Bad news for tournaments... delayed mortality

[kc]

I am not sure if tournaments at nights during the summer makes any difference. I fish at night a lot during the summer and it is still difficult to keep fish alive in the live well for any period of time. If you don't run water often its over and even doing that often fish die.

kc

[mattplapp]

Danny,
People believe whatever is reported in the media. That is why I retired at a young age from my career in broadcasting (age 22 to be exact). If you read the story, it's poorly written, inconclusive, does not tell an entire story and really has no facts to support anything.

I think as tournament anglers the last thing we want to do is point our poor journalism that does nothing but bring out a negative in our sport for no appareant reason. The story really did not prove a point or solve anything, it's just the normal negative, shocking ratings getting news coverage, the exact reason I got out of TV & Radio so quick.

Matt

[Dave Stewart]

Amen. This story has more holes in it than a block of swiss cheese. Some folks just want to stir things up by writing garbage. There may be some validity to this story but not the way it is written there isn't.

[Danny]

I posted this because it is information.

I understand that you, as a tournament producer, would take a negative view, and I am sorry. I personally fish tournaments, and I have been a big proponent of no fishing during the spawn.

The point is that who ever pays for a study gets the desired results, almost all the time.

You say the story has no facts, not true. The fact was they clipped the tails of the fish, the fact was that 98% of the dead fish recovered had the clipped tails, etc.

I also know that news can be biased. Maybe they just did not collect a bass if it did not have a clipped tail?

I'm sorry I bothered you and Dave with this story, but the story is just that, a story in a newspaper and if it does nothing other than make anglers around here more careful in the handling of their fish, then it has done good for the fishing industry.

Also, as you can see, except for your and Dave's post, most have taken this as it was intended, and that was to create a nice thread of discussion.

Danny

[mhall]

Although this story MAY have been inflated or over dramitized a bit I think there is alot of truth to it. If there is anybody out there that believes that tourneys especially the hot weather ones aren't taking their toll on the bass you are waaaay kidding yourself. Go to a local marina anywhere you want in the hot summer months after a tourney that has released around the ramp and look for floaters. Usually the next day and you will find them, I see them all the time. If there is a dock attendant that's there ask him how many he or her see's after the tourney's. Every time something bad gets said about a tournament guys are gonna bristle up like a mangy curr dog guarding a bone. This won't help things, only educating ourselves and being better stewards to the fishery's and our wildlife will improve how things are done now. Open your minds fellows and just think about it before going into full guard.

[Cobra190]

There never enough info in a media article or responce. There will always be tidbits that can offer another view. Iwork in an environment where I must resond in a timely fashion to a large amount of complaint calls. My customers are the tax paying public that feel they have say so in a Gov./Public system. 99% OF THESE SITUATIONS ARE CLEARED WITH JUST A FEW SIMPLE FACTS OR THE UNTOLD STORY THAT THEY DID NOT KNOW WHEN THE LOBBIED THERE COMPLAINT.

Chances are the article did not tell all. Were the tourney fish release in different areas or dump in one place? Only the crew of the release boat really know for sure. What was determined the cause of the prior fish kill? And so forth. The article only gives enough info to bring about this type of discussion, which is good if something positive can come from it.

Here's my question to ponder. One of the biggest groups that would take a loss if the fishing business took a hit and depreciated would be the boat manufacturers. Surely they have researched the mortality of fish vs. fishing, and if there were ways to make livewells more reviving for held fish, wouldn't they accomadate these ideas? Everyone who has posted on the measures they take in keeping fish in there livewells is great. One thing I have not seen mention is the actual adding of air/oxygen into the system. you can drop a small air pump into a minnow bucket to prolong the life of minnows, what about small air pumps tee'd into aeration lines to do the same for livewells? Might work. But it seems some boat manufacturers would already have thought of it.

My Opinion!

[bje]

Matt and Dave are right on this one. I agree that, as you said, it is "information", but I think its bad or unreliable information. The "study" appears to be seriously flawed in this case and I think Dave's point is that if we are going to have this discussion, this particular study should not be taken as a truthful starting point.

