bass tournaments=dead fish

Post by **bruce** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:26 am

found three dead bass 200yards from the rockland launch.found out upon leaving that there was a tourney on sunday.another thread here last week mentioned dead fish near another launch after a recent bass tournament.far as i'm concerned bass events like this should be outlawed! how much evidence is needed to realize this is harmful to any fishery! Probly gonna get roasted for this one.let the crusifiction begin!

Post by **almontefisher** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:33 am

It is never the bass guys...a few dozen dead bass is always associated with the large increase in water temp so quickly....no it is the blue green algae bloom....no wait it is the virus killing them because it would be to coincidental that the day after a huge bass tourney some bass are dead. I am going out on a limb here and saying after reading 4 or 5 of these posts that even the bass guys have to admit that some of these dead bass are from the tourney. Can not blame everything else all the time. Sure the water temp and virus and algae bloom may have been a factor but way to often do you read and see this after tourneys. I don't think we need to outlaw bass tourneys we just need to rethink how we do it. Do we need to keep 5 bass all day in a livewell to come back and weight them. Can you not have some sort of control on the water to weight or take a picture of the fish and use length?? Just a thought.

Now bass guys and gals explain that it is not from the tourney because that would be impossible as all fish are kept in the livewell and are alive at weight in!!!

Post by **Dore** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:36 am

Depends what kind of tourney you're talking about............. if it's a pro tourney they ussualy have all the proper equitment for a safe weight in and release. To me it's the local tourney's that kill the fish were the weight in station is 300 yard away from the launch and you have to drag you're fish all the way there and back ! I've seen this and I've the outcome = DEAD fish all around the shore line.

Post by **Hollywood** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:37 am

I have seen tournaments where there are interval prizes in addition to the daily prizes. For example, come in and weigh your fish by 10 am, if you have the big fish before 10, there's a prize for that and the weights count towards your daily total. I have always thought this was a better way than stressing fish out and trying to keep them alive in a box all day. It's something I think about even for the Wendover Walleye Classic. The few Walleye in the classic that die, however, are never wasted. We have heavy score penalties against dead fish, but the ones who come in dead are taken and eaten by someone. No fish is wasted at least.

Post by **almontefisher** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:10 am

Have been thinking about this all morning so far and what about this. I would wonder if instead of having the weight station at the main launch and waiting till the end of the day would it make more sense to have two or three floating stations in boats located around the lake and have specific weigh in times for the bass. Say every two hours. This would limit the exposure of the live well as well as the length of time out of the water. Another thought is this. Has anyone ever noticed that the fish weigh less over the course of the day or do they keep the same weight? This last one I am curious to know as would it make sense to weigh in more often due to loss of weight or do they really lose any weight over the course of the day??

Post by RJ » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:13 am

Bruce,

Certainly you are jumping to a lot of conclusions on this......how do you know that is where the fish came from?

I am certainly not naive to think that bass tournaments do end up having a few dead fish.....but all tournaments and their equipment are not created equal. The Renegade Series has spent thousands of dollars on having the most up to date equipment for fish care.....anyone who hasn't seen it should come to a weigh-in.......

At our Big Rideau event we had 324 fish weighed in...322 released.

At Newboro we had 325 fish weighed in and 317 released. Yes 8 dead fish at Newboro....considering the water temps were in the 80's that pretty darn good by me.

I won't comment on the other series in the area as that is not fair for me to say.

All I know is in 3 years since returning to fishing tournaments and weighing in 5 fish at every one...we have never had a fish that we thought wasn't going to make it.

RJ

Post by **Hollywood** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:14 am

In a perfect world, the idea of floating weigh stations might work. But, try to find enough volunteers to do it! And just wait until you have a .01 oz difference in the leader board and it's a $1000 difference. Try to prove your scales all work the same. I think consistency might be hard to prove with multiple stations. I have noticed the fish weigh less because they get stressed and yack up their food. I caught a 3 lb'er off the launch in wendover and as I was un hooking it, it trew up a half-digested baby bass that was the size of my fist..... that had to be a couple ounces there....

Post by **Big Bass 444** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:15 am

Let's hope something will be done about this SOON!....some strict regulations needs to be in place in both provinces to make sure we get basses to fish for down the road.....from what I have seen so far.....it is sad...real sad!!!... and I won't encourage organisations with poor managing control next year for sure....I believe mandatory release boats would be a good thing to start out with in all bass tournament events and oxygen given to tanks out of the water.

