Awesome video man! Thanks for sharing! As far as releasing or keeping small bass, I have always been told to keep the small bass and release the bigger ones. The reason is the smaller bass are faster and eat more than larger bass thus increasing the damage to native populations. An additional benefit to this would be allowing a larger bass to get ever bigger.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 batteries are known to help the the water somehow idk read up about people throwing car batteries in the lake it’s kinda funny
cool footage, interesting to see how they are reacting to your worms underwater, very informative and I'm sure it will help a lot of guys catch more fish! I can't believe there was a battery inside that big guy
I finally got my first one ever this evening. I'm not one to be giving advice about these fish, took me 7 seasons to finally get a summer red. I am editing some underwater footage from last year though and that should be up in a couple of days.
you should go down to the train bridge we were there today nothing on our line but 6 fish got pulled out nice big fish too just thought I should tell you
@@adamsons2890 It's a rod tip that I found in a lake once and a junk reel and electrical tape :) ghetto I know. It's fairly hard to get a good hook set with a short rod, I'd recommend a stiff rod tip. Ice fishing rods tend to be really soft.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 Thanks,a stiff tip,that’s a good tip.I have lots of old rods and there’s a shipwreck in shallow water near the top of the Niagara river that holds lots of smallies. We’re on the Canadian side.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 its no biggie :). Unmarked bass, and until today I didn’t even realize they put the tags within the stomach. It would have definitely fooled me, as I always thought they would be inside attached to the inner wall of the belly.
Our bass here are stunting out bad due to C and R practices. Not that we need to kill them ALL, but some harvest definitely helps increase average size...
it's strange, in some lakes harvesting leads to more smaller fish and in others it leads to fewer large fish. I guess it all comes down to limiting factors on growth.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 it depends on what the goals are too. Zero harvest seems super bad, and using rotenone to remove every fish out of a lake seems bad too.. the middle ground, with an eye to harvesting what you can while keeping broodstock seems to be a good compromise. I am not a fisheries biologist, by the same token, I have watched C and R culture destroy our local big bass fishing...
@@werftv4580 I don't understand how C&R destroys bass fishing. What is the process there? Personally I don't do any catch and release unless it's a fish that's not legal to keep. My personal belief is that playing with a wild creature just for entertainment is wrong and way different from fishing for food. I know most anglers disagree with me on this, but that's ok, leads to interesting discussion.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 no disagreement from me there.. the idea is simple.. excruciatingly so, actually.. when you introduce fish to environments they don't belong, overpopulation is inevitable. without the natural species they evolved with, any factor can keep them well into 'vermin' status.. like here... a big LMB will make 500k babies potentially.. the bass guys focus on the bigger, female bass, while ignoring the smaller buck/male bass guarding the nests.. in reality, that giant female has passed her genetics around, while the buck bass has the important role of defending babies.. instead of not targeting the males, they put the C and R effort on the females....
@@petrhermanadventures9509 C&R can impact Bass fisheries in a negative way because the natural holding capacity of a lake is limited, so if there is no retention going on it only takes a few years for populations to get to infestation levels, which stunts their growth due to the limited amount of forage available.
Awesome video bro. How thick is your wet suit? I was thinking that maybe using a dive flag might be a good idea for snorkeling in places such as cultas. Im not sure if they still have boat rentals there, just a thought for safety my man. Most common sense/experienced boaters will give a kayak space but extra precautions might not be a bad idea on that particularly popular lake. Keep the underwater fishing videos coming!
The suit is a 5 mm open cell. It's actually too warm for that water, but I appreciate it in the winter time. Yeah, a dive flag would be smart, but you'd be surprised how many boaters don't even know what it is. Thanks for watching.
If I may add, it really helps to wear bright colours. I never snorkel/dive without wearing pink board shorts and usually a red/light blue rash guard. The same should also be applied to kayaking/paddle boarding, and even if you are riding on something you can easily fall off of in cultus (aka boat tubes). In short if you want to be seen, dress like so, and don’t wear all black.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 there’s nothing wrong with wearing black on a colder day like the video. I’d just be cautious of the warmer summer days. There are so many clueless dudes who race through the swim zones (jet skis seems to be a common trend). Never let your guard down if you snorkel near main beach.
