FS Digest wrote:
Keeping mature spawners at any time during the year removes those eggs from the system. If I keep a 13 inch crappie in August, then that fish won’t be around to spawn the following spring. I’m not so sure the importance is calendar based so much as it is to release larger specimens of any species at anytime. I do understand that spawning fish can be more vulnerable to angling than at other times of the year.
--
by Bronze_Addict
You beat me to this response. On the other hand, here in the Deep South we tend to have more problems with overpopulation than with too few fish, especially in smaller lakes and ponds, and especially with largemouth bass. More need to be kept and eaten!