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