Todd and others,

I'm glad you mentioned the caudal fin specifically.

I've been culling many of the small bass at my mom's place by cutting the dorsal fin AND both pectoral fins off (and sometimes the anal fins too), thinking it would have the same effect of making the fish swim awkwardly and end up an easy meal for the larger LMB and BIG CCs.

My last trip out, I decided to keep a few of these 10" culls for the grill. I caught and strung about 12 of them, not really paying much attention to them other than making sure they were cull size.

For anyone who fillets fish often, the motions become very habitual. After about the 8th fish, I was getting distracted by something else (can' remember what it was). Without even looking at this one particular LMB, I reached down with my left thumb, as I always do, to flip up the pectoral fin so I could start the fillet knife behind the operculum.

I thought something was odd when my thumb didn't hit anything. It was only then that I looked down at the fish. It had NO pectoral fins and NO dorsal fin! It was one of my "culls" that had lived at least 6 months since my last attempt to end its life. It apparently was doing well enough to hit a spinnerbait.

The moral of my story: I'm keeping all cull LMB for the grill/frying pan, or I'm cutting the caudal fin COMPLETELY off so as to avoid this happening again.

"Only after sorrow's hand has bowed your head will life become truly real to you; then you will acquire the noble spirituality which intensifies the reality of life. I go to an all-powerful God. Beyond that I have no knowledge--no fear--only faith."