[Danny]

You're right about the oxygen adding. My Triton has a pro-air system. This is a way of recirculating the water that adds air to the water in the livewell. I have to air intakes on the gunnel right behind the driver's seat. If fishing in hot weather, I'd have that on all the time. Well, actually the few times I've needed the livewell, I keep it on... just don't need it that often. Also the one guy's idea about adding hydrogenperoxide has me intrigued. I need to look into that. For me, the main thing is we are all discussing ways to try to help the successful release of healthy fish that will LIVE!!!

Danny

[JimDicken]

OK, lets all get a grip.
We all KNOW summer and warmer to HOT temps will stress the fish more.
Is the article accurate, probably not as accurate as the writer would like for us to believe.
However I have never felt that extended summer tournaments of 8 hours were in the best interest of the sport or the resource. IF we are going to have these tournaments in summer then lets do the right thing. This article does get one thing right.. summer is tougher on fish and hot water in a live well is not good for them.
Bottles of Ice, and chemicals that treat the fish are definitely needed and should be a part of summer tournaments. We need to do our own research and find out what the optimal temps and chemical additives are if we are going to continue to fish tournaments in summer. Maybe its time to get all the tournament groups together and pay a University Like Murray State which has a fisheries studies department to do some kind of field study into how best to treat water and fish in summer. It is the Responsible thing to do.
:0

[Dave Stewart]

Actually the story only has the "facts" as you tout only if you believe what is being said is true.

Let me know when you have proof of these numbers other than this so called "true story".

Think about this: The story came out in the Saturday edition of the paper. At 10:00 a.m. on Friday this individual had collected a total of 432 fish during the week after the tournament to this point. The tournament ended on the preceeding Saturday. That means he collected 432 fish between Sunday and Friday morning...approximately 5.5 days of collecting (unless he was out there collecting at night too) Now considering the reporter had to in all earnest have his story in sometime Friday evening to make the Saturday publication deadline, that means this guy found another 148 fish on Friday afternoon. He must have hit a big bonanza of dead fish on Friday considering he only averaged about 80 fish a day during the preceeding 5.5 days.

Maybe he got those fish from the 8X8 ft holding tanks they threw 400 fish into and expected them to live....give me a break...come with me sometime in the winter when I am taking care of 40 fish in a 5000 gallon tank and see what it takes to keep them alive when no one is putting hooks into them. If I put 400 in my tank they would not last two days...much less 4 and my tanks have low water temps, continuous aereation and the best chemicals money can buy to take care of them.

Now, having said that let me say that anyone that knows me knows that I totally believe in taking care of the bass and I really would like to see a moratorium on day tournaments during the deep summer months...but I am not going to jump on a bandwagon because of a "the sky is falling" type article that is rampant with questionable "facts". No more than I am going to grab the rag magazines off the supermarket shelves, read the crap put in them and then put it up here as gospel.

[Fishhead]

Amen, well put Dave.

[vision2006]

I've been fishing tournaments for several years now in hot and cold weather. The hot water does stress the fish more than any other time of year because I've noticed increased mortality when returning the fish to the water after weighing (floating fish). Studies have also shown increased mortality when the fish are caught in deep cooler water and then placed in the hotter livewell water for potentially hours on end. It essentially throws them into shock. This is where cooling the water down with ice is a plus. I have never had a much of a problem as long as I use the chemicals to reduce stress and run my livewall all the time (no timer). Acutally the oxygenator is a lot better than recycling the water. If you ever notice the fish will have their noses right on the oxygenator much of the time.

I also have to believe that placing weigh-in bags full of fish on the blacktop while while waiting in line has to be hard on the fish due to the extreme heat produced during summer months. That water will heat up very fast depending on the length of time in the line. The fish also eat up a lot of oxygen in the bags very quickly while waiting in line.

My suggestions, just me personally, are as follows: use ice (non-chlorinated) in the live wells, reduce the amount of time standing in line by limiting the line to two or three bags (leaving the fish in the oxygenated live wells longer), wet the measuring board prior to measuring fish, don't leave the fish on the hot carpet for a long perioud of time after swinging a fish on board, maybe have a three fish limit tournament instead of five (reduces the amount of fish consuming oxygen) and/or eliminate summer tournaments.

Just some thoughts.

Trent D. Decker