What I feel is an alarming trend

[Dave Stewart]

I have been guiding full time for 20 years now. For many years I guided from the end of February to the end of November with no days off (7 days a week) except for an occasional cancellation due to inclement weather conditions. I have seen the boat traffic continuously increase here on Ky/Barkley every year since my first year of guiding. About 10 years ago I was guiding on the 4th of July weekend and went through the canal that connects the two lakes. Half way through the canal I made a promise to God that if he would just let us survive until we got through the canal alive that I would never again guide on a holiday weekend...and since then I have never put my boat in the water on a holiday weekend. About 3 years ago while guiding on a Saturday during the summer my clients and I were fishing a ledge outside the navigation channels.....there was a Poker Run that day as well as a number of bass tournaments....3 times that day we came very close to being run over by packs of 90 mph cigar type boats and I lost count of how many times bass boats pulled up right beside us and started throwing their lures on the same spot we were fishing without saying a word to us...most close enough I could have stepped into their boat. I made the decision that day that I had enough of the summer weekend nonsense and I have not guided on a weekend between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend since. All this and I am working on the biggest freshwater water way in the country except for the Great Lakes. I can't even imagine what it is like now on Barren, Green, Rough, Cumberland, Dale, Herrington, Cave Run, Taylorsville and other lakes I fished many years ago before I moved here...it has to be a nightmare at best. I certainly can see why all the frustration here. I also do not know the answer to the problem. All I can say is that if everyone out there would practice the Golden Rule things would certainly be better but of course that would apply to every thing in life, but the problem is that there are some folks that just don't care about other folks. I do see that sometime in the future this will lead to more government regulations and restrictions....I am surprised actually that this has not already happened here in Kentucky....it has in some states already and that is one of the biggest reasons we get so many anglers from the northern states here.

[mhall]

I think that managing a lake for tournaments and managing a lake for quality fish can be one and the same. We live in KY. A 15" bass IS a quality fish in this state. It's not like 5 pounders are as much common place in lakes here as compared to Guntersville, Chick, or lakes in Florida and Texas. Dale Hollow is regulated to be a Trophy Smallmouth lake. Cumberland has an 18" size limit on SM and that is, without a doubt, a quality fish. I think a lot of you guys that want a slot limit on Cumberland only want it to run off the tournament guys. It won't! Look at Dale. It gets heavy tournament pressure and it has a slot limit.

Also, if you look at the tournament pressure that the previously mentioned lakes like Guntersville and Chickamauga get, you would see that the pressure put on Cumberland is not even close to theirs.

Your wrong about me I want the slot for several reasons.

1. To increase the average size and increase the number of quality fish. I love catching 18 smallmouth I have caught more than you can haul in a truck but 21 inch plus fish make me MUCH happier.
2. It will stop the 400 million Striper guides clients from taking every 18 inch fish home to a skillet they catch. Believe me that is huge on that lake. BTW I am not slamming the guides they are doing what is legal and most encourage their clients to release these fish but most do not.
3. And this is dead last to decrease some of the tournaments and yes it will slow them down just like it did at Dale and still is to a degree.

[mhall]

Has been a very nice discussion fellas and that never hurts as it makes us ''ALL'' think. There are two to three of you on here that think I hate tourney's...you are wrong. My original post and one I stand by states or at least I hope implied accumulative yes I know all about making 300 boats disappear on Cumberland I was boating there when a few of you that are reminding me that was in grade school dreaming of getting your first bass boat.

When is to much of anything....''to much''.....it has to be thought about and it has to be anwsered at some point. Yes there are A holes in all walks of life and this is not a good ole boy versus the Saturday KVD contest it is bigger than that in my opinion. I catch all kinds of fish and I am not worrying about that or blaming anybody I am trying to look at the big picture.

Stripernut and I talk about this often and he lives there and sees the madness every week. Trust me he has no problem catching fish either, LOL......

