Good question Rich.
When I'm fishing I will only take a fish under certain conditions.
In the past I was always complete catch and release, unless the fish was hooked somewhere and was bleeding from the gills. If I feel the fish isn't going to make it for any number of reasons and it's legal sized I'd snap a picture of it and take it home.
Every other fish gets a picture snapped if I have a camera (and more than not I don't) and released. I like to give a fish a nice one over. I enjoy inspecting the size of their jaws and colors. I will more often than not swim a big fish for a few minutes and you'll know when she's ready to go by the broad tail slap in the face of water
Come back again sweetie
In the past few years though I will take 1-2 legal fish per year if they meet my criteria. Clean of myco, 30-38" slot and healthy looking. Them is good friggin eatin fish man. My family does enjoy every bit of it. We get several meals out of a good fish and doesn't go to waste. I'm not the best fileter but I learned from my bigcat the wizard some tricks on how to do the stuff.
Now if you take a fish how long before you gut it.. Experts will tell you as soon as possible. Obviously you don't want the fish to get warm, it's going to spoil. Then again you see people in 3rd world countries catching stuff, leaving it out in the boat all day then bringing it to market the next day...and these people eat all of this. yick.
Soda bottle enema on the boat for a tuna, those are bled immediately on catch. Stick it in a cooler with a slurry of seawater. All fish will stay wicked cold that way. On the beach that's hard to do unless you got a truck out there. If you walk out there then most will bury a bass in the sand somewhere and it will stay out of the sun/stay cool. Just make sure you mark the place
You can't legally filet a fish on the beach and walk off with the filets. You should leave the fish intact and it's ok to when you get home. If you can wrap it in something that's even better.
There's got to be a bazillion videos on utube that shows how to filet a bass. Those are not hard. Rapala makes a decent cheap filet knife with a included sharpener. My sawzall makes a mean tuna steak
Keep your knife pisser sharp. Descale it outside on your lawn them frickin things go everywhere