Do you know if Fisheries management is leaning one way or another? I feel like if they are leaning towards eradication then just kill them all; I think it would be possible to remove almost all of them with concentrated fishing effort. And if you are going to eat them or use them in some way you might as well take it; my view is you are getting some tasty fish/having fun and helping the environment/lake. That's a huge battery! If it's a tag that would be interesting, I would think it would be too large to plant in a fish that small but idk. Thanks for the video!
I can tell you from bass fishing the lake religiously over the past 3 years, and from what I’ve found, that the possibility of eradicating these fish with a concentrated fishing effort is next to nothing at this point. I found this year was the second best for bass fishing on cultus despite the efforts over the past 4 years to eradicate them. I can say with certainty that these fish spawn on every part of the littoral zone in this lake, and are quite literally everywhere. I have another thing to add as to why I think it would be impossible to kill off all the bass in this lake. Theres one thing I have yet to see anyone point out, and that people have to understand about bass, and that fact is that these fish (older bass, young ones are hella dumb) are not as stupid of a species as people in the lower mainland say. They have the ability to adapt and learn (with limitations ofc) and Heavily pressured bass are harder to catch because they have focused on one or more of the warning signals produced by typical anglers. These things can vary from exposure to similar lures, noises from troll motors, sonar, boats, evidence of a line moving through water, unnatural movement, and or shape of a lure. What I’ve said also checks out from what we’ve seen in Petr’s videos. He’s recalled in a previous vid of how they almost seem scared of jigs or various other types of lures, and this is 100% true. When you factor in that a 3lb smallmouth bass can be anywhere from 3-10 years old you can see why catching larger bass can be very challenging, as they’ve been exposed to all these warnings signs over the course of a potential decade. As for what fisheries is leaning towards, I have heard a lot of them say that they don’t want the bass in the lake. However, I have also heard a great number of people working for fisheries say that they (don’t mind)/(like) them in the lake. With that being said, I think the higher ups in fisheries would prefer to remove them, but that won’t happen. As for previous efforts, they tried to do the same thing with pike minnow where they hired trolling vessels to net as many pike minnow as they could, and it didn’t prove very successful. Of course they weren’t trying to eradicate them, but their numbers came back after some time. If fisheries really cared, they would find some way to keep the bass in the lake while still allowing the salmon to swim into sweltzer. A more drastic approach would be to ditch the hatchery program in cultus and seal off cultus completely ensuring nothing gets out (this will have way more consequences). Last approach would be to poison the lake and start fresh (barbaric/bad ending and you’d kill off the threatened Pygmy sculpin species as well). It’s only a matter of time before these fish get into sumas and the vedder (to which the consequences of this situation are still unknown. It may be a very small problem or a potentially larger problem), and the only way I see this being prevented with conservation in mind is through the suggestions/opinions I made earlier.
Thanks Shaemus for your observations. Definitely they are not dumb. That one big bass had one look at the worm and high tailed it the other way. Of course my camera was only about 2 feet from the line, so that might have had something to do with it.
I've never eat a bass. I have just always catch and release bass. seems wierd to me to hear we gotta get those bass out a here lol. I've fished places that were over ran by bluegill and we were getting all the small blue gills out the pond but never bass
bluegill, crappie, pumpkinseed, perch, and especially carp are species I rarely see people talking about. Most of the folks out here probably don’t even realize pumpkinseed and blue gill are in key spawning grounds like the stave tributaries, catfish in sumas, perch in devils lake, L mouth bass in the Fraser/sumas/vedder canal/stave, carp in sumas/vedder canal, People just love to hate bass
@@shaemuswickham3168 lol I cuaght a warmouth bigger than my head when I was a kid. it was so thick! out of a little pond. I took it home and kept it for a while then released it into a big lake. only time I've seen one that size it was mounted on a wall I. a store!
These bass were delicious. Not as good as trout, but nice flaky white meat. They were recently (and illegally) introduced in this lake, hence the push to limit their numbers.
They are a great sporting fish that fights harder than any other fish pound for pound and they are delicious to eat. Not an invasive species at all. You should be happy to have them. Try keeping the slot fish and letting the rest thrive. Between 12"-14"
@@nmbr-1-lure 100% invasive. Bass are not native to BC. Considering the danger they cause to ‘at risk’ fish populations in Cultas lake they should be killed with extreme prejudice.
