Why keep small ones?

[swcody13]

This morning I took my family to the Point side of the MRI. I wanted to see how the guys were doing fishing from shore. It was mostly a slow pick for the 30+ guys. I'd say once every 10 minutes or so somebody would bring one in. Lots of boats drifting the inlet too, but no boats caught during the two hours I was there.

I saw one fisherman catch a 12" fluke. If he was lucky it was 12". What does he do with it? He puts it in his bucket.

Now I wasn't close to him, but I wasn't far away either. The guy next to him looked puzzled too. Nobody else noticed he even caught anything. About 5 minutes later, he takes his bucket to his car, empties and and goes back to fishing.

I see this happening when guys fish from shore all too often. In no way am I making ANY generalities. It's just strange to me, that's all. What could one possibly do with such a small fish? This is why our fisheries keep (not so slowly) being taken from us.