Dead fish during day tournaments

[Hershey102]

Not being a tournament fisherman, I have to wonder why you are permitted to weigh dead fish. Don't some tournaments only weigh live fish or at least assess a penalty? And wouldn't that put the onus on a few careless anglers to take better care of their catch? Just curious.

[keepersize]

I fished a Team Supreme tournament out of Deer Creek last Sat. and the tournament director shortened the tournament two hours to 1 pm just for this reason, no dead fish were weighed in, with this heat it was good to get off the water early for the anglers too.

[Get da Net]

Do the tourney guys eat the dead bass they bring to the weigh-in?

I think all tournaments, whether its small club or pros try to get all dead bass/ fish to someone , that will eat them if the fish happen to die during the tournament.

[GeoFisher]

really not rocket science to keep the days catch alive...freeze 20oz. bottles with water in them and add them to the live well as needed to keep the water cooler than the actual lake water.. Add some type of calming and anti bacterial crystals to the live well and the fish will remain alive..... I have not weighed in a dead fish in over 20 years using this system.

REALLY not rocket science........BAN TOURNEYS around this time of year.

It is simply amazing the arrogance of tourney fisherman thinking they don't damage the fishery.........SPIT IN YOUR FACE arrogance......and it is SAD.

Later,

Geo

[crankinon]

I have a KoolWell system in my boat that takes care of the catch by circulating the livewell water thru the cooler via hose's and a small radiator and an extra pump. You can set the thermistate to about 8 degrees below lake temp while running your livewell on recirculate. I still change the water out at least once a day sometimes more depending on how many fish. I also add 1/3 cup of uniodized salt for each 5 gallons of water and 1 capful of rejuvinade for each 20 gallons of water first in the morning then again at each water change. The fish are in top condition even if its a 100 degrees outside. If you need anymore info on this system please send me an IM. Her is a good link to read [URL="http://assets.espn.go.com/winnercomm/outdoors/bassmaster/pdf/Keeping_Bass_Alive.pdf"]

[Rudypoo4444]

Mills has got it right. Use frozen water bottles in your live well and you are pretty well good to go. I use this trick all the time with minnows when I fish for crappie, and in the summer heat, we use them in the live well and i can keep fish that I catch early in the morning alive all day and all the way back home.

[brlfishing]

this is just a thought. but are some of the livewells in some of these boats outdated. i have a 08 triton boat and have never had to put ice in the livewell. just turning the livewell to timed after it has filled and then also putting on the recerc. button have never lost a fish. it seems like it just constantly exchanges lake water. just a thought, because have never lost a fish due to heat.

[F16ENGMGR]

Never lost a fish in 30 years fishing tournaments. Never use ANY special agents or ice. But the livewell timer is set to the quickest setting and if my co-angler has a limit I leave the switch on CONSTANT. Ban tournaments GEO? Sure ban em all this time of year. The Gulf could use your help plucking tar balls.

[vetsvet]

You may want to try this. Aquarium Salt, it has electrolytes that improves gill function and is a natural stress reducer. About 1 rounded tablespoon for every 5 US gallons. I had a friend put me on to this many years ago and you can buy it as small as a pint size (16oz) carton that looks like and opens like a pint of milk. Any pet or feeder's supply store should have it. Hope this helps!

[Fishin_4_Fun]

I've read a few articles about placing ice in the livewells. They mention although the fish will keep better and stay lively in the cooler water, that the critical point for their survival is when they are taken from that nice cooled down oxygenated livewell, and put back in the 90 degree lake water. It's a shock to their system.

Kind of like walking out of your 68 degree air conditioned house into 95 degree 80% weather outside, the bigger the temp difference the bigger the shock to your system.

[Bobby Headrick]

You just need to cool it down a little, The main reason for the cool water is that is holds o2 better. If you have a good recirc system and add some ice yoy will not lose many fish. There are some tourneys guys out there that DO NOT CARE for their fish, I have seen this too many times, they also do not take time to bleed the air bladder, this is something all should know, if you catch fish from deep water, I saw several floating at Barkley the weekend before last from a USA bassin tourney that were still moving there fins but were upside down, if these fish had had their air bladders bled that might have survived, I see this at out tourneys too, as there are some that do not care or know how to care. GEO not all of us tourney guys are arrogent, as us that are very serious know that in order to enjoy this sport and to do this sport we have to have fish, and we strive, esp in the KBFN to keep our fish alive. A good tip I learned from another very good tourney angler is that he puts ice in livewell first thing in the Am and while waiting to blast off, run a little water into well, and then when you get to fishing spot fill up live weel and add additives. like Rejuvinade,etc and then run recurt the rest of the day, the additives help keep amonia levels down from fish waste as it is not good to readde water from the lake as it is warmer than than the livewell water. He does not lose many fish in these hot weather tourneys.

[Col Forbin]

I think re-circ has its benefits - the largest being when you cannot pump in fresh water. Recirculating water in a livewell that has already reached high levels of ammonia and warm can actually cause some harm. Those Koolwell systems are nice, I wish I had one. The best thing to do is pump out about half the livewell water, and pump back in fresh water at least every hour. I have never lost a fish - but keep a constant eye on them this time of year.

Geo - I don't think banning tournaments is a good solution. However, I think the dead fish penalty in tournaments should be a little more than most are. At least it will keep the hadful of tournament anglers who don't work to keep fish alive a little more proactive.