[Augy]

blumpie, first of all, congrats on a nice catch. second let me just emphasize you have every right to keep fish that's of legal size and that was caught legally but a few things to consider before keeping bass.

most of us practice catch n release, especially with bass, for the things that toothdoc pointed out and for other reasons. something to consider...bass of that size are not in abundance around these parts and it takes several years for a bass to become that size. to remove a dominant bass like that will hinder the reproduction process because it removes a dominant gene from the pool. we want those big bass to live and spawn each spring to produce more of them bigguns. :wink:

something else to consider is that bass isn't really considered a high quality fish to consume. also, the bigger the fish (the older they are), the worse they taste. if you just can't pass up a bass dinner, keep the smaller legal size and release the big ones as an endowment for the future of bass angling.

once again however, you have every right to keep your catch, i (we) just wanted to pass along some information regarding a common practice within the bass fishing community.

:mrgreen:

 

[Augy]

i commend you on being a responsible outdoorsman and i applaud your wifes meticulous consumption of her catches and her prowess to hook into some monster fish. didn't realize your wife was so petite. those fish look HUGE! :mrgreen:

 

[Augy]

21 inches?! :shock: so basically throw back everything i catch in other words. :mrgreen: