Bad news for tournaments... delayed mortality

[fishincreek]

I never stated the meathogs were having an impact- merely stating an opinion. However, using your own statement about the fantastic fishing of the 70's and 80's when harvesting was an all-time high, one could surmise that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to harvest.

[Fishhead]

What I don’t like about the article is the biased view and potentially misrepresented facts. Whether it’s about fishing or politics, biased media misrepresent the facts to get their own spin on the issue. This is the same type of sensationalism is used by the animal rights groups and political groups to grab the attention of others who are not as well informed about the issues and brainwash the less informed point of view to satisfy certain agendas. In the case of this article, IMO this article hurts fishing, as a whole because less informed people and other certain groups will use this type of sensationalism to satisfy their own agendas that very well could be anti fishing. What Dave posted about the numbers and tanks is dead on. The 2nd paragraph in the article says David Hobbs collected 582 bass, 98 percent had the clipped tail. Then in the picture insert (bottom right side of the article) of Mr. Hobbs in his boat says as of 10am Friday he had collected 432 bass over the course of the week. That leaves a total of 150 bass that he had to have collected between 10am Friday and the time the article went to press.

Like others have posted, if we as T anglers don’t start doing some self policing the state agencies are going to step in and do it for us, sooner or later, and not just with T’s held in the hot weather either. Smaller limits or just skipping the deep summer months of July and August would be a good start. Obviously at the present time there is no regulations regarding scheduling of T’s during the summer and T’s, whether at the club level or bigger trails are free to schedule events as they desire, for now. But eventually regulations will be imposed, possibly using misrepresented facts similar to this article, to satisfy certain groups with hidden agendas.

[Dave Stewart]

Danny: I got the numbers on the Friday at 10:00 count from the caption under the photo that was with the article. I do hope if a book is written it will include the fact that the Wisconsin DNR directed that all the fish be released in a small feeder stream that was at low water levels and had no appreciable current during a time that the upper Mississippi Valley was experiencing a major summer heat wave. I also hope the book includes the fact that FLW tournament officials wanted those fish to be released back to the river where they would have a realistic chance for survival but the DNR insisted on putting them where they had little chance for survival. Seems the reporter here conveniently left those facts out of the story.

Anyway, the bottom line here is it is only a half truth story, poorly written by either someone that did not investigate all the circumstances surrounding this big a fish kill or did not want to publish all the facts so that it would seem one sided. In my mind the study is way to flawed to get any realistic statistics out of it and the only fact is that they killed a lot of fish for nothing.

I am done commenting on this story...it is what it is.

[DJD]

Makes you wonder that if the mortality rate can be so high then how can lakes down south be so awesome? It sure gets warmer in Fla for a longer period of time than the far north. For every study or opinion against tourny's you can find a study for tourny's.

[dcbasser]

As big as tournament fishing has got,every year more and more people are added. A lot of these folks I have noticed are very young and just love the competiveness but really don't understand what it takes to ensure the future of bass fishing. Growing up it was softball tournaments and when that died out something else took its place and now it fishing tourneys. It's just that in my opinion a lot of these folks don't have the knowledge to take care of the fish yet and that being the reason for the higher mortalities.

[Fish2win]

I was part of a study in the late 80-.s in Tennessee . A group from Tennessee Tech took all the fish we caught in club tournaments put them back in an area that was boardered off from the rest of the lake. The fish had plenty of depth and room. During the summer months from July 1 until Sept 15 the secenario went like this, at weigh-in 2 % mortality, 24 hours 10% mortality, 72 hours 40% mortality. The hotter the water and the deeper the fish came from the higher the mortality. The longer they stayed in the livewell the greater the mortality.During the early spring and late fall early winter the loss was much less.
The bottom line was that once the water goes over 80 degrees, and the fish go deeper than 20 feet the mortality will be high. The more a fish is handled the greater its chance of dieing. If the fish are layed on the boats carpet or a dry belly board the greater the chance of thier dieing. We used catch and release formulas.
The results are that now that club only weighs 3 fish and they dont have any tournaments in July,August ro September.Fish2win

[kc]

