Why not drop the creel limit from 5 to 3, either during the spawning season or throughout the year?
A creel limit, or a limit on the number of fish kept by anglers, is set in order to effectively manage how much of the resource can be reasonably allocated to resource users. Managers may adjust creel limits based on annual mortality estimates, which are a function of the survivorship of younger fish to older ages. The degree to which the number of young fish survive to older ages is often called the instantaneous mortality rate. Currently, the populations of largemouth bass in the tournament-fished rivers of Maryland are robust and have instantaneous mortality levels that are lower or very similar to those reported elsewhere in the United States. Many states use a creel limit of 5 with the understanding that most anglers are releasing their fish alive. This prevents overfishing. Some tournament directors lower their creel from 5 to 3 in order to hasten the weigh-in and reduce the number of fish in live wells or release tanks. For national tournaments such as BASS and the BFL, one prob
