Keeping Bass?

[wiperhunter2]

 Remember, those large fish have the genetics to produce big fish,  so if you take em out of the system, you are left with genetics that produce smaller fish.

I agree with Kent, I don't buy that conclusion. I think fish will grow to the size of the space they are in and if there are too many in that space they will never reach their full potential but that in no way means that their genetics change and they will only get so big once those smaller fish are removed. IMO taking out those larger and smaller fish are important because those bigger bass produce more offspring which crowds a already overflow of smaller fish. True a good number of those young of the year will be eaten but it still leaves more fish in a already crowded system, so removing some of those big female is a good thing, IMO. I think there should be a limit on how many of those bigger fish are kept but that is why there is a limit. Almost any man made lake in the West will do good in the first 10 or 15 yrs after they are built because of all the decomposing wood and other nutrients that are available. Unless it is a shallow, with a lot of weed growth, lakes that were once great fisheries, for species like bass, can become depleted of those nutrients that grew those big bass, so the size of those bigger fish declines as well. Of course it does not help when there is an over abundance of little bass competing for the available food but it is a big jump to say the genetics would change because of that.