What I feel is an alarming trend

[dabassking]

Has been a very nice discussion fellas and that never hurts as it makes us ''ALL'' think. There are two to three of you on here that think I hate tourney's...you are wrong. My original post and one I stand by states or at least I hope implied accumulative yes I know all about making 300 boats disappear on Cumberland I was boating there when a few of you that are reminding me that was in grade school dreaming of getting your first bass boat.

When is to much of anything....''to much''.....it has to be thought about and it has to be anwsered at some point. Yes there are A holes in all walks of life and this is not a good ole boy versus the Saturday KVD contest it is bigger than that in my opinion. I catch all kinds of fish and I am not worrying about that or blaming anybody I am trying to look at the big picture.

Stripernut and I talk about this often and he lives there and sees the madness every week. Trust me he has no problem catching fish either, LOL......

"I am getting to the place where I hate tournaments."- mhall (from the first post on this thread)

Do you hate them, or do you not hate them? Make up your mind...

Nah, I'm just messing with ya. I think I know what you mean, and I agree that the larger tournaments should be limited. There probably shouldn't be 400 tournament boats from 4 different tournaments on the lake on the same day. I feel that way from a safety standpoint only, though. I don't think those tournament boats hurt the fish population at all. Some people on here disagree and that's fine, but there just isn't enough proof shown to me to make me think that tournament fishing in KY is hurting the fish population.

I also agree that this has been a good discussion. It stayed civil, with one or two exceptions. I think I've said all I care to say on this matter so I'm calling it quits on this thread. I'll see you guys on the next one!

[mhall]

Kind of a figure of speech I guess and maybe a bad choice of words I have that problem sometimes I'll take that one. I use to fish some tournaments and found it fun to a degree. It made me fish different though as I am overly competitive to a fault especially when I was younger.

Now I just want to relax and catch fish, watch game and have peace out there I guess I'm getting old guys....

[cghuntcms]

I've reached a time in my life where I've found the best fishing is on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. If I fish on Mondays & Fridays, I commonly experience boaters recovering from an illness too severe to work or my personal favorite, 'mental health day' on the water. There's plenty of parking in the parking lot, no dimwit launching or recovering their boat. Less annoyances on the water from the rude boaters, wave makers, jet skis, etc.

Otherwise, I'm the unseen happy fisherman you don't see except by others like me when we share a wave & a "How ya' doin" short conversation. I've also found that my I-Pilot causes spontaneous chuckling.

It only '***** to be me,' when family or friends arrive for a visit & wanna' fish on a Saturday or Sunday..............

[bassmaster]

Na.............None of those tourney fish die......Not a single one. NEVER..........even in the middle of August when they catch them 50 miles away and run in 10 ft sees. NOTHING DIES, or they were close to dead anyways.

Well, I thought they all did....LOL. Seriously, better chance releasing them alive from ANY situation than putting them in a livewell and knifing them (A chance of survival versus NO chance of survival). I for one tourney fish as I have stated AND (OH NO HERE IT COMES)......I keep some to eat as well.............AS does StriperNut (Good friend) and some others on here as well. Catch and release works (I do this more than anything). EVEN catch and release in tournaments......
Some fish die at the hands of us ALL not just a few....................And if anyone thinks otherwise they are kidding themselves.

[mhall]

Well, I thought they all did....LOL. Seriously, better chance releasing them alive from ANY situation than putting them in a livewell and knifing them (A chance of survival versus NO chance of survival). I for one tourney fish as I have stated AND (OH NO HERE IT COMES)......I keep some to eat as well.............AS does StriperNut (Good friend) and some others on here as well. Catch and release works (I do this more than anything). EVEN catch and release in tournaments......
Some fish die at the hands of us ALL not just a few....................And if anyone thinks otherwise they are kidding themselves.

Every Spot that comes in my boat that is worthy I eat....well almost. Some days I'm to lazy to fool with them. I never keep smallmouth and very rarely keep largemouth its a personal choice and I don't slam anybody that does if they are legal. I also eat Stripers, Whites, Crappie, Bluegill, Catfish, Sauger and Walleye.....

[Fishin is life]

In days past I used to argue quite vigorously on tournaments impact on the fisheries and although IMO there is no way it is a positive I agree that mother nature plays a stronger hand than fisherman. But I disagree with your comment on meat hunting. I think along with tournament fishing increasing so has the catch and release mindset. I have found most bass fisherman that are "meat hunters" are typically not that great of fishermen and often struggle to put them in the boat in the first place. And whenever there is this tournament vs pleasure discussion it is always where the tourney guys go to counter - blame the meat hunters...

kc

Im not saying tournies are a positive influence on fisheries, im just saying theyre no more negative than meat hunters. If i had a nickel for everytime ive sat there and watched a boat full of amish keep everything they catch (thats a different argument), then id probably be able to go eat at mcd's. They fish live bait on the same spots bass fisherman fish and catch many large bass and put a knife to every single one of them. I know guys that go out 3-5 times a week and keep their 5 best bass for the knife, and thats their legal right. Its also my legal right to keep my 5 best in the livewell, do my absolute best to keep them healthy, and release them at the end of the day. Tournies dont kill fisheries. Mother nature will always balance herself out. As Bassmaster said, i like my fishes chances of surviving better than the guy who puts the knife in em. I go to the ramp after our tournies with my fizzing needle and attempt to save every fish on its side that i can, just wish more people cared enough for me to not have to do that

[Shellkat]

Any bass (large,small or spotted) over 15 inches doesn't taste good to me. My boat is a eating vessel , if its legal it goes straight on ice, no hauling dead fish around in hot water for me. Those big bass get a picture and sent back to the lake. I would personally like to see the big c get stocked will walleye. I wish they would take the trout hatchery and make it a walleye one.

