some would say a kid catching and eating a small mouth is destroying another great fishery…? really ? try having them netted and wiped out in front of your eyes…. 
” /> It’s not about being on someones side, it’s about looking down one’s nose and the mentality that walleye fisherman did this because they caught and ate walleye… and now they are coming after your bass with a knife and fork 
” />
(not at all aimed at you fishthumper)
some would say a kid catching and eating a small mouth is destroying another great fishery…? really ? try having them netted and wiped out in front of your eyes….
” /> It’s not about being on someones side, it’s about looking down one’s nose and the mentality that walleye fisherman did this because they caught and ate walleye… and now they are coming after your bass with a knife and fork
” />
Big G you must not have read thru this post well. I for one was not at all against fishermen keeping a few bass for a meal. The problem I and most others so called bass fisherman have is when they hear comments of let’s start keeping all the bass we catch or better yet lets just bonk or gut them all. As far as father keeping a few fish with their child I have no problem at all. Do they need to keep their full allowed limit of them. I think there is where the lesson could be taught. But I would say the same if it was walleye they were keeping. Or if they were keeping all bigger fish while throwing back small fish.
People saying that bass are “mushy” or “full of worms” have either never tried them themselves, or there can be large discrepancies based on water temperature/quality/etc.
When I was younger, we annually rented a place on a crystal clear central MN lake, and we always ate bass (along with pike and sunfish). I never experienced mushiness or worms in the meat. These were 14″ – 16″ bass. I’ll still keep a few in the early season. They taste a lot like sunfish. They’re good.
Now, I’m not a meat fisherman. I probably keep fish a couple times a year, but I do have a nearly 4-year old, and like has already been mentioned, I believe that eating some of what we catch is important because 1) it helps to instill that food does not come from the grocery store, and 2) teaching selective harvest is important in teaching natural resource conservation. His sense of pride in helping to put food on the table makes me smile almost as big as he does.
In the end, it’s a personal decision.
fishthumper, I did read it all…. and I can typically read very well. As I said, in my post “this was not aimed at you”…. it is intended for those who think keeping a bass to eat is destroying a fishery. My words to them, if you want it destroyed, net it everytime the bass try to spawn… if you read it back, you will see someone insinuating that Mille Lacs is in this position, because walleye guys do not CPR like bass guys do…. hard to miss that and someone needs to read a little more as to what happened at Mille Lacs, that or actually come here and see it for themselves come late April and early May…
Hey!Hey! Don’t make me pull this thread over!
I don’t mind when people keep a bass under 14″. People keeping a bass 15″ and up just makes me sad and possibly a little mad. There are so many small pike in Central MN lakes, people should keep and eat those instead IMO.
X2… a good skill in my opinion is to learn how to remove Y bones from small pike. Far better meat than smallmouth and the thinning out of small northerns will only help most fisheries.
we keep bass out of a few farm ponds during ice season the farmers want the stunted ones out. i can throw about about 30 small 9-13″ bass on the ice in short amounts of time and either leave them for the birds or fillet them out and we have fish frys at work with them. everyone loves them.
i don’t keep a ton of fish anyway (my fil and dad both take regular trips to alaska and bring us back all the halibut and salmon we can handle so i’ll keep an occasional walleye or 2 for dinner but usually all my fish go back)
fishthumper, I did read it all…. and I can typically read very well. As I said, in my post “this was not aimed at you”…. it is intended for those who think keeping a bass to eat is destroying a fishery. My words to them, if you want it destroyed, net it everytime the bass try to spawn… if you read it back, you will see someone insinuating that Mille Lacs is in this position, because walleye guys do not CPR like bass guys do…. hard to miss that and someone needs to read a little more as to what happened at Mille Lacs, that or actually come here and see it for themselves come late April and early May…
Big G. I believe the Walleye issue at Mille Lacs has more than 1 factor to the problem. The netting during the spawn for sure is one of them. The changing water conditions I believe play a role as well. I also believe that fisherman harvest and hooking mortality also play’s a role. The fact that more People due tend to Keep Walleyes than Bass is also a factor. Once again just because people are allowed to keep a limit of fish does not mean its the best to do so. I could not tell you the # of times I’ve seen people come into the cleaning houses on Mille Lacs with a limit of fish for each of the 4 or 5 people in the boat. I could tell you the # of times I seen the same with people fishing for Bass. Just saying that fishermen themselves also have to take some of the blame. Another huge factor I believe is Hooking mortality. Live bait small hooks and feeding out a ton of line when you get a bit is not a ideal situation. Not normally the situation when fishing Bass. Well we could debate this issue till the end of time. There are just way to many factors involved at Mille Lac’s and everyone thinks the know the one that is the cause of the issue.
Hey!Hey! Don’t make me pull this thread over!
hes-touching-me.jpg
Would this be a good time to bring up two lines on MN inland waters?
