Quote Originally Posted by waterdog101 View Post
I don’t think the size should be changed, but if they are going to hold a spring tournament on Cumberland, like they do on lakes all over the country, wouldn’t it be best to weigh 12’’ fish than larger size spawning fish, what number of boats would be entered in a tournament like this, maybe a 100 or 150 boats, once a year, if they all weighed in 5 fish, your looking at 750 short fish loss even if they all die, for a lake the size of Cumberland with 60,000 surface acres, that many fish wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket, I would think the striper would eat more 12’’ bass than that in one day.
im really not arguing fish mortality here, my main argument is pulling hundreds of bass off the nest on one en of the lake and transporting them to the complete other end of the lake and releasing them. if this activity was sustained over time i dont see how it can be good in the long run. but hey this is tournament fishing , its legal, it happens and the fish are still here in spite of it all.
as far as the stripers eating bass, i am fortunate to be able to clean a bunch of stripers every year for over 30 years now, i cut the stomachs open on every striper to see what size shad they are eating. ive seen a lot of big bluegill, 1 crappie that i can remember, and i can count on one hand the number of ky bass ive seen in a stripers stomach, and they were tiny. not saying it doesnt happen but its a non factor