Hey no worries, no offense taken. I enjoy debating these kinds of topics in a friendly manner.

I completely understand that you may have different reasons for not killing saltwater bass. I do realize that calicos are very slow growing and that is an excellent reason to not want to kill them. However, I just didn't think that your reasoning about not wanting to kill calicos only because you couldn't get enough meat off of them was the best reason. I agree that it makes sense to target "larger" species, as you originally insinuated, but I wanted to add that fast growth and reproduction were also very important. The main reason I mentioned this is because not all "larger" species grow and reproduce quickly. Conversely, not all "small" species of fish grow slowly like calicos do. Enough of that...

As far as the freshwater/saltwater bass thing goes... I was merely trying to point out that most local (i.e. SB/Ventura) lakes and reservoirs are man-made (I'm not referring to every freshwater lake in America). Therefore, and tell me if I'm off base here but, any bass caught in these local lakes should be non-native. Somebody had to put them in there originally and I don't think it was a divine act. Sure, there is no question that they reproduce in these lakes but that was not my point. I also understand why tournament and recreational bass anglers would want to practice conservation so they can return to these local lakes year after year and catch fish. But my opinion is that because these local freshwater bass are non-native, it seems more important to conserve and preserve the native calicos and sand bass. That's all...