Would this be a good time to bring up two lines on MN inland waters?
Get a rope. It’s high time we had us a hangin.
Would this be a good time to bring up two lines on MN inland waters?
Just think how much faster I could fill the livewell with bass 
From what I here around here, 10 Lines would not help you 
FishThumper, I also believe it is MANY things that affected the decline…. but some would say and think that “keeping walleyes to eat” is the culprit, as insinuated. And that doing that to bass will lead to their demise, you have to agree hooking mortality happens to bass too ? It’s right there for all to read, a few posts back on page 1. This thread is about eating BASS and how it is taboo to some and why ? If keeping “limits” that are regulated by the DNR is an issue, who do you take issue with ? Bag limits on Mille Lacs have been massaged for 20 years… how did it work for us ? Funny thing is, and I know this for fact because I have been there for the last 24 years, since the large scale netting has began… the lakes walleyes populations have gone down, the native nets have gotten fuller, CPR of walleyes has gone way up, size limits of keepable fish has been tightened to a 2″ slot and the number of a limit has gone down to 1 and now none. Of all these things, which do you think hurt the fishery the most ?
From what I here around here, 10 Lines would not help you
Maybe a net would 
1.) Bulldogs suck
2.) 2 lines wouldn’t hurt the fishery.
3.) Bulldogs suck
Big_G
I think its time you do like every other walleye fisherman does…and that’s go fish where the fish are.
Horse is dead. You can kick it…But its still dead.
You might be mad the horse is dead, but no level of gripe will undo what killed the horse.
I quit fishing mille lacs a few years ago and haven’t looked back. I fish where the fish are. And mille Lacs, they are not!!
Very little can be done if you want to catch walleyes…except go where there are walleyes!
I once considered opening a resort…but what if the fishery was ruined over time. Dead business. I get that you love that fishery, but it isn’t that same fishery anymore man. Might not ever be.
A person has to weigh their stress and decide whether it is worth it to get all worked up.
I quit fishing mille lacs a few years ago and haven’t looked back. I fish where the fish are. And mille Lacs, they are not!!
Yeah unless you want to catch trophies! Lol the only reason (prior to the shutdown imo) not to fish Mille Lacs was if you really wanted keepers. Mille Lacs was and still is a great place for big walleyes, of which I am a big fan.
Won’t disagree with that BigWerm, however numbers of all sizes are not what they used to be.
I spent 3 solid winters up there and the draw was fish size and nothing else!!!
I also started to diversify beyond eyeballs around the time i quit fishing mille lacs and don’t find myself fishing for trophy eyes much anymore.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:</div>
I quit fishing mille lacs a few years ago and haven’t looked back. I fish where the fish are. And mille Lacs, they are not!!Yeah unless you want to catch trophies! Lol the only reason (prior to the shutdown imo) not to fish Mille Lacs was if you really wanted keepers. Mille Lacs was and still is a great place for big walleyes, of which I am a big fan.
There lies another part of the problem. A lot of those big fish are way past their prime as far as Egg laying goes. Most at this point are most likely sterile. Those big fish eat a ton of Bait though, Including young walleye. You just can not mess up the eco system like they did and not expect problems. How well have you done in the last few weeks on those big walleye up there?
For all the new members, this is what a hijacked thread looks like.
Bulldogs suck.
yes, taking your ball and going to play somewhere else is an option… since I have a cabin across the Hwy form the lake, I am not going anywhere. The easy thing to do is what you did, some people do that and that’s OK. If everybody did that, you’d just keep moving from one lake to the next until they are all decimated… I choose to not do that, but rather be a thorn and not simply go away.
Wasn’t this thread about bass? Delicious, delicious bass? 
Bass – Ick! Tastes to much like Loon.
Wasn’t this thread about bass? Delicious, delicious bass?
Yes, yes it was and the smallies on ML taste very good! The green bass on the other hand I won’t touch with a 10′ fork.
If everybody did that, you’d just keep moving from one lake to the next until they are all decimated
But all the others are not netted 
I am a bass fisherman #1 and walleye trolling weekend warrior 2-3x a year. The only thing that bothers me is when someone keeps large fish for a meal. As a guestimate I would say any bass over 15″ and any walleyes over 22 or 23″ I would release. As a “sport” fisherman 99% of the time I want to release the bigger fish to hopefully help us all catch that “Trophy” in the future. I have never kept bass to eat, but then again I have only kept 10 walleyes max in the last 3 years and none prior. I think keeping smaller bass is a great idea, especially in lakes with large stunted populations. Keeping a 20″ bass to eat just seems wrong, like keeping a 28″+ walleye for dinner.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
If everybody did that, you’d just keep moving from one lake to the next until they are all decimatedBut all the others are not netted
Plenty are…. and when you get too many balls playing on a field, it muddys up everybody’s game. 
Can’t disagree there big g.
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