Thread: Catch and release, catch and eat, or both?

For the most part I catch to eat. But (isn't their always a "but") when it comes to a small body of water, I like to release the largest males for that body of water. On some lakes that is only a 1/2 pound and other places upwards of 3/4 pound. It has been proven many times over that the largest male bluegill control the population size.
A friend timed and filmed me filleting gills. I clean them w/ eletric knife in 24 to 30 seconds each so I don't mind if they are a bit small. :rolleyes: Yum Yum,
Crappie- I eat them. Mike

I keep only what can be fillet, the rest I leave for D.I. or Carl.

mostly C&R all fish. we need to leave some big fish for our kids to catch. when im hungery for fish i usually keep a few.

my vote C&E, however I release dinks

I release the small crappie, but the small gills I usually keep in a trough at the house to use as flathead catfish bait. grizzly

I think we should take into consideration the future of fishing and fishermen....I don't think we should "waste" our natural resources...However, we need to survive....Keep only what you can eat and release the others...LC

I usually kept most of the fish I catch but release the small ones and small cats and bass.

I catch and keep some medium sized fish to reduce the possibility of stunting on both groups of fish. Bluegills stunt if not reduced VERY quickly, and specks, well they can not handle being overpopulated for very long. The pond I normally fish for both has a HUGE 4-7" gill population, a small 4-8" green sunfish population and a small 6-10" speck population. I love all three species on a fly rod, and normally keep some gills, but not crappie or greenies. Just my .02