2 days on Bantam, on the smallies

[mungo544]

Nice 2 day outing at least 15 bass over 2 days nothing under 2 lbs. My 2 buddies never caught a bass thru the ice before!

[mr tip up]

 nice two days of fishing  hows bantams ice

[pikeaholic]

are you keeping all those smallies?

[lowaccord66]

are you keeping all those smallies?

Of course they are, they needed to kill them for the sweet group picture! 

[mr tip up]

are you keeping all those smallies?

                                               i hope not

[mungo544]

are you keeping all those smallies?

We kept the four on the ice, made over 5 lbs. of fillets.
 All the rest went back.

[mungo544]

Of course they are, they needed to kill them for the sweet group picture!

That is a ridiculous statement but expected from certain personalities in this group. I actually told my buddy there would be a dumb comment or two about keeping bass to eat but he didn't believe me. I can't wait till he reads this he will get a real kick out of it! (thanks lowboy for living down to your reputation) There is no shortage of bass in Bantam lake and it is legal to keep bass over 12 inches anytime of year. I have a bass boat and do catch and release after ice out, but that is mainly because the fish doesn't taste as good once the water warms up.  Additionally, bass caught in tournaments that sit in undersized live wells have a high death rate. Read this article if you don't believe me.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/hunting-fishing/in-catch-and-release-angling-competitions-freed-bass-still-face-risk-351976/

 The pros could care less whether those fish live or die as long as they get their prize money. Give me a break.  People eat fish, in case you never noticed. Winter bass is some of the best tasting fresh water fish imho. 

[mungo544]

nice two days of fishing  hows bantams ice

Edges are going away fast but there was 6 to eight inches of good ice under about 2 inches of slush where we were fishing. Best bet for fishing this week is probably the sandy beach side of Marsh Point.

[mr tip up]

thanks 544 for the info dont think its going to last to much longer

[lowaccord66]

Mungo I was joking, the hell if I care what you do with Your fish.  Stop being so sensitive!

[Tom G]

Congrats, nice smallies. I also will keep a few cold water smallies for the fryer. Great tasting
fish.

Don't apologize or explain yourself for keeping a few fish for the table. It is within the legal limit.

Is anyone surprised that certain individual here would make a wise  comment about your catch? Ignore it.

"It is best to keep your mouth shut and have people think that you are a fool, than open it, and erase all doubt."

Again, nice smallies. Enjoy your fish fry.

[THE JIGGER]

Nice fish Congrats .

[mungo544]

Congrats, nice smallies. I also will keep a few cold water smallies for the fryer. Great tasting
fish.

Don't apologize or explain yourself for keeping a few fish for the table. It is within the legal limit.

Is anyone surprised that certain individual here would make a wise a$$ comment about your catch? Ignore it.

"It is best to keep your mouth shut and have people think that you are a fool, than open it, and erase all doubt."

Again, nice smallies. Enjoy your fish fry.

That is one of my favorite quotes, pretty sure it is from Mark Twain. Thanks.

[Kokanee King]

Rediculous, they should be released.  There is no reason to keep them.  Nice fish, but very dissapointed. 

[justjohn]

your not allowed to keep bass in ct.?

[Jessox80]

One might get that impression.
So it's okay to use live bait, but not okay to keep/kill other live fish because....
As long as they go on the table or the wall, it's silly to chide anyone for keeping legal fish. Nice catches, congrats on the smallies.

[moose444]

Lighten up KK. There is no problem keeping a few winter fish for the table for heavens sake. Especially this time of year when their flesh is the tastiest...Yum...Don't judge by one photo

[lowaccord66]

One might get that impression.
So it's okay to use live bait, but not okay to keep/kill other live fish because....
As long as they go on the table or the wall, it's silly to chide anyone for keeping legal fish. Nice catches, congrats on the smallies.

Agreed, although you are not allowed to joke about the subject 

[mungo544]

Rediculous, they should be released.  There is no reason to keep them.  Nice fish, but very dissapointed.

See Mike, I told you there would be a few dumb comments about eating smallmouth bass. (legal in all states that have them). Glad you had a good time, enjoy the fillets.

[Kokanee King]

Review the pics, he kept five.  The blood bath on the Sallies, and one picture with Larry and three Sallies.  The math does not add up.  How many more did he keep?  Let them fight for another day,  they would have been some great fish to catch through the ice next year.  Food for thought.

