Smallmouth

[j19bill]

Nice catch and Welcome to the forum!!!!

As you can already tell keeping certain fish is a touchy subject. My 2 cents as long as its with in regulations I have no problems with anyone keeping fish. That's why we have the regulations.

Happy fishing!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

Originally Posted by tkwalker

Gunter thanks for being a poster ... also great video to a point .. everything legal ... I have no problem with that ... But for the masses the video ending was a downer for most folks ... as far as the scale puncture minimal harm ...

Now to put this in perspective ... when fishing in the Canadian waters ... where Walleye , Musky, and Pike are the King ... Smallies are what is caught by the guides for shore lunch ... and yes they are tasty !!...

The Bass being LM or Smalies are the sacred cows in the South for the past 30 years ...

You are a new member to FTI and welcome aboard ... But the pros and cons on catch and release will always be an issue on this site ... <'TK><

Sorry TK. Being offensive was not my intent. I have been hearing reports of anglers catching lots of fish in east Tennessee, fishing the tailwaters using a foley spoon and I ran across this vidio by doing a google search. Just thought the excitment was kind of comical.

I myself have only kept one smallmouth in my life. I was fishing with my Grandaddy over on Pickwick lake back in the early 90's, and I had it mounted. A person would have a hard time trying to shame me on that one.

I wouldn't have kept the fish, but I have no problem with keeping some for the pan. I've never eaten smallmouth. Is it a good tasting fish?

[browntrout]

Well at least some things have been cleared up that the person who posted the video was not the actual person who caught the fish. BTW welcome to the forum. I know this is a dead horse as we have discussed keeping and eating vs. releasing at least a million times.

I would like to make a couple of points for us to think about. The fisherman was 100% entitled to keep and eat the fish. I think everybody is in agreement with that. 1 fish out of that fishery is not going to make a difference. Lets say 10 people were fishing that day and they all caught a nice smallmouth like that and decided to keep it. No big deal, only 10 fish. Lets say a 100 people decided to keep a nice smallmouth that day. Where is the magic number? No one knows. Do not depend on the TWRA to figure out that magic number either. Case in point, when I was growing up my grandmother's farm was covered with quail. We would hunt the quail and eat them. We only harvested what we were allowed to by law. A few friends would come to her farm and hunt quail, again all the time following the law. Guess what? 1 day no more quail. Not only on my grandmothers farm but all across TN quail numbers have all but disappeared. Another case in point, I fish out on the White River in Arkansas a lot. Out there you are welcome to keep all the rainbow trout that you want (within the law) and the guides will even clean them and cook them for you. They will guide you for big brown trout. If you catch big brown trout they will let you keep it if you want to. ( They will highly encourage you to release it.) If you keep it from that point forward they will make sure you do not catch another big brown trout the rest of trip. They realize how fragile the fishery is. As far as conservation is concerned I will always err to the safe side. Granted I love a fish fry but as for me I will stick to the fish where the fishery is not in danger.

As far as tournament fishing goes just ask Alphahawk about the sight he saw the other day. He was fishing where they had held a bass tournament and weighed the fish in. There were a lot of dead bass in the water. Catch and release is one thing. Catch, ride around in a bass boat at 60 MPH all day getting the crap beat out of the fish, and then release is a whole different thing.

Great discussion topic and my .02 cents worth.

Roy

[tkwalker]

Originally Posted by Guntersville

Sorry TK. Being offensive was not my intent. I have been hearing reports of anglers catching lots of fish in east Tennessee, fishing the tailwaters using a foley spoon and I ran across this vidio by doing a google search. Just thought the excitment was kind of comical.

I myself have only kept one smallmouth in my life. I was fishing with my Grandaddy over on Pickwick lake back in the early 90's, and I had it mounted. A person would have a hard time trying to shame me on that one.

Gunter ... For the almost 15 years that FishingTN has been on line, I've always tried to keep this forum "fair and balanced" ... But we have been down this road dozens of times when it comes to catch and release.... I knew it was going to open up a can of worms !!

But none the less ... Thanks for being a member and a poster ... And I think the replies were "Fair and Balanced" on both sides ... <'TK><

[jad2t]

Originally Posted by browntrout

The fisherman was 100% entitled to keep and eat the fish. I think everybody is in agreement with that.
Roy

Sure didn't seem like that was everybody's opinion. One guy said it was sickening to see him put it in the cooler. You said "Killed me when I saw it to in the cooler. Crappie, bluegill, catfish? Come on man, plenty of better fish out there to eat. " So it didn't seem like you approved of it either and furthermore are trying to say that it's ok to eat crappie, bluegill, or catfish but how dare he keep that bass.

If you feel convicted to throw back every bass and trout you catch but feel no guilt eating crappie that's fine. I just think it's wrong for you to come down on the guy for doing different than you would have done. I stirred the pot real good with my thread on Caney brown trout regulations so I was going to try and keep quiet about eating fish just to get along with everyone but it really aggravated me to see this guy make his first post and get blasted because he ate the bass (we didn't know it wasn't actually him in the video). That's not a way to make a new member feel very welcome to this great forum.

[ojibwa]

I meant that it was sickening to me see the fish in the cooler. It was just my opinion. I love catching big smallmouth. It is my passion. It just hurt me to see such an impressive animal killed that could have been caught again. Did you see how much fun the guy had catching the fish? I totally respect a persons right to keep a legal fish. I just don't like to see trophy class fish on the table.

[browntrout]

[QUOTE=jad2t;24848]Sure didn't seem like that was everybody's opinion. One guy said it was sickening to see him put it in the cooler. You said "Killed me when I saw it to in the cooler. Crappie, bluegill, catfish? Come on man, plenty of better fish out there to eat. " So it didn't seem like you approved of it either and furthermore are trying to say that it's ok to eat crappie, bluegill, or catfish but how dare he keep that bass.

Opinions and with in his rights are 2 totally different things.

Roy

We released 3 smallmouth this evening and 9 monday all over 4 lb and the largest being 6lb.

[ojibwa]

That is awesome. Where are you fishing? (unless it is a secret) You got any pics of those pigs?

Originally Posted by ojibwa

That is awesome. Where are you fishing? (unless it is a secret) You got any pics of those pigs?

Wheeler.