Thread: Ready for the spawn

By now I usually have enough fish froze so what I keep is just enough for me, the wife, Dad, and his wife...…..which is usually @ 15 fish. Even though I'll fish for several hours I almost always let the rest live to bite another day.

I release 99% of my fish year round. I grew up striper fishing in the early 80's and filling coolers till they wouldn't close every weekend. It didn't take long to get tired of cleaning fish and eating fish. I usually release all crappie unless someone with me wants them. I always release stripers unless I have one that is badly gill hooked or one in the summer that came from too deep to shoot back down. If I get one of those I call my wife and tell her to clear the menu for fish tacos that night. I never freeze fish anymore. Just personal preference.

I'll let a few go back especially the big ole girls. But I usually don't keep any fish anymore. Miss Laura gets most of all our fish. She feeds a lot of people in her neighbor hood with what she gets! I agree that most big fish need to go back. I will never mount a big fish unless it's a 6 pound crappie!

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Nice to know that people are releasing some fish back into Wylie


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It is day by day for me whether I keep a bunch or not. I will say for the past 2 years I have stuck with a 10" personal goal and it really does pay off. I wish it was the new law honestly. There's never a need to keep a little 8"er


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If nobody wants em I put em all back. When I need some just go catch em. But the limit is 20 per person and 8 inches on Wylie. If they stay in the law I got no problem. If they run in and dump a limit and go back out. That is a problem. Just my

I never freeze fish anymore. They go pretty directly onto ice and in the oven or back in the water.

I'm probably differently than the majority here. And, I KNOW I'm different than most of my fellow tournament fishermen, but for me, I keep what I catch 95% of the time. What I don't eat or freeze, I give to folks that aren't able to fish or donate to large cookings (church frys mainly). With that said, I don't fish every day. If I catch a big female she's treated the same as a small female or a buck. To me, it makes no difference in time of year. I've never really understood the "turn em back in the spawn" mentality. A female is an egg producer 12 months out the year. Whether she's blowed up with eggs in March or she's flat as a flitter in August it's still removing an egg producer from the body of water no matter when she's kept. Maybe she wouldn't make it to the next spawn from the summer or fall before, but maybe she would. Granted, I don't believe in folks that fish every single day keeping everything, but I believe a weekend warrior can keep what they wish within reason.

As far as size, I'm not a fan of any size limit on any fish to be honest (especially a STRIPED bass on Murray). I believe in a creel limit. I would not be opposed to a 15 per person limit, but I don't care what size someone chooses to keep. I personally don't want anything under 8" but my absolute favorite fish to eat is a 8-10" crappie scaled and fried whole. 10" is alright, but the 8-9" are the best IMO. I will agree that the harvested year class of fish, on average, has increased in size on most lakes since the implementation of the 8" rule and I see no reason to do away with that, but I'm not a proponent of a 10" law. In fact, from my understanding the 10" limit was discussed as a possibility when the 8" law was introduced and the biologist recommended against it based on the fact that, from their studies, a 10" law would cut the time an anglers had to harvest a legal fish. I believe from what I read was that it would take a crappie 4 years to reach 10" and the average life span of a black crappie was 6 years. Going to 10" would cut the harvest period by 1/3. Not sure how true any of that is, but food for thought none the less.


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