[egriffin70]

Rediculous, they should be released.  There is no reason to keep them.  Nice fish, but very dissapointed.

    Awww, I am sure they are dissapointed also in having a nice meal in the ones they took home.  They should have thrown them back and got that new fish sandwich at McDonalds instead.

Amazing the comments people get about fish in the CT boards.

[Kokanee King]

Ummm, tasty.  Round worms and parasites are great eating in warm water fish on a bun.  Last comment, enjoy.

[mungo544]

The largemouth in the group photo was just caught just b4 the pic was taken, barely hooked on a hali jig with 4 lb test. The hook fell out of his mouth as I lipped him. Took the photo ad threw him back. By the way I jigged up three more smallies with small shiners hooked in the dorsal with a small split shot 6 inches above the hook  and they all went back down the hole. We caught at least 12 bass on Saturday, all keepers, only one bass smaller than the ones on the ice. I didn't post all my photos. On Sunday we caught several more bass, all at least 2 lbs and  also jigged up a 24 inch pike with the hali on 4 lb. test. Took awhile to land him it was the most fun I had ice fishing ever. My close friend and his son drove up from Pa. to fish hard water , neither one ever caught a bass through the ice b4 and neither one ever caught a smallmouth as big as the ones in those pictures. As I said believe me or not I don't give a crap, we kept the four smallies on the ice, and sent all the fillets home with my friend (equivalent quality fish would probably cost at least 10 bucks a pound at the fish market) so my friends pretty much paid for their out of state licenses with their catch. As a commercial striper fisherman I am sure lowboy can appreciate that. I won't apologize for keeping well below the legal limit for fresh water fish. As a group we could have kept every single fish we caught over the two days. Get over your love affair with smallies, they are pretty but they are also delicious.

[waltsfishing]

  better to take them home and eat them than leave them on the ice!!!!!

[jebra]

How this thread turned into a somewhat of a pissing match is weird. Mungo you had a GREAT catch and part of your reward is enjoying the fillets!

Keep in mind some guys have agendas when it comes to their promoting "catch and release". The first that comes to mind is, of course envy. The less obvious reason is that they lack the skill/knowledge to do a good job filleting fish themselves. So they figure if they release all of their fish, why don't you?

Happy eating to ya!

[pikemanEd]

I love eating bass in the winter very good tasting and ct and bantam has more then enough bass to go around the state put a 5 per person limit if they were in any kind of trouble the limit would be redused  good job taken what you can eat and letting the rest go

[x182dan]

Nice smallies!!!  It seems like bantam has a pretty good small mouth population which it never used to have.  I prefer catch and release but to each their own I don't care what other people do as long as the rules/laws are followed.

so are winter bass better tasting than summer bass if so why?

[mungo544]

I found this on another fishing forum. Makes sense.


As far as freshwater fish are concerned, fish caught in the cold months are less likely to be affected by odors and tastes caused by the plant life in the waters and active organisms. For example LMB is well known for tasting entirely different if caught in summer or winter. Same for Carp. I'd say this holds true for all warm water species including of course perch. This coupled with the better preservation in cold water.
There is one other factor and it affects both fresh and saltwater fish. When the water temperature is low the musculatureof the flesh tightens and this to most people makes the fish "taste" better. You can test this by taking a filet
caught in the summer and put it in a bowl of ice water for 10 minutes. The filet will be much firmer than before. I believe this is the main reason ocean fish from "cold waters" tends to be better than from the tropics.

[lowaccord66]

Nice smallies!!!  It seems like bantam has a pretty good small mouth population which it never used to have.  I prefer catch and release but to each their own I don't care what other people do as long as the rules/laws are followed.

so are winter bass better tasting than summer bass if so why?

Ive had smallies there slam swimbaits I use for pike.  Theu taste better in the winter because they are not growing and have less oil in the flesh.  All and all I'd say Bantam has a awesome fishery.

[P.Dona]

I have no problem with taking a limit of bass to eat.  I run 2 Catch and kill Bass tournaments in our private trout club.  The lake is a mile long, and averages 12-20 ft deep with depths up to 36 ft.  It's  8 bass, in a slot limit of 10"-12" , heaviest weight wins.  Afterwards we fillet , deep fry and enjoy . We do this in May and September and we took near 100 out last year.  We initiated a bass slot for our club last year basically like the bass management lakes do.  There are TONS of stunted bass in there.  We'll see how it works out in the years to come.  I'll be interested to see how they taste from the different seasons, now.