The minute the water warms up, they move into the shallows to spawn. It's been another cold spring, and I don't think we'll hit that point for another 3 weeks or so. But don't take my word for it, I'm no expert on this lake or this fishery. I will be going out there beginning of May to do some more snorkel fishing.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 thanks yeah usually 50 degrees it has been cold but I suspect April me guy hold a bite gunna go cranking in a week or two I'll let you know how it goes keep me posted if you hear anything thank as always
Cool, yeah I’m guessing they are there to stay it’s hard to eradicate small mouth, I wonder how they got there, there are few lakes in BC with them…. I guess introduced. Small mouth can co-exist reasonably well with lake trout in ON, so maybe it will be OK. Just eat them all.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 yes it is. I had a prime walleye lake, arguably the tastiest freshwater fish, a few spots have them introduced in BC, because someone introduced black crappie to fish and crappie eat their fry. A reduction of 90% on the walleye fishery, sad for a common panfish.
The trout are absolutely everywhere. The lower river has a lot of the small hatchery steelhead smolts, which are very easy to catch. Further up the trout have seen every presentation under the sun and are far more difficult to catch.
If there are carp there, I have never seen one in many snorkeling trips. We have them nearby in the Sumas, but they were introduced there over a hundred years ago. The smallmouth population has gone from none to thousands in just a few years, it's definitely a cause for concern. Already it's hard to find a juvenile crayfish, where a couple of years ago there were many. I don't hate bass, they're fun to catch and good to eat, but they don't belong there.
My outlook on invasion species its, its nature. Whether its human influence or not, it occurs under nature since technically everything IS nature which makes even the human input, natural. I have come to "trust" the universe in this way that nature is powerful enough to work everything out and that its all part of evolution. A certain bug may wipe out an entire species of tree, but maybe we dont known why the creation allowed for this to happen? Perhaps to make room for something "new" that we dont understand just yet. Kind of like human immigration, as I am open hearted towards. I feel like your board over there should only allow removal if consumed.
I absolutely agree that whatever will be, will be, but at the same time humans know very well that introducing new species to new places most often results in disaster for those already there. I never kill anything if I'm not going to eat it. Except wasps maybe, those things are evil.
I'm still trying to sort out my personal ethics with these fish. They are invasive in this lake, but on the other hand they are wild creatures just like all fish and don't deserve to be vilified.
Great video once again sir. Keep them coming and we will watch them
Thank you very much, without you all out there watching, I would not be making these.
Thank you 🙏
Awesome video man! Thanks for sharing! As far as releasing or keeping small bass, I have always been told to keep the small bass and release the bigger ones. The reason is the smaller bass are faster and eat more than larger bass thus increasing the damage to native populations. An additional benefit to this would be allowing a larger bass to get ever bigger.
For sure!
Thanks for the great video
thanks for watching and commenting.
Puts the battery back in the water 😂
Yeah, oops! I picked it up and then I lost it again packing up my stuff. A little embarrassing for me because I post a lot of clean up videos.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 batteries are known to help the the water somehow idk read up about people throwing car batteries in the lake it’s kinda funny
cool footage, interesting to see how they are reacting to your worms underwater, very informative and I'm sure it will help a lot of guys catch more fish! I can't believe there was a battery inside that big guy
Thanks for the comment. The jury is still out as to whether that was a battery or an implanted acoustical tag from a research study.
Hey petr are you going to make a video on red spring fishing in the vedder and love the video by the way
I finally got my first one ever this evening. I'm not one to be giving advice about these fish, took me 7 seasons to finally get a summer red. I am editing some underwater footage from last year though and that should be up in a couple of days.
Ok
you should go down to the train bridge we were there today nothing on our line but 6 fish got pulled out nice big fish too just thought I should tell you
@@graysonfishy Thanks for the info. So much river, so little time!
Eat it as long as you're aware of the consumption advisories, and the minimum length for keeping.
Where we live, there are no size limits for bass, and tbh people don’t care about the daily 20 bass limit if they catch more than so.
Lucky for us this is a clean lake. The bass are invasive, so there is no minimum size.
You don't listen do you?
@@rossholley4126 is this to me or OP
Great video. I’d like to try that in Lake Erie.