[mhall]

We must be brothers from different mothers. Smallies are just plain sacred to me and I take it they are for you too. But I chase mine more in the western part of the state (just not on Saturdays)...

kc

Yes sir they are the greatest fish that swims and sacred to me as well. BTW kc I will be catching them in two weeks in St Clair man I can't even sleep at night right now for the dreams.....

We just think we have smallmouth lakes here St Clair and the Great lakes are beyond good its not even close.

[Bobby Headrick]

That saturday in question there was 100 to 125 boats that took off from the dam, it was two tourneys and you could weigh your fish in both if you wanted, also that same sat there was a KBF, two high school, a local and maybe a renagade that took out at Conley, yes there was a lot of boats, but you can hide a lot on cland, lol. It is a shame that some that participate in this sport are a holes, but a holes are everywhere, the trouble is lack of respect. It seems that some people have no respect anymore. It is sad.

[Shellkat]

After the big tx 2 Saturday ago, I had to wait for an hour to get to the ramp. They had the weigh in at the top of the ramp shutting down most access with 75 people standing around and boats that wouldn't even get off the ramp. I picked up 3 side swimmming kys and put them in the cooler. That's my biggest gripe with tx, those fish might swim off but how many go belly up in an hour.

[Shellkat]

And I forgot the one that got must have got back to late to weigh in or knew his sack was too small flung his back in the water like they were snakes. And if you pull up close enough for me to step in your boat I probably will

[Z8NITRO]

In days past I used to argue quite vigorously on tournaments impact on the fisheries and although IMO there is no way it is a positive I agree that mother nature plays a stronger hand than fisherman. But I disagree with your comment on meat hunting. I think along with tournament fishing increasing so has the catch and release mindset. I have found most bass fisherman that are "meat hunters" are typically not that great of fishermen and often struggle to put them in the boat in the first place. And whenever there is this tournament vs pleasure discussion it is always where the tourney guys go to counter - blame the meat hunters...

kc

KC,

I could not disagree more with your statement that most "meat hunters" are not great fishermen. I personally know several very good anglers, very talented anglers, that can and do take home a limit of their biggest catch (bass) every time they go out, and they go out several times per week, especially in the spring when many are shallow. I am not speaking of one angler, or two anglers...I am speaking of several. While it is not a practice I support, that is their right. My point is, you cannot tell me their impact on the fishery, by each angler removing 20 - 40 of the largest bass in the lake every week, is any less than that of tournaments.

[GeoFisher]

Now I never said anything about closed seasons now, lets don't get carried away here, LOL....

I'm not advocating that.........but it could happen.......

[GeoFisher]

After the big tx 2 Saturday ago, I had to wait for an hour to get to the ramp. They had the weigh in at the top of the ramp shutting down most access with 75 people standing around and boats that wouldn't even get off the ramp. I picked up 3 side swimmming kys and put them in the cooler. That's my biggest gripe with tx, those fish might swim off but how many go belly up in an hour.

Na.............None of those tourney fish die......Not a single one. NEVER..........even in the middle of August when they catch them 50 miles away and run in 10 ft sees. NOTHING DIES, or they were close to dead anyways.

[mhall]

I would love to know the true mortality rate of red nosing a bass from daylight until 3 pm going 70 mph everywhere you go and then place it in a bag and stand in line for an hour then weigh it and bounce it around some more then show it off and take 20 pictures and then and only then walk down and chuck it back in churned up poor water where a hundred boat motors just peeded used water and then..................of course they swim off just as good as new.

[dabassking]

Na.............None of those tourney fish die......Not a single one. NEVER..........even in the middle of August when they catch them 50 miles away and run in 10 ft sees. NOTHING DIES, or they were close to dead anyways.

Come on, now... There's not a single tournament fisherman that has that mindset that you just so sarcastically alluded to. Yes, fish die due to tournament transport. Do enough die for people to make a big stink about it? Nope. Personally, I like to see those belly up fish go home with someone instead of them just float out and die for nothing. I know at every BFL that I have fished, there is a cooler that keeps the dead ones. They are supposed to get taken away to support the less fortunate. I'm not one that puts a knife to them, so I don't know if that really happens, but that's what is supposed to happen.