DEAD bass was up after Tourney on KY Lake.

[sweetwater]

I think the problem is more the big dummy's who caught em than the conditions. If you recirculate your livewells, make sure it doesn't get super hot, get the fish out of the well, to the scales,cand back in the water quickly then you wouldn't see as much of this. My buddy and I fished a tournament yesterday and they had ice on hand, got the fish weighed quickly, and back in the lake right after. Another precaution they took was we could only keep 3 fish. Gave the fish some more room and kept the possibility of a large kill down. In the tournament there was 1 fish that died, and that was because he had a hook in his throat. We're talking about high school kids, if me and the kids I fish against can keep them alive, then anyone should be able to.

I think a 3 fish limit in the warmer months of the year is a good compromise for both sides of the issue. But then you could carry around a fish in the live well for most of the day and then replace it at the 11th hour with a larger one and more than likely the smaller fish would be toast. No telling how many die that way every weekend and it's never noticed because the fish could be miles from the weigh-in area.

[Drew1233]

I think a 3 fish limit in the warmer months of the year is a good compromise for both sides of the issue. But then you could carry around a fish in the live well for most of the day and then replace it at the 11th hour with a larger one and more than likely the smaller fish would be toast. No telling how many die that way every weekend and it's never noticed because the fish could be miles from the weigh-in area.

We caught 2 of ours in the first hour and those fish swam away strong. They were kicking and flopping right before we put them back and we're looking very healthy. I know several teams used ice in their wells and there fish also seemed good and healthy. This was a very small tournament though. Only 11 boats with 3 fish for each student team and 1 fish for each adult driver. So in all, only 44 fish were at risk. I'd say it was a good compromise.

[sweetwater]

We caught 2 of ours in the first hour and those fish swam away strong. They were kicking and flopping right before we put them back and we're looking very healthy. I know several teams used ice in their wells and there fish also seemed good and healthy. This was a very small tournament though. Only 11 boats with 3 fish for each student team and 1 fish for each adult driver. So in all, only 44 fish were at risk. I'd say it was a good compromise.

Maybe consider a shorter amount of fishing time as well to reduce the amount of time a fish would potentially have to spend in a live well with night tournaments being exempt.