Smallies

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by 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.

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:




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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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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.