Personally, I think it's a misconception to think that just because the fish and wildlife people set a "limit" at a certain number of fish then it's OK to take that number with the belief that they either want you to take fish or that it's good to thin the lake out by taking that many. In most of our Oklahoma lakes, the limit for bass, for example, is set statewide with the limit the same for the very prolific lakes in the Eastern part of the state as for the very sparsely populated lakes in the West. I have a good feel for some of these lakes because I tournament fish and because I'm reading the electroshock surveys. Those of us here in the West wouldn't think of keeping bass from some of these sparsely populated lakes even though the limit is 5. I think a better indication of lakes that the fish and wildlife people actually want you to keep fish from is where they set a slot limit. Those are lakes that normally have a disproportionately large number of small, maybe stunted fish and they want you to keep the fish under the "slot". The limits set by the wildlife department are done for many reasons some of which are convenience, to prevent confusion as to different limits on different lakes and to simply keep people happy who just like to keep fish. So, I encourage you to consider the population of your lake before keeping fish and not just rely on the wildlife people to take care of things. If you fish the lake on a regular basis, you may know more about the condition of the lake than they do. Use your own good judgment.