IMHO, as long as they are respecting the legal limits & the lake has a healthy eco-system, keeping small fish will not hurt the lake at all. Voluntary releasing of larger females to reproduce is probably a better plan.

Our local reservoir had a 10” length restriction for many years, & during that time you had to catch & throwback a boatload of 8-9” fish in order to find a few keepers, and 1.5-2 lb fish were extremely rare trophies. Several years ago they finally removed the restrictions & ever since then the average size of the fish has steadily increased. I’m no longer surprised when I catch a fish in the 2 lb. range. On one outing last week I caught nothing under 11”.

If some people want to eat light, more power to them! LOL!


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