Thread: Does eating help

It depends on lots and lots of factors. For example, last fall I took about a dozen bass out of a pond across the road that I fish several times. The fish were in poor health. Very thin and all around a half pound each. Now, I went fishing the other day and caught fish that were a little bigger and a lot healthier. The biggest bass I've caught out of there was 10 1/2 pounds. Obviously it has potential for some big fish, but you'd only catch a few fish larger than 2 pounds.
In that case, it was a very good thing to take out fish.
In large lakes and rivers, you won't really be hurting the population if you follow the fish/day limits set by your DNR. Even then, how often do you get to go fish? You only need to keep what you and your family can eat, or what you can give away. You alone won't be hurting the population, if anything you'll probably be helping them grow bigger because there's less competition for food.

Depending on food supply without removing/harvesting some fish they would become overpopulated and not have enough food to substain the population.

I'm not sure if it helps them, but it sure makes me feel better! :D

I like to turn em lose into hot grease until they float. I do mind the laws however.

That's a good question! I'm sure it has had both negative and positive impacts on any given body of water. Many of us have been around long enough to see the limits change over the years. I don't recall seeing the limit numbers being raised but rather almost always being reduced.
As mentioned by others, theres a lot to be considered and each body of water can be looked at a bit differently. Especially when you have a lot of fishing pressure, versus very little fishing pressure. Some bodies of water are just plain more fertile than others...I'm real anxious to see how good or poor the fishing will be in those areas that had huge fish kills brought on by hurricane s Katrina and Rita...I'm betting Laccaseine will be a fish factory in a couple seasons and not only have good fishing but quality fishing. At least I'm hoping to see that happen to those areas hardest hit.
Stick with rules and regs and I bet you and the fish will do just fine.

I say just do your thing, if you don't like keeping any fish then let em go. There's folks who hunt with cameras too, and that's ok. Usually there's plenty of sportsmen out there taking care of the harvest.
But I hear the deer population back east is getting way out of hand in some areas....

Originally Posted by wbl2014

Are we doing the fish a favor by eating them, or should we do catch and release. I mean are we helping the population by keeping them. I just like to fish and let them go.