DEAD bass was up after Tourney on KY Lake.

[MagikSmallie]

let's re-visit your numbers and the knee jerk reaction. According to the article 43 bass washed up in one area estimated from 3 to 7 lbs. 3800 pounds of bass were caught in this tournament. 43 is not the total number of bass that died. No one will truly know how many died but let's say conservatively 200 fish died. Now let's also conservatively say there was a 3 pound average to the fish caught as a whole. 3800/3 = 1266 total fish caught which if 200 died now we are at a 16% mortality rate. I don't see this a non-issue in the slightest. I see this as the usual pro-tournament response that they don't care what happens to the fish as long as they can do whatever they want to do. Do some more math and calculate the number of fish killed every year with the hundreds of tournaments that pound our lakes non-stop. This is why us non-tournament anglers who truly care about the fishery get so wound up by the love of competition and money out weighing the love for the fish. As for ky lake and the fishery doing "better than ever" -- it is true that the fishery is not down as a whole but can you imagine how it could be if these fish weren't senselessly killed? Your handle is magiksmallie denoting your love for my favorite fish. But the numbers of smallies -- particularly big smallies are down on ky lake. Makes me wonder what the impact of tournaments has been as tournaments target the bigger fish and the bigger fish are the easiest to die from mis-handling...


Kc

for the 2nd time....it wasn't 3800 pounds.....it was 3,800 individual fish...read folks!!!!http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2...n-to-dead-bass

and for the record the tournaments that I fish are strict Catch, Photo & Immediate Release and are based on total inches...

[Devils Horse]

I will be the first to state that tourney fishing has done a TON to help the sport fisherman. Better equipment, better boats, better management, better, all around........

It doesn't change the fact that fishing tourneys this time of year leads to a lot of DEAD fish. And I GUARANTEE that the 43 floaters was a fraction of the dead loss from this tourney. We will never know......which is unfortunate.

Oh, and there is nothing wrong with raising awareness to this issue....It is an issue and as a concerned citizen I'm ALLOWED to have my opinion.....

Yes, you are certainly allowed to state your opinion. Wish I had a nickel for every time people ask for more laws to address an 'issue'.

Due to the outcry for more laws to protect our fish by yourself and many other concerned citizens, there will eventually be laws governing tournaments. That has already happened in many other states. In fact other states have gone much further to protect the fish.

Many states don't allow bass fishing at all for several months of the year, and their rule book resembles federal income tax code.

I wonder how you'll feel when you're snared in the same net you want the government to cast over the tournament bad guys?

[SLP]

Yes, you are certainly allowed to state your opinion. Wish I had a nickel for every time people ask for more laws to address an 'issue'.

Due to the outcry for more laws to protect our fish by yourself and many other concerned citizens, there will eventually be laws governing tournaments. That has already happened in many other states. In fact other states have gone much further to protect the fish.

Many states don't allow bass fishing at all for several months of the year, and their rule book resembles federal income tax code.

I wonder how you'll feel when you're snared in the same net you want the government to cast over the tournament bad guys?

I agree 100% and it's not very different from other issues in our country like environmental, gun control etc, where peoples passion and outcry have lead to more government involvement. These things tend to snowball once the government get it's tentacles into a situation.

However in todays age of awareness because things like social media etc whether tournament fisherman agree about whether how many died is significant number or not, or if there is a problem or not is really irrelevant. Debating things like whether it was 3800 fish our pounds of fish won't win the argument because if this continues the appearance of a problem and abuse will take hold and once it does there is no putting that back in the bottle.

This is why many have suggested that tournament organizers are better off taking the lead and look to make the necessary changes to head this off while they have the power to make changes themselves and not other people making the changes for them.

Regardless whether anyone believes if there is an actual genuine "fish" problem with tournaments they apparently are starting to have an image problem and the sooner they accept that the better off they will probably be when looking at the long term. Right now this type of complaints pop up occasionally on fishing boards and now some local Facebook. If it ever goes viral and becomes "news" the pressure will be 1000 fold and that's when government may decide to step in. Doing nothing is like Russian Roulette, maybe it never happens, maybe it takes ten years, maybe only one. IMO fisherman should be the ones out in front of this making the necessary improvements while they have the power to do so.

[Devils Horse]

I agree 100% and it's not very different from other issues in our country like environmental, gun control etc, where peoples passion and outcry have lead to more government involvement. These things tend to snowball once the government get it's tentacles into a situation.

However in todays age of awareness because things like social media etc whether tournament fisherman agree about whether how many died is significant number or not, or if there is a problem or not is really irrelevant. Debating things like whether it was 3800 fish our pounds of fish won't win the argument because if this continues the appearance of a problem and abuse will take hold and once it does there is no putting that back in the bottle.

This is why many have suggested that tournament organizers are better off taking the lead and look to make the necessary changes to head this off while they have the power to make changes themselves and not other people making the changes for them.