Now RJ..out of those 322 basses released....how many will survive you think?...Like you said Renegade might have what it takes to operate..but what about the others..who is doing something about this??What exactly is going on here all over the place...322 X ???...and basses left on their own at the beach launch... should we be concern about the rest of it all...instead of saying that all is good with Renegade.

Post by **almontefisher** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:26 am

RJ wrote:Bruce,

Certainly you are jumping to a lot of conclusions on this......how do you know that is where the fish came from?

I am certainly not naive to think that bass tournaments do end up having a few dead fish.....but all tournaments and their equipment are not created equal. The Renegade Series has spent thousands of dollars on having the most up to date equipment for fish care.....anyone who hasn't seen it should come to a weigh-in.......

At our Big Rideau event we had 324 fish weighed in...322 released.

At Newboro we had 325 fish weighed in and 317 released. Yes 8 dead fish at Newboro....considering the water temps were in the 80's that pretty darn good by me.

I won't comment on the other series in the area as that is not fair for me to say.

All I know is in 3 years since returning to fishing tournaments and weighing in 5 fish at every one...we have never had a fish that we thought wasn't going to make it.

RJ

This is one organization that I have heard very good things about how they deal with the weight in and the way fish are released. Also like the fact they know how many fish did not make it. Ask another organization how many fish died and they probably would not know. Now about the few ideas I had RJ...do they make sense or is Hollywood right with the different scales creating a bit of a panty bunch party!!

Post by RJ » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:34 am

AF,

I'd never go for it myself.....and I highly doubt anyone else would either. I've heard that before we weigh in the scales go thru a one hour process of tests for accuracy and consistency....having multiple scales on the water would be a nightmare and consistency of a scale I'd think would be void while it was bouncing up and down in a boat in the water.

As far as the measuring idea....personally am not a fan of that.... I've seen 19 inch 4 pounders and 21 inch 4 pounders....they are not all created equal.....

In the past on here I've been critical of the same thing Bruce is....but I've now seen it can be done with the right equipment and mindset....that's why I fish the series I do.

RJ

Post by **cprince** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:35 am

I think the title of the thread could easily be: Fishing = Dead Fish.

I would think that guys who fish bass C&R day in and day out would be a little more responsible than the weekend warriors. The $ these guys have riding on the health of bass... it is in their best interest to keep these fish alive and comfy!

I would agree that there are always ways to reduce mortality, tournament or not. I think a two weigh in day would be decent solution.. give guys a chance to eat a proper lunch and an onshore wizz break... start half an hour earlier in the morning and end it a half hour later in the PM to compensate for the hour in the afternoon... ?

Craig

Post by RJ » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:41 am

Another thing that always gets lost in this discussion is we as anglers are entitled by law to keep 6 bass a day. I'd wager there were more fish kept by people fishing off the Rockland dock that day than the damage done by the tournament.

RJ

Post by **Muskie4L** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:49 am

RJ wrote:Another thing that always gets lost in this discussion is we as anglers are entitled by law to keep 6 bass a day. I'd wager there were more fish kept by people fishing off the Rockland dock that day than the damage done by the tournament.

RJ

Thats a statement you can take to the bank!

Post by **beachburger** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:58 am

Ask another organization how many fish died and they probably would not know.

Or they probably do if anyone bothered to ask instead of making B.S. blanket statements.

Here are the dead fish numbers for the 3 tournaments the Petawawa Bassmasters has held so far this season.

- June 26, Ottawa River Petawawa : 95 fish weighed / 1 dead fish

- July 11, Muskrat Lake : 125 fished weighed / 9 dead fish. This was during the very hot weather. In 2009 on Muskrat under more normal conditions, there were 140 fish weighed with 1 dead fish.

- July 24, Lake Kamaniskeg : 160 fish weighed / 1 dead fish

Most of these fish are dead because they have swallowed a hook. This year, some succumbed to the heat and high water temps at Muskrat. All of these dead fish were taken home by participants with the intent of eating them. They were not thrown back in the lake nor left at the weigh-in station to rot.

Doug

Post by **RextypeS** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:59 am

here we go again people whining about tournament fishing. As RJ said think of all the people in a day that are keeping over there limit or fowl hooking fish and killing them. Do you really think that a tournament especially like S.E.B.O that is run rather well and has for the most part experienced anglers that know how to handle fish and keep them alive are going to kill the entire bass population? I think there are a lot more things to be concerned about. Out of the 200+ fish that were caught on sunday I am sure 95% are still alive and well. Maybe you should worry more about how to get the ridiculous cost to launch a boat down in Rockland rather then a couple dead fish.