Go for it! It's not more productive than boat fishing, but it's a lot of fun.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 Yes, Is that an ice fishing rod you’re using?
@@adamsons2890 It's a rod tip that I found in a lake once and a junk reel and electrical tape :) ghetto I know. It's fairly hard to get a good hook set with a short rod, I'd recommend a stiff rod tip. Ice fishing rods tend to be really soft.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 Thanks,a stiff tip,that’s a good tip.I have lots of old rods and there’s a shipwreck in shallow water near the top of the Niagara river that holds lots of smallies. We’re on the Canadian side.
Just don't swim too far down the river, I hear there's a bit of a rapid there :)
Interesting I’ve always wanted to try this you got a new subscriber
Thanks for the sub!
Great video petr👍👍🎣🎣
Thanks for the comment and also thanks for watching!
More snorkel fishing videos please!
I will do a few more in the spring when the bass are in the shallows again. Too busy with Salmon fishing now.
Crazy the thing ate the batter lol
Looked more like an acoustic telemetry tag.
Too bad I lost it, now I'm not sure if it was a battery or an implanted tag. I don't know what the tags look like, so I assumed it was a battery.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 its no biggie :). Unmarked bass, and until today I didn’t even realize they put the tags within the stomach. It would have definitely fooled me, as I always thought they would be inside attached to the inner wall of the belly.
There's a limit to bass fishing in some states.
The limit on this lake is 20 per day, I don't know anyone who would actually keep that many.
Bass are an invasive species in this area , Which should be Salmon and Trout
Our bass here are stunting out bad due to C and R practices. Not that we need to kill them ALL, but some harvest definitely helps increase average size...
it's strange, in some lakes harvesting leads to more smaller fish and in others it leads to fewer large fish. I guess it all comes down to limiting factors on growth.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 it depends on what the goals are too. Zero harvest seems super bad, and using rotenone to remove every fish out of a lake seems bad too.. the middle ground, with an eye to harvesting what you can while keeping broodstock seems to be a good compromise. I am not a fisheries biologist, by the same token, I have watched C and R culture destroy our local big bass fishing...
@@werftv4580 I don't understand how C&R destroys bass fishing. What is the process there? Personally I don't do any catch and release unless it's a fish that's not legal to keep. My personal belief is that playing with a wild creature just for entertainment is wrong and way different from fishing for food. I know most anglers disagree with me on this, but that's ok, leads to interesting discussion.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 no disagreement from me there.. the idea is simple.. excruciatingly so, actually.. when you introduce fish to environments they don't belong, overpopulation is inevitable. without the natural species they evolved with, any factor can keep them well into 'vermin' status.. like here... a big LMB will make 500k babies potentially.. the bass guys focus on the bigger, female bass, while ignoring the smaller buck/male bass guarding the nests.. in reality, that giant female has passed her genetics around, while the buck bass has the important role of defending babies.. instead of not targeting the males, they put the C and R effort on the females....
@@petrhermanadventures9509 C&R can impact Bass fisheries in a negative way because the natural holding capacity of a lake is limited, so if there is no retention going on it only takes a few years for populations to get to infestation levels, which stunts their growth due to the limited amount of forage available.
Awesome video bro. How thick is your wet suit? I was thinking that maybe using a dive flag might be a good idea for snorkeling in places such as cultas. Im not sure if they still have boat rentals there, just a thought for safety my man. Most common sense/experienced boaters will give a kayak space but extra precautions might not be a bad idea on that particularly popular lake. Keep the underwater fishing videos coming!
The suit is a 5 mm open cell. It's actually too warm for that water, but I appreciate it in the winter time. Yeah, a dive flag would be smart, but you'd be surprised how many boaters don't even know what it is. Thanks for watching.
If I may add, it really helps to wear bright colours. I never snorkel/dive without wearing pink board shorts and usually a red/light blue rash guard. The same should also be applied to kayaking/paddle boarding, and even if you are riding on something you can easily fall off of in cultus (aka boat tubes). In short if you want to be seen, dress like so, and don’t wear all black.
Good point. I only really go there on rainy crap days so I have the place mostly to myself.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 there’s nothing wrong with wearing black on a colder day like the video. I’d just be cautious of the warmer summer days. There are so many clueless dudes who race through the swim zones (jet skis seems to be a common trend). Never let your guard down if you snorkel near main beach.
