Please read the article.
Do ya'll think tournament fisherman are bad for the lakes?
Does anyone think that that many fish die from handling them to much?
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Please read the article.
Do ya'll think tournament fisherman are bad for the lakes?
Does anyone think that that many fish die from handling them to much? -
nota bad idea for heavy fished lakes. U see everyone lipping fish which is very bad for them. thats why most fish die that are lipped, due to injury caused to the lower jaw, shich in turn prevents them from eating and the n starving to death. read a big article on that!!! which makes sense IMO... -
I did not read the article but I can say that alot more fish die from tournament fishing than is noticed. That being said, the money spent on and around lakes by tournament fisherman is an important asset to the surrounding communities of those areas that you will never seen anything done about it. Now do not get me wrong, I am Pro tournament fishing, I use to make my living doing it but I have seen the dead fish the day after the tournament as well as talked to the people who ran the live release boats. Thank goodness we are in a state that spends a lot of our license money back on restocking programs.Comment
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Would it be a good idea to limit the number of tournaments small lakes like amon carter
can have.Comment
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Restocking can't repopulate a large lake.Originally posted by Shortbow View Post
There are numerous lakes in Texas that should never have a tournament held on them.Originally posted by jcar View Post
Lake Fork has dominated the Trophy fishing in Texas for years, and then we had the virus. Now, there is a tournament or two every single weekend, because with the slot, and a 5 fish limit, a guy can win a tournament with 5 that weigh 9-12 lbs because it is rare (1 boat out of 100) for a fish over 24 inches to be caught.
It has been 12 years since the virus, and we should have recovered, and while the numbers are good, our trophy fishing has slowed.
Absolutely no doubt in my mind that tournaments ( along with a couple other factors) have been instrumental in the slow recovery.
There are app. 210 lakes in Texas, and one Lake Fork.
With it's record, extra pains should have been taken to protect this trophy fishery.
This is just my opinion.Comment
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I'm an old tournament fisherman, too, not the likes of Shortbow who is quite a fisherman, or Rocky who fishes with an appreciation for what the fish actually are, but I've fished a few tournaments in my life. Salt and freshwater.
When I started seeing the patch pirates (that's what I call the sponsored up good old boys) not even giving a glance at the fish other than to make sure it's long enough, I gave it up. In some things, competition is not good. The "accumulation" of animals to measure one's self against another is one, IMO. Same thing with deer hunting. The recent attempts at deer competitions leaves me shaking my head.
To answer the question, I do think tournament fishing is bad for the fishery. Tournaments in the spring stress the females and summer tournaments stress everything. Stress kills.
Undeniably tournaments bring money into towns that would not otherwise have it, generate boat and tackles sales and a myriad of other monetary accomplishments. As I've gotten older I just hate to see the animals taken advantage of so guys can see who has the biggest ....
And that's how I really feel.Comment
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I have fished a lot of tournaments. I have seen one big fish kill, and I would say that there are a few fish killed in almost every tournament. Overall, I have not seen a great impact of the fisheries. We hold a small tournament on a small lake. The lake is doing fine and the bass are doing extremely well. I think maybe there should be a group in charge of each lake to make rules.Comment
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TPWD was assigned a the task of doing a delayed mortality test for tournament caught fish on a slot lake, and the slot limit was waived(this was the goal of the tournament organizations) for a total of 6 tournaments.Originally posted by okietaxi View Post
Lake Fork was the lake that the tournament organizers chose to have their tournaments on, expecting potential 5 fish 40-50 lb stringers.
A large group of business owners, landowners, and guides opposed this tournament to the extent that we filed suit against the commisioners(Nolan Ryan was one at the time) because we couldn't file against TPWD.
The first tournament was held i n Oct. 1999, after the virus and fish kill, and as a long time guide on the lake, I felt that the results of the tournament, and the delayed mortality would be disastrous to the lake.
Two days, +/- 22 lbs won the tournament, and the delayed mortality was right at 50%.
As a negotiation tool, TPWD persuaded us to drop the lawsuit if they could hold one more tournament and if the delayed mortality rate was over 10% it would be the last one.(they needed more data)
After it was revealed that there was a 50% delayed mortality rate, no other tournament organizer would hold a tournament involved with this study.
This may sound as if I'm anti-tournament, but nothing could be further from the truth. I qualified and fished the Bassmaster's Classic in 1995 and 1996, so I'm all for tournaments and the competition, BUT again, there is only one Lake Fork, and nobody should be able to put a fish in his livewell that all others can't.
No slot waivers for tournaments, and Lake Fork should be treated special because it is.
My other gripe, is that as a guide, I pay a fee to fish commercially in Texas,(use the resource) but an angler fishing for money, or a tournament organizer doesn't have to pay a fee for attempting to make money using the same resource.Comment
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Well said Richard.Comment
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