nice silver

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150827509357880&set=a.10150254202117880.331094.558047879&type=1&theater

thats A cracker well done that man

bassmaster wrote:

0/10 for this post,no story,killing a prime breeding female,why didn,t you return her,and take the next 4 4lb fish you caught!! a nice few photographs before reterning her is much more pleasurable!!the sight of a nice bass darting through the surf to freedom!! bliss!! i caught over 100 bass last year and kept one???

agreed. the big one's dont taste to good anyhow.

bassmaster wrote:

0/10 for this post,no story,killing a prime breeding female,why didn,t you return her,and take the next 4 4lb fish you caught!! a nice few photographs before reterning her is much more pleasurable!!the sight of a nice bass darting through the surf to freedom!! bliss!! i caught over 100 bass last year and kept one???

It would be interesting to do a poll?

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU CAUGHT A REALLY BIG BASS - KILL IT OR RELEASE IT?

I'll start it off:-

Definitely RELEASE

RELEASE

ITS strange that when people on boats+beaches catch loads of cod ,plaice mackrell ,pollock and show pics on the fishing sites of them all lined up every one congratulates them, as soon as its A large bass it treated as sacrilege to kill one I myself return 99% of all fish I catch but if A fellow angler wishes to take one home for tea then fair play to him or her yes they are breeding stock but so are other species , so remember that when you catch any fish, as I do and outhers do as well he and the family enjoyed it for there tea

It's interesting to note that a bass of 13lb is proberly about 35 years old. A real shame to kill it.

seajunky wrote:

It's interesting to note that a bass of 13lb is proberly about 35 years old. A real shame to kill it.

I agree a real shame to kill such a magnificent fish and a real shame know one
else will have the pleasure of catching it.

With other species of fish growing quicker than the bass it must make
sense to return as meny as possable to give them a chance to grow
to these sizes.

Plenty of reverse pescatarians (looked that one up) out there as far as the bass are concerned it would seem but come on people fish and let fish I say, if somebody gets a good one and takes it for the table good on them I hope they enjoy it as long as they don't get greedy and take everything they catch like the netters , if you feel you need to catch a big fish that umpteen people have caught previously go find a pond with carp in it !
I'm with congerman on this one so Some food for thought who's to say the life of one fish ie whiting or mackerel or whatever is worth less than the life of another fish ? As fishermen we are all guilty of being a bit two faced because as we belt on and on about the need for conservation of this that or the other we quite happily decimate other 'less' worthy species either to eat ourselves or to catch another fish which 9 out of 10 times we put back anyway myself included !
Here end'th the first lesson and may he without sin cast the first line.

well said logger

Thank you, im available for functions

Well said dave I totally agree with you , why don't you all kick off about thousands of tonnes of bass netted every day legal and on the black market. I agree the smaller bass taste better but that doesn't give us the write to bitch about an angler who catches a good fish like that and wonts to have it for tea . If it was killed and thrown in the bin that's another matter . Do you think us anglers putting back are tiny tiny percentage of fish is going to make a difference to the tonnes of fish netted every day wake up and smell the coffe. Well done that man ,I think a lot of it is sour grapes

There's danger that discussions like these can get a bit too heated.

However , for my part I don't like the taste of fish but I will sometimes give away a big enough fish to someone who will appreciate it.

Quite why we tend to give say Bass or Smoothies more emotion than some species I'm not sure. Afterall if a pretty girl is run over was her life worth any more than a plain looking girl's life?

Regulars will know that I recently had the immense pleasure of catching a 7 lb Bass off the beach, a good fish, a personal best and not one I expect to better in a hurry, especially from the shore. That fish would have been in its teens.

One thing spoils the treasured memory of catching that Bass -it didn't go back - on reflection I really wish it had done.

In future I'll probably work to a maximum size as well as a minimum size.

However far more fish are discarded than are kept by anglers and I respect the right to personal choice within the Law.

iv put 12lbers back, and my best 13lb 7 bass and all my bass go back if i dont need one , plus cod to 33 lb in norway went back and my m8 put 55lbs cod back and hallerbut to 44 lb back and this cod went back on my profile its 18lb