

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.