Regardless whether anyone believes if there is an actual genuine "fish" problem with tournaments they apparently are starting to have an image problem and the sooner they accept that the better off they will probably be when looking at the long term. Right now this type of complaints pop up occasionally on fishing boards and now some local Facebook. If it ever goes viral and becomes "news" the pressure will be 1000 fold and that's when government may decide to step in. Doing nothing is like Russian Roulette, maybe it never happens, maybe it takes ten years, maybe only one. IMO fisherman should be the ones out in front of this making the necessary improvements while they have the power to do so.

Agree. Well stated.

[MagikSmallie]

As usual these tournament threads end up in the us vs them mentality but truth is we are all anglers wanting the same - good fishing albeit for different reasons. So instead of the ongoing whoa is me and you are wrong - no matter which side you see clearest -- what can we learn from this event to help us better preserve the catch from tournaments? In this situation I believe it comes down to handling in the heat. I read somewhere that it took 4 hours to weigh in all the fish brought in. I don't know the details of how big money tournaments are organized in terms of weigh-in logistics but I sense this was a major issue. Does anybody know how this weigh in was run? What can be done differently to make the weigh in process less impactful on the fish in this heat? How can we get a message across to the tournament organizers of next year's event that better handling procedures will make a difference (and the negative effect this has on their event and product)? Let's take this lemon and make some lemonade for a change instead of simply defending a position...


kc

The weigh-ins were done in groups, and the lines were short. Their check in times were staggered and they used two release boats.

[GeoFisher]

Yes, you are certainly allowed to state your opinion. Wish I had a nickel for every time people ask for more laws to address an 'issue'.

Due to the outcry for more laws to protect our fish by yourself and many other concerned citizens, there will eventually be laws governing tournaments. That has already happened in many other states. In fact other states have gone much further to protect the fish.

Many states don't allow bass fishing at all for several months of the year, and their rule book resembles federal income tax code.

I wonder how you'll feel when you're snared in the same net you want the government to cast over the tournament bad guys?

With a little common sense, we would not need ANYTHING......unfortunately, common sense is a long lost commodity in our country.

[MagikSmallie]

http://cdn.wideopenspaces.com/wp-con...7102512753.jpg
I guess Frank is wrong??

Yes, Frank is wrong.

[Shellkat]

If we could just weigh them and set them free like that 77 pound striper I caught yesterday, he was 56 inches long and I caught him on a bubble gum wrapper in a farm pond.LOL

[adam7456]

for the 2nd time....it wasn't 3800 pounds.....it was 3,800 individual fish...read folks!!!!http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2...n-to-dead-bass

and for the record the tournaments that I fish are strict Catch, Photo & Immediate Release and are based on total inches...

That article says "3800 fish I heard". You are posting third hand information as fact and you are wrong. Simple math shows what you claims is false. 3800/400 = 9.5. No way almost every boat brought in a 5 fish limit two days in a row.

A quick Google search returned the real data.
1,924 bass were weighed in with 1,881 released alive, according to the official standings posted on the website of American Bass Anglers (ABA), which has assisted Triton in operating the owners event for the past 16 years.

[Devils Horse]

If we could just weigh them and set them free like that 77 pound striper I caught yesterday, he was 56 inches long and I caught him on a bubble gum wrapper in a farm pond.LOL

What color was that wrapper? What flavor bubble gum was it? Wadded up or skin hooked?

[sweetwater]

What color was that wrapper? What flavor bubble gum was it? Wadded up or skin hooked?

It was bazooka bubble gum. You don't have catch the fish, just get close to it.

[sweetwater]

I agree that this is unacceptable to have these major tournaments that have the intent of catch and release yet so many fish end up floaters. This has to fall back to the tournament directors and organizers to ensure that there is a good effort to make sure there is minimal impact on the fish caught and handled - no matter what the conditions. So this was a 400 boat tournament and it is bad enough to hold tournaments during such heat but I suspect most of the tournament anglers know what to do to keep their catch in reasonably good shape. But what about the weigh-in? Fish won't last any time once they are put in the bags bound for the scales in this kind of heat. How long were people waiting to weigh-in holding their fish in those bags in the afternoon sun? I suspect many of the dead fish were killed due to the weigh in procedures which fall back on the tournament organizers. If you google triton owners tournament and go to that web site you will see a "nearly 11 pound fish" as the first picture and looking at it I would say it was one of the floaters. What a waste. They also show the winners holding up their 5 fish for the crowd to cheer. In this kind of heat handling these large bass out of the water like this after being hauled around all day is why they died. It is up to those organizing the tournaments to step up and make changes that place emphasis on keeping the fish alive. It is obvious this tournament did not and as a future new bass boat buyer - I can tell you I will never consider a Triton based on the way they run their owner tournaments...


kc

I agree with what you're saying until part about blaming Triton for the lost fish. I have a Skeeter so I'm not defending Triton based on the brand of boat I have, I'm just saying that it could have easily been a Skeeter or Ranger tourney instead of Triton. I'm still trying to figure out why there can't be a rule where the boats are required to weigh-in more than one time during the course of the day.