Do you know if Fisheries management is leaning one way or another? I feel like if they are leaning towards eradication then just kill them all; I think it would be possible to remove almost all of them with concentrated fishing effort. And if you are going to eat them or use them in some way you might as well take it; my view is you are getting some tasty fish/having fun and helping the environment/lake.
That's a huge battery! If it's a tag that would be interesting, I would think it would be too large to plant in a fish that small but idk.
Thanks for the video!
The daily limit is 20. So fisheries is indicating that we should be taking as much as we want. However it's not legal in B.C. to waste your catch.
I can tell you from bass fishing the lake religiously over the past 3 years, and from what I’ve found, that the possibility of eradicating these fish with a concentrated fishing effort is next to nothing at this point. I found this year was the second best for bass fishing on cultus despite the efforts over the past 4 years to eradicate them. I can say with certainty that these fish spawn on every part of the littoral zone in this lake, and are quite literally everywhere.
I have another thing to add as to why I think it would be impossible to kill off all the bass in this lake. Theres one thing I have yet to see anyone point out, and that people have to understand about bass, and that fact is that these fish (older bass, young ones are hella dumb) are not as stupid of a species as people in the lower mainland say. They have the ability to adapt and learn (with limitations ofc) and Heavily pressured bass are harder to catch because they have focused on one or more of the warning signals produced by typical anglers. These things can vary from exposure to similar lures, noises from troll motors, sonar, boats, evidence of a line moving through water, unnatural movement, and or shape of a lure. What I’ve said also checks out from what we’ve seen in Petr’s videos. He’s recalled in a previous vid of how they almost seem scared of jigs or various other types of lures, and this is 100% true. When you factor in that a 3lb smallmouth bass can be anywhere from 3-10 years old you can see why catching larger bass can be very challenging, as they’ve been exposed to all these warnings signs over the course of a potential decade.
As for what fisheries is leaning towards, I have heard a lot of them say that they don’t want the bass in the lake. However, I have also heard a great number of people working for fisheries say that they (don’t mind)/(like) them in the lake. With that being said, I think the higher ups in fisheries would prefer to remove them, but that won’t happen.
As for previous efforts, they tried to do the same thing with pike minnow where they hired trolling vessels to net as many pike minnow as they could, and it didn’t prove very successful. Of course they weren’t trying to eradicate them, but their numbers came back after some time. If fisheries really cared, they would find some way to keep the bass in the lake while still allowing the salmon to swim into sweltzer. A more drastic approach would be to ditch the hatchery program in cultus and seal off cultus completely ensuring nothing gets out (this will have way more consequences). Last approach would be to poison the lake and start fresh (barbaric/bad ending and you’d kill off the threatened Pygmy sculpin species as well). It’s only a matter of time before these fish get into sumas and the vedder (to which the consequences of this situation are still unknown. It may be a very small problem or a potentially larger problem), and the only way I see this being prevented with conservation in mind is through the suggestions/opinions I made earlier.
Thanks Shaemus for your observations. Definitely they are not dumb. That one big bass had one look at the worm and high tailed it the other way. Of course my camera was only about 2 feet from the line, so that might have had something to do with it.
2:42 I believe it is illegal in BC to keep live fish on a stringer.
I've never eat a bass. I have just always catch and release bass. seems wierd to me to hear we gotta get those bass out a here lol. I've fished places that were over ran by bluegill and we were getting all the small blue gills out the pond but never bass
bluegill, crappie, pumpkinseed, perch, and especially carp are species I rarely see people talking about. Most of the folks out here probably don’t even realize pumpkinseed and blue gill are in key spawning grounds like the stave tributaries, catfish in sumas, perch in devils lake, L mouth bass in the Fraser/sumas/vedder canal/stave, carp in sumas/vedder canal, People just love to hate bass
@@shaemuswickham3168 lol I cuaght a warmouth bigger than my head when I was a kid. it was so thick! out of a little pond. I took it home and kept it for a while then released it into a big lake. only time I've seen one that size it was mounted on a wall I. a store!
These bass were delicious. Not as good as trout, but nice flaky white meat. They were recently (and illegally) introduced in this lake, hence the push to limit their numbers.
