I only keep what we can eat in one meal. The rest goes back. That's just the way I've always done it.

 

As little as I fish these days, I keep what I'm legally allowed.

 

X2
:biggrin:

 

As little as I catch, I keep what I can...

But seriously, it kinda depends, I'm the only person who eats fish, in the house, so as long as I have enough fish for one big fry, and enough for me to eat, when I want to, then the rest go back.

 

Imho, it depends on on where the person fishing lives (in relation to where they are fishing).

I live 3 hours from the nearest salt water. As a result, I'm pretty much keeping every legal fish I catch. If I lived close enough to fish on a whim (say before or after work), I would be much less inclined to keep everything I land.


Fwiw - my mom lives near Lake Fork (3 hours from where I live in the other direction). I keep everything I catch there too...

 

I only get to fish 2-3 times a year. I keep what I catch. Never catch a limit, so I don't deplete the bays.

 

Who eats bass??

 

Smallmouth is amazing fried. Dare I say, better than trout.

 

Oh, Good Lord, Here We Go Again...

This thread will likely get interesting, unlike the recent threads on croakers, tournaments, clips, braid versus mono, leader material, types of hooks, spinning reels versus baitcasters, potlicking... One thing nice about this 2Cool site is there are very few members with strong opinions, and even fewer willing to voice them...

For me, depends on the freezer. If it's empty, keep, if it's getting full, keep enough for dinner and release. Unless my sister is visiting, or the neighbors would like some, or the church is about to have a fish fry, or...

 

I think he's asking in general what is the norm.

Thats hard but i'd have to guestimate that well over half of the total population that inshore saltwater fish are of the 'meat hauling' group.
Really hard to put a number on it though i could be way off.

 

I think he's asking in general what is the norm.

Sure, I agree. I wasn't commenting on the OP's question so much as predicting where the thread was likely to go. The site has been pretty raucous lately. Love it!

 

I generally keep everything that I want to mess with cleaning. I'm 2.5 hours from the salt, so I don't get to go as often as I'd like. The wife and I love to eat fish, so it's nice to have some in the freezer. That being said, we've never really caught a limit off the beach, so we are not personally putting much pressure on the stock.

I did get a little over zealous with keeping whiting on the last trip and I paid for it when cleaning those little suckers.

 

What I posted earlier might be a little deceptive. I fish quite a bit, but have been having problems finding a lot of good keepers, so I don't keep much because I don't catch much worth keeping. That is where Captain Steve Hillman comes in. We are going out with him for a full day so we can learn better places to fish. I have plenty of gear, but the knowledge base is lacking. I will probably keep a lot more when I catch a lot more worth keeping. lol
I have always soaked bait, and I haven't caught a lot worth keeping/eating fishing that way. I am just starting to learn to use topwater and soft plastics, so once I get the technique down and learn what to look for in a fishing spot, I am hoping that I can actually catch LIMITS!

 

I keep whatever I want within the limits. I have family that enjoy fresh fish that don't fish or can't as much as they would like. If others choose to catch and release thats great. But I will not bow down to others opinion.

 

I keep what I catch, within legal limits. I always release the big mama trouts so they can deposit millions of eggs that will turn to fish I catch the following years. With that being the one exception, I will keep the rest. And we typically limit out, however it is Port Mansfield and the trout limit is half (5) in the LLM of that up in upper LM and the Land Cut which is 10.

 

Keep

I keep whats legal (if full of eggs I release no matter what).Some days I just release that way I don't have to clean...cva34

 

I only get to fish about once a month now and when i do I usually just keep one to eat that night. I've grown up eating fresh fish out of the bays and just prefer it over frozen. I also grew up as the youngest of my cousins and what not so I was always stuck cleaning the fish on our big family outings. I've filleted literally thousands of fish and just don't care to do it that much anymore. Every now and then I'll keep a limit if we're having a fish fry or something, but those days are pretty rare. That's just the way I like to do it. Yes I also see a conservation side to it and I do enjoy watching fish swim away to be caught again. I'm an advocate of catch & release, but I'm not going to tell anyone to not to keep what the law says they can.

As for the mentality in TX, IMHO think more and more people are starting to practice CPRing but by far the majority of fishermen still meat haul. I highly doubt this mentality of sw fishermen will ever switch over to that of what bass fishermen have.

 

i think more people should keep bass, they're awesome in a fish fry

not every trip has to be a meat haul. i have plenty of trout and reds in my freezer so i caught three nice trout, cleaned them up and gave them to my buddy's grandparents. made their week.

 

I,ve been able to keep my fishing skills to a bare minimum so catch and release isn't even on the table. My wife and kid only go with me once in a while cause of my rotten luck. If it wasn't for croaker, I'd be a complete waste of fishing gear.





stop snickering....I'm serious!

 

I,ve been able to keep my fishing skills to a bare minimum so catch and release isn't even on the table. My wife and kid only go with me once in a while cause of my rotten luck. If it wasn't for croaker, I'd be a complete waste of fishing gear.

stop snickering....I'm serious!

ME TOO!!!!
I promise i have never even come close to hurting the fish population!
Like some of the guides who post pics on here slam the fish every day with multiple guest and boats....i believe thats what hurts things
But i do only keep what is legal and enjoy every part of that fish!!
backbone and tail are mighty fine eating when you only get a few

 

If I go offshore I keep what I'm legally allowed to keep and share it with my friends and family.

This.

Inshore, the only fish I keep all the time are flounder. I don't really target them so when I do catch one it's going home and will get cooked that night. As for reds & specks, I'm probably 75-25 C&R to keep.

As for freshwater, there's been a move recently to have people keep & eat bass more frequently because C&R has been so successful there needs to be more smaller bass taken out of the food chain for better management.

 

Timemachine I know this is way off topic but do you also post on txwaterfowler?

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk 2

 

These 2 website are my favorite. MANY of the TWF's are also members of The Blast-N-Cast Mens Ministry. We are dad's that focus 100% of our efforts into getting the word out to kids and adults thru the outdoors. We hold about 3 to 4 events a year.

Next event is in Rockport...August 3-5.

Last year at my 3rd Annual Duck Hunters Meet-N-Skeet, there were eqaul number of shooters from 2Cool and Texas Waterfowler.

 

CPR unless my freezer is empty. Then what I catch I keep. Then go back to CPR untill my freezer is empty again.

 

I release most of the fish I catch. We still eat flounder or trout once a week though.

 

I'm living in a fifth wheel until July 20th so we are limited on freezer space. We release quite a few right now. Normally we killem all. Lol

 

I think one has to assess their total impact on the environment and fish accordingly. I drive a Prius and fish from a Kayak and don't have any kids. So I keep on average 5 times the legal limit on my trips out every Saturday.

 

I keep most of the reds I catch, especially the lower slot size, and all of the flounder (these two fish freeze well) (within legal limits). Generally only keep what trout I can eat fresh (IMO they don't taste the same after frozen, good but not as good as fresh) or if there is a special event/fish fry upcoming then I will stock up. I also keep all of the snaps that I catch.

 

I pretty much keep everything legal, except the rare times when we are in alot of fish and i may weed the -16 in trout out. I have lots of family who love fish fries, so nothing goes wasted. I would think the meat fisherman out number the catch and release guys quite a bit, but i'm no game biologist.

 

I only fish during the summer so I keep what I can legally and that way, hopefully, I have fish during the colder months for that ocassional fish dinner.