Smallies

[jc484]

Was able to get out and do some good old fresh water action largest small mount was 4.2 lbs

[jc484]

More pictures

[jc484]

Can anyone tell me how to post more than 1 picture at a time
Thank you

[tautog]

Dead smallie pics are not usually very popular here...

[BillDance1]

WOW you killed them out there man ! (Literally :mad:)

Always nice to see 2 LB (no where near 4.2-typo?) smallies dead on a doorstep.

Do yourself a favor and don't post any more pics. :D

[acabtp]

i'd have preferred to see some release pics too, but well, to each their own, can't please everybody all the time, looks plenty legal to me. smallies put up a hell of a fight i'm sure you guys had a blast.

[bunker dunker]

There good eating!!!! Congrats

[jc484]

WOW you killed them out there man ! (Literally :mad:)

Always nice to see 2 LB (no where near 4.2-typo?) smallies dead on a doorstep.

Do yourself a favor and don't post any more pics. :D



wow bill thanks for your lovely input. those were cough upstate NY for the record we put the big ones back kept 4 for dinner, sorry that I like to catch my own dinner.

[Eskimo]

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It's great to see pictures on a fishing forum of conservation-minded sportsmen releasing their catch to grow bigger and make lots of eggs next spring.
I admire their selflessness and their dedication to maintaining a great sport fishery.

Unfortunately you're not one of them. :(

Something to think about - how many sportsmen caught-and-released those Smallmouth Bass in their long lifetime before you killed it?


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[jimcnj]

Tough crowd.

[Shameless14]

This won't make me very popular here, but i see nothing wrong with this. I've never kept a bass in my life, but as long as a person keeps within the size, limits, and regulations they are completely entitled to keep the fish that they catch themselves. There are regs for a reason, so people can enjoy the fruits of their labor if they want to. That being said, i would have preferred a CPR, and i get why people would get worked up, but they should keep that to themselves because at the end of day your the one who caught a 4lb smallie :D

[AndyS]

You caught some fish and ate 'em, good for you !! SALTWATER guys do this on a daily basis and no one says a word. Nice fish !!!!

[dakota560]

Recreational guys who retains fish within the regulations will NEVER kill a fishery. In certain cases they actually help maintain a trophy status by controlling or culling the population. Don't tar and feather someone who is within their right to keep their catch in spite of your personal convictions. Their rights and choices are just as valid as yours. That being said, conservation is something we all should be mindful of and the fact that they released the larger fish suggests they are just that. Gives the guys a break, there's ways of sharing your opinion without taking someone's head off.

The many people we all see who blatantly disregard a resource and take every fish regardless of size......completely different story but that's not what happened here.

[Bergen Angler]

wow bill thanks for your lovely input. those were cough upstate NY for the record we put the big ones back kept 4 for dinner, sorry that I like to catch my own dinner.

I can't say I never kept LM or SM for consumption as I kept them as well as yellow perch and crappies during the last week of October and the first week of November 2012. I shared them with my neighbour as we didn't have gas, electricity, food, etc.

That being said, I practice CPR, though I think people should keep LM or SM smaller than 2 lbs to allow the lunker bass to grow even bigger.

Yes, I keep salt water harvest for consumption.

I am glad to hear that you released the 4.2 lb SM - prefer catching 4lb SM than 6lb LM.

Next time, you are hungry and feel the need to keep the lunker SM and/or LM, please write to me. I will send you a check so you can buy some food. :)

Also, please don't forget to spare some pennies for your English lessons. :)

Hey, they didn't break the law. Give them a break.

P.S. So how does it feel being Walter Palmer? :)

[FASTEDDIE29]

Dudes! Nice Smallies for sure. Way to put a bend in the rod. They sure do fight like crazy when hooked. Nice catch!:D

[UglyStick]

As you all know from my posts, I am very much the conservationist. Even though I would have liked to see these fish released and I personally don't agree with the specifics of many of the limits, I concede that there is nothing legally wrong with keeping your lawful limit for consumption.

Why are so many anglers enraged on this post??? THE PICTURES

My suggestion for freshwater reports where the angler keeps fish is to not post pictures of dead fish as it tends to inflame people. Instead, post a pic of the fish right when it was caught and unhooked or of the ones that were released or just don't post any pics at all.

In a similar manner, you see this all the time on the salt board where instead of posting pics of people holding 1 or 2 fish (albeit dead), they post pics of a huge bloody pile of fish or an entire dock full. These "hero" pics just unnecessarily fire people up.

