@TexChik anything less than 30 pounds or so gets a house autry suit and an oil bath. The big ones don't taste quite as good, and it's better business to leave giant breeders to keep the fun going.
@Notanymore We eat a lot of bass ( I catch most of those). My husband likes catfishing and we have a big pond for those. There is no real sport or guess work with those, but they thrive in there. The Average size Channel he keeps to fillet are the 8-10 pounders. The 5s would be fine but he likes the bigger ones. The really big ones he lets go back to fight another day. The Average bass I bring in to fillet are the 3-5 pounders that are untagged as yet. If only tagged fish bite and I'm hungry, they go down as predation losses