The guy that caught the big bass really did what he could to keep that big fish alive. He had a tank that I would guess contained about 20 gallons of water in it. He has three other 2lb bass that survived in that live well. He used a 12 volt DC water Pump to aerate the live well. Not sure if the water got too hot or that the big bass was just too stressed out. Big bass may take longer to recover from a fight at the end of a fishing pole. I don't know when the big bass died. I don't know how deep he caught the fish. Most likely he caught in in shallow water as he did tell me that he caught the fish early that morning around 6 am or so. That was what I think I remember them saying. So maybe the fish was just in the live well too long. Maybe they should require the weigh in to be earlier in the afternoon.

I really don't fish tournaments for many reasons. But I really see no difference in for boats fishing seperately and then bragging about their catch afterwards back at work or them fishing in a small tournament. There were only 8 guys fishing in this tournament and there were more other fishermen fishing Otter pit that day than just these four boats.

What need to be done is to educate everyone on how to better care for fish after they are caught. Maybe the bass tournament guys should have a earlier deadline for the weigh in's which would help prevent long times in a live well.

I did notice that the guys were still fishing at the boat ramp until 2:30 pm when they had the weigh in scheduled. Those guys were really working hard to catch that last fish.

In their defense they only lost one fish at the weigh in. All the other fish (there were about 6 fish total) were alive at the weigh in and they where returned right back to the water after they were weighed. Only the 6.2 lb bass didn't make it.

It's a shame that that big bass was not kept alive but then sometimes that happens. Maybe it was just time for that fish to die?

My only real concern was that the guy's learn to not stick their fingers or anything else up into the fish's gills. I do hope that the smaller bass that were weighed this way and released are not hurt. I would prefer people puncture the lower lips with the scale' hook than to stick the hook into the gill slits. But that's just one guys opinion.

Regards,

Moose1am