[jc484]

Thank you all for the good and bad reply's
like I said in another post we kept 4 fish to feed 6 people for a fish dinner.
we safely release well over 15 fish over 3 lbs.
moving forward to keep the hippies happy I will not post any more fish out of the water on the fresh water section

[jimmythegreek]

Its no big deal guys, altho I am strictly C+R the reason it pisses alot of us off is the bucket brigades have killed many good fisheries in NJ and as soon as we see dead smallies we think the worst. The lake they fished is prob loaded with them and taking a few to be eaten within the legal regs is perfectly fine with me. You guys dont realize that ALOT of the fish posted on here are actually kept they just dont post dead pics or say so. This season night fishing I saw more dead walleyes than I ever saw in my life, and they are mainly stocked w little reproduction. Smallies hold up well and reproduce well in many bodies of water, as said many times you actually help the trophy population by taking the smaller ones leaving more food for the rest of them

[iamtheavalanche]

Just do me a big favor... do not keep any smallies out of the South Branch of the Raritan or the North Branch haha

[Heronimo42]

Nice catches. Don't like people keeping fish legally, change the laws.

[Eskimo]

Its no big deal guys, altho I am strictly C+R the reason it pisses alot of us off is the bucket brigades have killed many good fisheries in NJ and as soon as we see dead smallies we think the worst. The lake they fished is prob loaded with them and taking a few to be eaten within the legal regs is perfectly fine with me. You guys dont realize that ALOT of the fish posted on here are actually kept they just dont post dead pics or say so.

I don't doubt it.
What is important in an over-crowded, over-fished state like New Jersey is fishing "culture". If we as a collective culture encourage catch-and-release ethics, we can maintain this fishery.

If we become laissez faire about it and say, "whatever the goverment says is okay is fine" then our fisheries will quickly be reduced to tiny fish and carp.

A good example of this is Japan. Catch-and-release of largemouth bass in Japan is illegal. In a rare case of civil disobedience, Japanese anglers are defying their government and releasing their bass. Catch-and-release of largemouth bass has become bigger in Japan than it is in the U.S. despite its prohibition. Now Japan has a world-class bass fishery and the record for the world's biggest largemouth bass was recently tied by a fish caught in Japan.

The Division of Fish & Wildlife is screwing us bad by maintaining an unsustainable creel limit of five fish of twelve inches. The same as catfish! If every skilled angler kept their bass according to the limits set by Fish & Wildlife, there would be no bass fishery in New Jersey worth speaking of.

This is the bass from Japan:

http://www.getsomebass.com/images/450xNxlakebiwafish.jpg.pagespeed.ic.uYvF9NEAFa.jpg


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[acabtp]

LMB in Japan are an invasive species, like snakeheads are here. They don't grow well there because the Japanese fishermen are manging them awesomely despite the government, they grow well because they are destroying the native fish in those ecosystems. That's not a good example of anything.

Should we start releasing all the Delaware river snakeheads? Start a world class snakehead fishery? No f'n way

[Gerry Zagorski]

This won't make me very popular here, but i see nothing wrong with this. I've never kept a bass in my life, but as long as a person keeps within the size, limits, and regulations they are completely entitled to keep the fish that they catch themselves. There are regs for a reason, so people can enjoy the fruits of their labor if they want to. That being said, i would have preferred a CPR, and i get why people would get worked up, but they should keep that to themselves because at the end of day your the one who caught a 4lb smallie :D

Yep - I'm in 100% agreement here. I don't keep many fish but don't take offense to people who do.

[ScowardNJ]

Catch and Release or Fry Them in Grease.....all good either way as long as you follow the rules....nice catchin guys!

[njfisherman1975]

If the guy isn't breaking the rules...I can't fault him for keeping the fish. No problems here man!!! Nice fish!

[Lard Almighty]

Not only was jc perfectly within his rights in keeping those fish, it seems like he was also acting responsibly. He kept four smaller fish for an immediate need, i.e. dinner for six people. He didn't keep everything he caught, he didn't keep his limit just because he could, he didn't pile more dead fish into an already stuffed freezer. For those who do wish to keep fish to eat (and there are quite a few), this is the kind of behavior that needs to be encouraged.

I don't keep bass to eat, mainly because I don't like the way they taste. But I applaud the hell out of guys like jc that approach fish consumption the way he does. No matter how much hate some of you guys are giving him, he has my full support!

