Weigh in question for the FLW on Barren

[BigPoppy]

Went by Wally world earlier tonight and saw the FLW trailer and a about 30 or 40 boats, these folks were having a weigh in at the parking lot here in glasgow 10 miles from the nearest boat ramp, exactly how were they handling the return of the fish to the lake? I heard one man say there was a trailer with a airated tank on site and that the fish were being placed in it to be returned later. I did not see such a tank, but I did see lots of live wells spraying water out coming around corners while coming through town. While I can see the big draw for having the weigh in in town it seems a little hard on the fish. I am not ranting or against the tourny but they say there are more than 100 boats in this one now that has a potential of catching thousands of fish and up to a thousand to be brought to weigh in. I was wondering how do they handle this big of load of living fish. I know beaver creek is just a half mile down the road but it is not all that full and to release that many in that small branch it would take an a very long time to make it back to the lake. This may be a dumb question for some of you but I was taught the dumb question was the one not ask. so please educate this old hillbilly.

Dennis

[biggw]

I just went to the FLW pages could not find where they were having a tour. on Barren----What gives????????//

[R19]

If my memory is correct FLW has threee divisions. FLW Tour, Everstart Series and BFL. The FLW Tour is the Pros that travel and fish for a living. Everstart Series has a few pros that fish in it. They are mainly working thier way up to the big series FLW Tour. The BFL is what I refer to a starting ground to work your way up into the Everstart or Tour series. The BFL entries are less expensive and that series has more of what I refer as hard core weekend tournament anglers that really have no desire to become pro but want to fish in a highly organized profesionaly run circut.

As for the handling of the fish...The Everstart Tour Championship was held on Lake Cumberland in 04-05? I went to watch the weigh in and trust me they know how to handle fish. The fish were put in holding tanks with oxygen and tempature sensros so they can moniter the health of the fish. They had the tank on a poontoon boat and launched it into the lake drove around and released fish in differant areas .

I have a friend fishing in the tournament this weekend. If my memory is correct he said there was 125 entries for 2 days so it is safe to assume they will not be handling thousands of fish. If the entire field boater and non boater had a limit that would just be 1050 fish. The entier field willl not have a limit.

R19

[Danny]

If my memory is correct FLW has threee divisions. FLW Tour, Everstart Series and BFL. The FLW Tour is the Pros that travel and fish for a living. Everstart Series has a few pros that fish in it. They are mainly working thier way up to the big series FLW Tour. The BFL is what I refer to a starting ground to work your way up into the Everstart or Tour series. The BFL entries are less expensive and that series has more of what I refer as hard core weekend tournament anglers that really have no desire to become pro but want to fish in a highly organized profesionaly run circut.

As for the handling of the fish...The Everstart Tour Championship was held on Lake Cumberland in 04-05? I went to watch the weigh in and trust me they know how to handle fish. The fish were put in holding tanks with oxygen and tempature sensros so they can moniter the health of the fish. They had the tank on a poontoon boat and launched it into the lake drove around and released fish in differant areas .

I have a friend fishing in the tournament this weekend. If my memory is correct he said there was 125 entries for 2 days so it is safe to assume they will not be handling thousands of fish. If the entire field boater and non boater had a limit that would just be 1050 fish. The entier field willl not have a limit.

R19

Just an FYI, in addition to the divisions listed above, they also have an FLW Series. This series is also a Pro level circuit. It was created when BASS went through their most recent changes and started cutting the field size down to their ultimate goal of only 100 Pros.

The FLW series also has a few different rules than the FLW tour. Erwin Jacobs let the ex-BASS guys design the tournaments and rules.

Danny

[BigPoppy]

ok Let me make my statement a little more clear I am not talking just the limit of fish, I live here in Barren county and believe me when I tell you there are a lot more short fish get caught than keepers. I also know enough about tourny guys culling smaller fish, which is one thing I really do not agree with, as far as i am concerned you remove the fish from the lake for more than a few minutes it should be yours to weigh in. Now that it has cooled off a lot it won't be as hard on the fish once the water cools to match the air any way. So there was no way that I thought every fisherman would bring in a limit to weigh in but I have fished Barren enough that if you fish it hard and know what you are doing you will get plenty of hook ups wether you can keep them or not. Every year it gets alittle harder to come up with good numbers of big fish, it might be time to change up some ideas and ease up some of the preasure on some of the more popular lakes, like big fish challenges where each entry gets that one shot to weigh in. same number of fish may be caught but fewer would be hauled in a live well all day. I don't want to open a can of worms about the evils of profit fishing. just wondered why the weigh in was set up so far from the lake, but with a 125 fishing glad I did not go. way to many high HP motors for my taste even on 10,000 acres.

[RC5]

I made it to the second day last year and what they did was as soon as we got out of the water they gave us a packet of Rejuvenade and some ice. They then looked in your livewell and saw how many fish you had alive/dead and documented, and if they died in transport you they would still have 5 alive. You then drove to Walmart and parked your boat and truck and waited for you name to be called... The first day they weigh in at the ramp top 19 qualifiers co-anglers and boaters qualify for next day.

[zx150]

For the FLW that was in Louisville they put the fish in a tank that was by the stage. I was told they put the fish on a boat and scatter the fish release all over the body of water. I agree that out fish could have been handled a little better. A couple of times the fish were kept out of the water for several minutes for a picture. I wish they would put them back in the tank a little quicker.

I was also told that FLW gave a very large check to help the fish restoration project on the river. I could be wrong but that is what I was told. Ryan.

[stevec]

This is the BFL super tournament on barren..I fish the BFL/LBL these guys are all about fish preservation..they take every precaution to protecet the fish and get them released alive and well

[Col Forbin]

I agree with Steve. I have been involved with several FLW/BFL tournaments, and they handle the fish extremely well. They have an extremely high release rate. I don't, however, see the point of having the weigh in that far from the lake. Is a BFL tourney really going to attract that many spectators? Just have the weigh in near the launch. The people that that really want to see the weigh in will be there.

[jigman73]

Its is the BFL super tournament on Barren. Today (saturday) was the first day. They usually hold the weigh-in at the ramp on the first day and then cut the field to the top 10 and hold the second day weigh-in at Wal-Mart. So their are generally not that many fish being transported on the second day and with the store being that far from the ramp, I'm not really certain that they would hold the day 2 weigh-in there, but they could..

Lee