Quote Originally Posted by sweetwater View Post
Shorter tournament hours, lower bag limits, multiple required weigh-ins or better yet an honor system tournament format where you'd weigh the fish yourself then quickly release it. All the above suggestions would give the fish a better chance of surviving than poking their insides with a dirty needle after riding around in a tiny live well for 6 or 8 hours in 80+ degree water would. Like I said, the key to their survival is returning the fish to the water as soon as possible, in the best possible condition without any extra holes in their bodies. (besides the one their mouth of course)
I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, just that the tournaments are what they are and those of us that enjoy fishing them have to do what we have to do....Here's a good example for ya though...Friday night we were out fishing and my friend caught a 5lber out of probably 20ft....Got it in the boat, unhooked it, admired it for maybe 30 seconds, and put it right back in the lake...She flipped belly up and absolutely would not take off...Not the first time I've had this happen...So we picked her back up, fizzed her right there on the side of the boat, put her in the water and she took off like a rocket...No doubt she would have been dead had I just left her laying