[GeoFisher]

I would love to know the true mortality rate of red nosing a bass from daylight until 3 pm going 70 mph everywhere you go and then place it in a bag and stand in line for an hour then weigh it and bounce it around some more then show it off and take 20 pictures and then and only then walk down and chuck it back in churned up poor water where a hundred boat motors just peeded used water and then..................of course they swim off just as good as new.

HIGH...but no one ever talks about that.. I have personally witnessed weigh ins for local tourneys on local lakes where they don't have 50,000 dollar holding tanks, and the mortality is UNREAL.....And if you do that stuff in July, August, September.........well You all have seen what happens.

[toomanycasts]

Come on, now... There's not a single tournament fisherman that has that mindset that you just so sarcastically alluded to. Yes, fish die due to tournament transport. Do enough die for people to make a big stink about it? Nope. Personally, I like to see those belly up fish go home with someone instead of them just float out and die for nothing. I know at every BFL that I have fished, there is a cooler that keeps the dead ones. They are supposed to get taken away to support the less fortunate. I'm not one that puts a knife to them, so I don't know if that really happens, but that's what is supposed to happen.

I agree with you geo. What's the difference if a few fish die at weigh-in or a few being harvested for the plate? I think most competitive fisherman go to great lengths and expense to keep their fish alive. I know I always do. You don't have to like tournaments, but no sense in making these accusations. It's a reality on many lakes and rivers. So why not live and let live.

[toomanycasts]

I agree with you geo. What's the difference if a few fish die at weigh-in or a few being harvested for the plate? I think most competitive fisherman go to great lengths and expense to keep their fish alive. I know I always do. You don't have to like tournaments, but no sense in making these accusations. It's a reality on many lakes and rivers. So why not live and let live.

I meant dabassking, and besides competitive fishing isn't going anywhere. It's an integral part of the angling culture now. It's a variable you can't control. So why get angry about it? I do wish all anglers respected each other, but that's a pipe dream. I think each type of fisherman has their own merit and I am intrigued by all of it. Everyone is just going to have to adapt.

[stripernut1]

the day that mark is referring to we were both actually on the water, fishing 11 miles apart, experiencing the exact same activities in question.
we would talk on the phone and snicker about the 'wrapped boats, the patched up shirts, the thousands of dollars worth of rods reels , and the million dollar attitudes. the reason i say snicker is this....you couldnt have held a gun to these guys heads and get a simple polite conversation out of them.....all the while mark and i are texting pics back and forth of big ol pig smallmouth. as a matter of fact one young man that was doing some gps work for a tournament the next day was polite enough to have a conversation with me....i gave him 2 bags of the plastic i was catching my fish on, im sure given the opportunity mark would have done the same thing. its funny how little we can see with our noses stuck high in the air. get over yourself
if you need to "think' youre better than me....MORE POWER TO YOU....im just here to let you be you.
BUT....when you ACT out like you are better than me? well we just found a problem.
when this is simultaneously happening to 2 different boats that are 11 miles apart there is alot more than coincidence going on here.
i guess its just the mere high concentration of anglers at one time on one lake that raises your chances of running across a poor representative of the sport....and what better high concentration of anglers than a big tournament. kind of like bumping into a pothead at a grateful dead concert....your chances are greatly elevated
tournament anglers, guides, pleasure fishermen, hardcore meat hunters all have their own bad actors, nobody cornered the market on being a jerk. you just dont see enormous groups of meat hunters, or pleasure fishermen so highly concentrated, so yes the tx angler is right out in front in the spotlight. everything about him is high profile, boats, trucks and poor sportsmanship.
as dave stewart said in one post, i have chosen not to fish on certain days throughout the year, holidays, nice weather saturdays, big tournament days etc etc. its just easier and safer to to avoid those high traffic days. one of my fishing partners says he isnt going to let anybody run him off the lake, he has just as much right to be there as anybody. hes missing the point, im not going to do anything i dont enjoy, and i just dont enjoy the crowds.
like mark the overwhelming "vibe" and exposure to the tx anglers practicing on that particular day was completely negative. you would have thought they were competing for a spot in the bassmaster classic, the pressure was causing them to be a person they wouldnt be any other day.

[mhall]

Well said Stripernut, I knew you would pop in here sooner or later. Those two in Halcombs parking lot actually turned their backs on me while I was talking to them and heck all I was doing was cutting up about all the debris, LOL. I guess I didn't have that look like Ike feel......ha ha.......

I laughed at them and went fishing. BTW Jeff I really enjoy when we are on the lake bouncing pics and ideas off of each other. Remember the Swimming Lizzy deal last year..... I appreciate ya man.