Hi all,
I agree - those largemouth probably weren't stunted.
And I also agree - a little selective harvest won't ruin even a small lake. And the ones you released will tell the others that the don't want to eat whatever it was you used to catch them (I swear they tell - happens here at home, anyway).
I've had people call me everything from criminal to communist because I like the taste of smallmouth (prefer it to walleye, even). OK, that's your opinion and you're welcome to it.
But, I don't eat prime breeders and I don't kill fish to hang on a wall. I use barbless and "big" hooks so I don't gut hook fish on my plastics. I don't use treble hooks hardly at all after a bad experience with one really aggressive northern (5 of 6 trebles got into the gills - killed it early in the day and it spoiled b4 dinner). And, I don't use live bait unless I'm fishing for dinner.

Besides, I've found that even in the canoe country, fishing is still fishing - you can have a spectacular day on one lake, or even one piece of structure. Come back tomorrow or next year and you can't catch "bait" much less quality fish, with the same presentation, the same lures, or anything else in your tackle pack.

Posted by Skip Guyer on February 29, 2000 at 08:18