Quote Originally Posted by adam7456 View Post
Just because something has worked in a small scale in the past doesn't mean it will scale up nicely. That is the problem, the scale of the tournaments has increased and it is causing problems. If someone fishes one tournament a year or 100 tournaments there is no additional fishing license being purchased, which means no additional resources for Fish and Wildlife to manage the fisheries, infrastructure, and anglers. There has been a huge increase in the use of resources, wear and tear on the boat ramps/docks, and on the fish caught due to the increase in tournaments and tournament size.

It really is the organizations fault because they aren't taking responsibility for every negative impact the increased tournament scale has caused. Have you ever heard the saying "this is why we can't have nice things"? Well if they don't start managing themselves better the government will step in and increase the regulations/fees on tournaments. Like it or not that is the reality of the situation. It would be a shame if that happened as I'm all for smaller government and fewer regulations but if people don't take responsibility for the negative impact their actions have then the government will step in and do it for them.

If the tournament organizers continue to ignore the negative impacts they are causing, continue to increase the number of boats involved, and increase the frequency of tournaments then I would be fine with something like the following:
1-10 boat tournament no regulation/fees
11 - 25 boat - tournament fee to cover 4 hours of a conservation officers time to watch the launch and weigh in
26 - 50 boat - tournament fee to cover the cost of a conservation officer for the entire tournament including launch and weigh in
51+ boats - tournament fee to cover the cost of a conservation officer for the entire tournament including launch and weigh in plus the cost of an additional officer on the water watching the anglers
Or there could just be a flat $5-$10 fee for every tournament angler for every tournament and Fish and Wildlife would just show up randomly to watch people, behavior, and verify the tournament fee has been paid.

Some type of regulation like that is in the future of tournaments if the organizers don't start taking responsibility for the negative impacts they are causing. The only people who can prevent that are the tournament organizers and tournament anglers.
OK so now you have officers there watching them. Unless you believe they are breaking any regulations and not being caught what good does that really do with regards to loss of fish that don't survive after being released?

For that matter you might even get some angry pushback from some smaller groups that will simply KEEP their fish as it is their right to do.

I'm all for charging them a fee if there was reason to believe the tournaments were causing a financial burden but I haven't seen that charged or indicated anywhere.

I have never fished a tournament in my life and I am not a fan of some of the things that at times seem to happen as a result of them. However the Fish and Wildlife set and determine the limits each year for a species based on their following and testing of that body of water. If any body of water needs for it to happen the limits could be tightened in order to better ensure a healthy population.

IMO rather than us looking for more regulation directed towards fisherman we should be raising awareness so that tournament organizers start looking at available technology and ways to alter tournament procedures to better ensure less loss of fish.

And to those that say well this has been going on for many years so it can't be a problem I would ask for statistics of how many tournaments and fisherman participating in them has increased over the past twenty or thirty years. I don't have that information but it would be useful and I am guess the increase would be considerable so it isn't as simple as saying well we have always done it this way.

Fisherman should want to lead on this and be out front self examining and looking for ways to best ensure the long term success of the sport. But be careful what you wish for when you seek for more regulations and enforcement.