[Chrisper4694]

Keeping smaller fish helps Make big fish ecosystems. Think about it...you have x amount of forage and y amount of bass. If that forage is shared between many average sized fish you get a stunted growth effect (you know those lakes where every bass is 12-15"). If you cut out some small legal fish you get more forage for the bigger fish to grow even bigger. I know this is super over simplified but check out how the guys down south grow monster largemouths in their private lakes. I'll give you a hint, they aren't releasing small fish.

That being said, nice catching!

[NJSquatch]

to each his own...as long as it is legal

i would rather catch a fish multiple times than keep it once....personally i release all the game fish for others to enjoy and hopefully catch again one day...

i tried eating bass once and didn't like the taste.....i guess if it was fried it might have taste better....that being said you could probably fry your shoe and it would taste good....

[HighHook94]

Just do me a big favor... do not keep any smallies out of the South Branch of the Raritan or the North Branch haha

I second that lol

[HighHook94]

To everyone saying it was good he kept the smaller ones, I believe i read somewhere that it's better to keep the big ones to improve the population. The fish in the 12-14 inch range are more reproductive compared to a giant who is probably quite old and not very fertile anymore. Also, i read that the giant bass eat the majority of the bait in a lake and leave little for the smaller fish to grow. Just trying to play devil's advocate here. Not saying i believe in this, but i read it awhile ago and it does make sense. That being said, i am strictly catch and release for freshwater nj bass fishing. I will not keep a smallmouth out of my favorite holes in the north/south branches of the raritan river because then i will catch less in the future. Panfish are fair game to keep anywhere though. However, if i am on a fishing vacation/camping trip in another state at a big lake like lake champlain, ontario, or erie, I sure as hell will keep a few smallmouth because it's a camping trip, and taking a couple fish from huge lakes like that isn't going to kill off the whole population. I just don't take freshwater fish from nj because i fish here 99% of the time and want to catch fish on future trips. Saltwater fishing is a different story for me though. I keep plenty on saltwater trips. But i stay within the regs.

[Eskimo]

To everyone saying it was good he kept the smaller ones, I believe i read somewhere that it's better to keep the big ones to improve the population. The fish in the 12-14 inch range are more reproductive compared to a giant who is probably quite old and not very fertile anymore. Also, i read that the giant bass eat the majority of the bait in a lake and leave little for the smaller fish to grow. Just trying to play devil's advocate here.

In general, the larger the bass, the more eggs it can produce. Although I'm sure there is an age where a bass just loses its ability to lay eggs, I don't know of too many places where a bass can grow that old.

Here is a chart from Pond Boss Magazine: http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/smallmouth-fry.html

http://www.bassresource.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/smallmouth-fry1a/51316-1-eng-US/smallmouth-fry1a.jpg

As you can see, an 18" bass can produce 700% more eggs than a 12" bass.

I'm not big on the idea of "selective harvest" on public waters. Private waters that get very little fishing or no harvest are forced to cull out small bass to free up available forage. Here in New Jersey, we are burdened with living in the most densely crowded state in the U.S. - and one of the most crowded places in the world. There is more than enough harvest going on that the bass really don't need your help. There are plenty of sunfish for the bass to eat.


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[Chrisper4694]

Well in a perfect world people would only take from the meaty part of that bell curve of fish size...then more monster fish would start showing up. But you're right there is enough people keeping everything including the big girls. I still don't think keeping game fish on the small legal size range will harm any fishery...if it does then that system is way too fragile and there are other problems there. I encourage people to keep small legal game fish from places I like to fish, but I also encourage never keeping a big one (and of course that will never happen)

[HighHook94]

In general, the larger the bass, the more eggs it can produce. Although I'm sure there is an age where a bass just loses its ability to lay eggs, I don't know of too many places where a bass can grow that old.

Here is a chart from Pond Boss Magazine: http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/smallmouth-fry.html

http://www.bassresource.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/smallmouth-fry1a/51316-1-eng-US/smallmouth-fry1a.jpg

As you can see, an 18" bass can produce 700% more eggs than a 12" bass.

I'm not big on the idea of "selective harvest" on public waters. Private waters that get very little fishing or no harvest are forced to cull out small bass to free up available forage. Here in New Jersey, we are burdened with living in the most densely crowded state in the U.S. - and one of the most crowded places in the world. There is more than enough harvest going on that the bass really don't need your help. There are plenty of sunfish for the bass to eat.


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Interesting, I never knew that. Good info!