Quote Originally Posted by yankar View Post
Keep enough to eat today all the rest back in the lake. Will release a big one if have enough small ones. All fish accumulate toxins with age. Larger fish will produce more eggs and more fry survival


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What if the 2+ pounder was old and it was it's last season to spawn. But you threw it back and kept five other 11-12 inch fish. Those other 5 fish would have produced
millions of more eggs in it's lifespan.

I think you should just only keep what you and your family can eat. Goes along with the old saying how many burgers can one man eat. If you fish occasionally maybe you keep more. If you go out all the time you may release most of your fish. I think most on this board has a passion for fishing and along with that comes a conservation mentality to not keep more than they can consume.

Then on the other hand you have some people who will keep undersize fish and throw trash in the water or leave trash along the bank. No respect


Myself I prefer colder water fish to eat and will keep winter fish. Maybe a few males during early spawn but I let the adult crappie do their thing. It's weird you can't hunt when deer have their offspring but fishing everyone goes out to catch them up. I guess crappie are prolific breeders and it doesn't effect the population enough to ban keeping fish during the spawn.