kill or release

[johnfish]

if you are going to take a bass home to eat ,which do you think it is best to keep a small fish say 3lb or a bigger fish say 6lb ,in salmon angling if you are going to keep a fish its best to keep the smaller fish as the bigger fish produce more eggs ,is it the same in bass fishing ,a great quote i heard was when the last fsh is killed men are going to realise they cant keep money.is it justified in killing a bass at all especially those over the 6lb mark?

[Big Ben]

Female bass don't mature untill they are about 42-45 cm in length so by taking a three pound female you might be denying it a chance to reproduce at all.

[husshunter]

Put it like this a 10 lbs bass is around 20 years old and the stocks are making a small comeback my advice if your looking for a fish to eat leave the bass alone and catch a faster maturing fish

[seanyroche]

I love fishing, I love cooking and I love eating fish. I often wonder is it best to take smaller fish and let the mature ones back to spawn. Does anyone have an opinion on which is best in the case of sea bass?

[MAC]

If you look to countries where they have successful management of sport fisheries (not Ireland, in any way, shape, or form ), most seem to adopt a slot size. They let the small fish at least spawn once or twice and also let the larger fish that carry way more eggs spawn as long as they have left.

Off the top of my head a 45cm to 65cm slot size for Bass would be ok. I'm guessing that a 65cm Bass would be 6 ish pounds.

[nicefish]

Put all the Bass back because they taste crap anyway,but i do love to catch them

[hugo]

Put all the Bass back because they taste crap anyway, but i do love to catch them

Wouldnt go so far as to call them crap, but was always baffled by the "Sea Bass" craze in restaurants and the prices they think its worth. Its OK, but there are lots of fish that taste better.

The size slot idea is a good one - but who do we propose these things to?

[sea serpant]

i killed my personal best bass of 12lb a few years back and knowing now wat i know about fish stocks and conservation i still to this day am racked with guilt . Myself and the oul fela quite like the odd bit of fish especially straight out of the sea so what i do these days is take the smallest ones if any from a catch and leave the bigger 1s to breathe i think its the most effective way