They are a great sporting fish that fights harder than any other fish pound for pound and they are delicious to eat. Not an invasive species at all. You should be happy to have them. Try keeping the slot fish and letting the rest thrive. Between 12"-14"
@@nmbr-1-lure 100% invasive. Bass are not native to BC. Considering the danger they cause to ‘at risk’ fish populations in Cultas lake they should be killed with extreme prejudice.
Hello brother you think it's good time to start hitting up smallies in this lake now
The minute the water warms up, they move into the shallows to spawn. It's been another cold spring, and I don't think we'll hit that point for another 3 weeks or so. But don't take my word for it, I'm no expert on this lake or this fishery. I will be going out there beginning of May to do some more snorkel fishing.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 thanks yeah usually 50 degrees it has been cold but I suspect April me guy hold a bite gunna go cranking in a week or two I'll let you know how it goes keep me posted if you hear anything thank as always
Cool, yeah I’m guessing they are there to stay it’s hard to eradicate small mouth, I wonder how they got there, there are few lakes in BC with them…. I guess introduced. Small mouth can co-exist reasonably well with lake trout in ON, so maybe it will be OK. Just eat them all.
100% someone put them in there because they like fishing for bass. A horrible and selfish thing to do.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 yes it is. I had a prime walleye lake, arguably the tastiest freshwater fish, a few spots have them introduced in BC, because someone introduced black crappie to fish and crappie eat their fry. A reduction of 90% on the walleye fishery, sad for a common panfish.
I know you snorkel Alot in vedder river any chance you can let me know where in vedder river you have seen or know where a lot of trout are.
The trout are absolutely everywhere. The lower river has a lot of the small hatchery steelhead smolts, which are very easy to catch. Further up the trout have seen every presentation under the sun and are far more difficult to catch.
New sub! Liked 🙏🙏😚😚😄
Welcome aboard, and thanks for the comment. It helps the algorithm promoting videos.
Mmmmmm…battery fish
Is there any salmon like Kokanee in this lake ?
Cultus Lake has ocean going sockeye. Their population is considered endangered and only the local hatchery is sustaining their population.
Have you ever tried wrist fishing rod?
Nope, I'm not even sure what that is.
You have carp in that lake and you're worried about smallmouth. Your priorities are improperly aligned.
If there are carp there, I have never seen one in many snorkeling trips. We have them nearby in the Sumas, but they were introduced there over a hundred years ago. The smallmouth population has gone from none to thousands in just a few years, it's definitely a cause for concern. Already it's hard to find a juvenile crayfish, where a couple of years ago there were many. I don't hate bass, they're fun to catch and good to eat, but they don't belong there.
I bonk em , dog food
Good people food too, I enjoyed mine and I'm a spoiled salmon brat.
Try using a small spoon
I was told worms were best, but I think you're right I should try different things. Just learning about bass, as they were recently introduced here.
My outlook on invasion species its, its nature. Whether its human influence or not, it occurs under nature since technically everything IS nature which makes even the human input, natural.
I have come to "trust" the universe in this way that nature is powerful enough to work everything out and that its all part of evolution. A certain bug may wipe out an entire species of tree, but maybe we dont known why the creation allowed for this to happen? Perhaps to make room for something "new" that we dont understand just yet.
Kind of like human immigration, as I am open hearted towards.
I feel like your board over there should only allow removal if consumed.
I absolutely agree that whatever will be, will be, but at the same time humans know very well that introducing new species to new places most often results in disaster for those already there. I never kill anything if I'm not going to eat it. Except wasps maybe, those things are evil.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 Lol
price of crap small mouth bass are awesome let me go
Bass can be delicious but please try and only eat bass that are in the range of 2-3lbs, gotta give the younger ones a chance to grow and breed!
I'm still trying to sort out my personal ethics with these fish. They are invasive in this lake, but on the other hand they are wild creatures just like all fish and don't deserve to be vilified.
@@petrhermanadventures9509 its tough if they hurt the salmon population, but if they don't you now have an AWESOME game fish in your lake
Eat it as long as you're aware of the consumption advisories, and the minimum length for keeping.
Neither of those are a concern in this lake. No minimum size and a daily limit of 20.