Let me see if I can straighten this out a little bit. First of all, very few, if any largemouth and smallmouth bass are planted in California. Conservation is VERY important to these species, probably even more so than calico bass. There is a HUGE amount of pressure on largemouth bass, from both tournaments and recreational anglers. I could get into the specifics, but that'll only take up space and stray away from the point at hand. I think what leapin bass is trying to say (I'm not trying to put words into anybody's mouth, so correct me if I'm wrong) is that he only wants to kill a fish if it's worth killing. Killing a 12" calico bass is not going to provide much meat, so he'd opt to kill a larger fish which would be of more benefit to him and his family. HOWEVER he also stated that he doesn't like to kill bass over like 3lbs, so he's stuck with a dillemna. That leaves like the 2lb. class of calico bass for him to eat. I know leapin bass, and trust me he's very conservation minded. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of him killing ANY calico bass, so there's nothin to worry about there.
-Brian