I agree with ya Dan... As far as I know, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, they are an invasive species in the far north. For example, Wickstead Lake. I have a buddy who fished that lake for years and never caught any bass.. One day I was up there and caught not one but two... he didn't believe me.. said there was no way there was bass in there... now theres plenty.
Its also a northern (and this is a generalization) thing to only fish for trout or pickeral, pike and bass are often left out.. I only started targeting bass recently after I found out how much fun they were to fish for. I do target pike alot, mainly cause they are nice and easy to catch... lol
Ill be doing alot of fishing where both Pike and Bass are open year round, and will be keeping and eating the bass till they start to get wormy... uuuuchhhh
As for the OOS fish debate... which we have had many many times before... I personally see it as a nitpicky argument on both sides, (I hope I don't get fired for saying this like Imus...) and to be honest the first time this came up in a thread years ago I thought someone was pulling my leg about the whole thing, I couldn't believe how serious both sides take the issue.
But they do..... so its best just to keep the pictures off the board and agree to disagree and get on with some different constructive conversations...