Maybe they run their tournaments better in the south than they tend to be run here and they take better care of the fish. Plus the success of a fishery is far more complicated than fishing pressure - tournament or otherwise. The big, flat, weedy lakes of the south have oodles of cover and the fish per square acre is most likely much higher than average and they can sustain more fishing pressure. Same goes for KY and Barkley in our home waters. Although the fishing pressure is high on those two there is so much off-shore cover and just sheer acreage of habitable bass areas that they can handle pressure better than smaller lakes like Nolin, Barren, Rough, Taylorsville, etc. Spawining success of a lake is a factor as well. The bottom line for me is I have fished avidly all my life and there has been a noticeable decline in bass fishing quality in most of KY's lakes. You can't blame all of that on T-fishing but in the last 20 years the growth and impact of T-fishing has sky-rocketed and when I constantly see dead fish around marinas after tournaments (in the summer) and hear countless stories and studies that back that observation up it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what I know. I am not against tournaments - I fish a few myself but as a life-long resident and avid fisherman of this state I would like to see tournaments in this state do a better job of taking care of their fish. Catch-and-release ain't good enough when there are so many floaters (remember for tournaments it is catch, haul around for hours, weigh-in, release). If it takes a moratorium during the heat of the summer so be it. But I believe steps can be taken short of that to minimize the damage. It's just a shame that we can't have a constructive discussion over this topic. It just seems many T-fisherman just bristle up at any thought that they have to do anything differently. The arrogance and selfishness seems to rule and that is what is going to bring down regulations that will really get their ire. What happened to the constructive thread a couple of weeks ago by the concerned T-anglers who had just experienced the loss of big fish at their T? Is it really too much to ask to care about the very souce of what T-fishing and pleasure fishing is all about --- THE FISH!!!!


kc

[kc]

I haven't hugged a tree today but I really missed hugging all of those dead bass I saw floating at the marina after the tournament last week end. What a waste! Made me want to chop the tree down.

kc

[kc]

I am not sure I follow the surmise ( I can be dense that way at times). Basically I am saying that havesting of bass is in decline with the advent of catch and release yet fishing pressure is taking a greater toll on our bass. In my eyes the increased fishing pressure is due to the growth of T-fishing and in some part to all of the floaters from tournaments in summer months. If tournaments keep and ate all of their fish there would be even a greater impact and I suspect KDFWR would be slapping tighter regulations on all - quickly. At least catch, haul, weigh in, and release works some times. It all comes down to choice in the end. KDFWR's regulations have tightened over the past 20 years yet bass fishing still remains in decline. But take Dale Hollow as an example and the strategy of making it a trophy lake. It is restrictive for both T and harvest fishermen yet look at the major impact it has had on the fishery. These type of regulations are going to happen all over if we can't come to grips with these pressures and I for one welcome them. If we stick our heads in the sand and don't find a solution KDFWR will for us.

kc

[plowboy]

I haven't read all the post. Too many. This sounds far fetched especially with the cheating going on but one day maybe there could be tornaments where fish are caught (weighed,and/or measured) and released imediately. I know there are complications like honesty, people wanting to see all the fish at the weigh in, etc. But alot of things are possible in this day of technology. I'm sure they could find a way. Certified scales on each boat, or multiple weigh in sites on the lake so fish could be released quicker. This would be easy to accomplish on big tornaments like B.A.S.S. where film crews follow the boats. Just an idea, one day maybe. Lie detectors could be used more often. You could always show footage of the catched on a big screen at the weigh in. Just an idea that's time probably hasn't come. Think how much better it would be for the fish not bouncing in the livewell for hours. Stress of course kills especially combined with heat. Even when the relocated the Elk to Kentucky the bioligist knew a certain number would die from stress on the trip even with the best care. Not knocking anyone here just an idea. Satelite, GPS, Wireless web all could help one day.

[DJD]

KC,
I agree with some of what you stated in your reply. More care of the catch is always needed. I believe that the fishing industry will continue to get better since there is so much money at stake. The thing that bothers me the most is that media coverage (good or bad) is taken as the gospel when that simply is not true. This is a great example of that. So you have to see the side of tournament anglers (i know you do a few) when surveys are thrown out on just about every aspect of bass fishing. Most have a negative slant on tournaments. No bed fishing or stopping tournaments during the hot summer months are just a few. The worst cases of fish loss i have seen are from pollution or nature, not anglers. Hurricanes(stirring up the polluted bottom and eating up the oxygen), sewage or excessive fertilizer draining into waterways and droughts. That article would lead someone to believe that the evil bass tournaments are killing all the bass and that is dangerous. Almost smells of PETA influences...

[redneckshadrap]

This thread's longer than a rainy weekend.








Billy Elkins

The Creek Bank
It's easier to let the cat out of the bag than put it back in.