fishinwrench

Don't expect any of this crap to make any sense. Doing so will only lead to frustration and anger. Fish how you want to and totally ignore anything you don't wanna hear, because that's what everyone else does. Believe only what serves your immediate interest.

Don't forget to send your underwear.

Bass are very adaptable, so what all this moving around is doing is it is creating a growing population of Largemouth bass that act more like stripers now. That's the way they learn to feed now since a good portion of them are always lost. They have way different habits than typical home range bass (or pond bass) that know where they are and haven't been relocated 3-10 times in their life. Bass that used to be basically shallow water, cover oriented, ambush feeders, are now pilagic open water roamers chasing schools of shad. Last year during late Summer-early Fall the bass bite was rediculously tough up here in the Gravois. I hadn't caught a fish over 3lbs. in a long time.....but the crappie guys out trolling crankbaits over 30-40 foot of water were getting sick of catching 5 pounders. Now I don't care who you are or what lakes you fish, that is just not how you fish for Largemouth bass. Those fish were all out there because they hadn't established a new home territory yet after being caught and removed from their comfy cozy familiar home. And the sad thing is that once they do reestablish a new home range, they'll invariably bite the wrong thing and back to PB2 or Alhonna they'll go. Like Kermit the frog says..."It ain't easy being green".

Riverfront or HV gets the nod. Whatever you do stay away from Ho-Humm

Speechless here. And that don't happen very often. You sir, have my respect

For the most part it is the networking that does it now. Actually it always has been, but today it's real easy to be connected and in the loop, and the loops are way bigger, and more of them. Going in blind and figuring it all out on your own is unheard of.

Things are way different now. There was no such thing as a 22 year old in a new fully rigged boat, carrying a 20# sack to the scales. We didn't have internet, side scan sonar, GPS waypoints, or even cell phones (well a few of us had cheesy bag phones and pagers.... but they sucked BAD and the battery was always dead). Today all a kid has to do is get Dad to co-sign a loan, get in with the right group and network. Next thing you know he has 4 sponsors and is a pro-staffer. I think everyone has forgotten what kinda balls-busting it used to take to be "a hammer".

Oh so they are dumping them at Bassin Bob's place and Jack Uxa's place? How freakin' convenient ! I know where all the ramps are. I just figured that MDC would want them dumped at PUBLIC ramps, instead of private ones.

There's 3 really good reasons why I stopped competitive fishing, and neither of them had to do with being uptight about relocating fish. BUT at the time that I stopped, tournaments weren't so rediculously plentiful, there were usually one BIG one and one little one per month..... not 4-6 every week. The main reason I quit the big ones is because even though I was doing respectively my outboard mechanic was getting more of my winnings than I was, and wasn't having to work near as hard as I was to get it. I finally got smart and realized "this is stupid". I had a kid on the way, was struggling to pay my bills, and decided I WANNA BE THAT GUY ! So I stopped guiding and fishing the tournament trails, and started my training in the Marine repair field. I still fished some smaller club and open events for awhile, but then I noticed that there was a bitterness cloud out there among most of the competitors, and if I took their money on tournament day then you can bet your rearend that I was gonna be the last SOB they'd pay to fix their boats/motors! Guess what? It's WAY easier to get their money by working on their stuff than it is to beat them fishing consistently..... because they were getting better every month, and I really felt that I had gotten as good as I was ever going to unless I quit my REAL job. So I quit altogether, and pretty quick their boats started coming to my shop on a regular basis. I don't want competitive fishing to stop, I just think it needs to either be slowed down ALOT, or they need to change the format. There are too many and it is having negative effects.

Red hooks just MIGHT give you an edge with heavily pressured fish on fast moving baits. Or possibly on topwater baits if you're getting slaps instead of solid bites. I'm not quite ready to completely dismiss it so I still carry some red trebles in the boat, and I have one Rattle Trap and a Pop-R rigged red just in case that one day ever happens. And I have a red Sharpie marker in there too, if the red gets rubbed off.

You're fine.

When you leave PB2 with a load of fish, there aren't that many ramps to go to. PB1 Shawnee bend Gale I know they don't make it to the Gravois ramp or I'd have seen them. That would be worth tailgating them to find out. I'm sure someone has.

Heck no! A guy skinning their sides can only do it twice before he eats a bunch of fish, because we have possession limits. The same guy can relocate hundreds of bass per week if he fishes alot. Bass are home-range critters. If left alone or caught and immediately released a bass will live Its entire life out within 2-5 square miles. Therefore areas of the lake that don't host a plethora of tournaments (like MY area of the lake) get noticably depleted of keeper fish. You show me a tracked bass that was taken from the Gravois to PB2 and made its way back to the Gravois and I'll buy you a boat.

I copied you on it, Oneshot.

Nope, most impact related claims are covered, even on the lamest of insurance policies.

Always wondered what type of waiver (or whatever) is required to do that. You've got 2-4 guys in a boat that are "in possession" of like 200+ keeper bass.....how can that even be technically legal without some sort of special permit? And what does a permit for that cost? What is that permit even called? I don't see it listed in the available permits from fish&game agencies.

A tracking study was done years ago on a bowl shaped, and rather small natural lake up North. A good number of fish ended up back where they were caught, but in a situation like that all a fish has to do is swim along the shoreline and eventually it will recognize it's original area. No magical homing ability is being displayed there. A fish taken from one cove on LO or TR and transported a mile straight across the lake and released in another cove is not going to know that all it has to do is just fin out over 120' of water to get back to his home range familiar area. It is completely lost and has no idea where the good hiding/ambush spots are or where the crawdads are the most abundant. It basically has to start life all over again.

OMG! If these organizations would stop corraling all the keepers to PB2, Alhonna, etc just for 2 years I think you'd see fishing like you've only dreamed about here on LOZ.

Thank you !!!! You're the first person to openly agree with that so far. I typed a long and polite/reasonable letter, that included that question, and sent it to 3 different MDC folks, and got NO REPLY WHATSOEVER. I could have asked about anything else and gotten a reply within 2 days. ANYTHING! We can talk about dandelions, freckled farting frogs, or barnyard butcher bats, and gotten immediate response. But we can't discuss possible negatives of excessive tournament fishing.

If the number of fish constantly being relocated from their familiar living space at this time, doesn't negatively effect anything, then at what point would it ? At what point DO you finally decide that "Hey, this is excessive and needs to be regulated down to a more reasonable level" ???? That point IMO has already passed. If 74 tournaments per month is ok, then why not 140, or 280 ? That be ok too?

Pffft. What was he, like 15 feet? Challenge accepted, but I'll one-up it since my pistol is scoped. I think I can do it at 15 yards (possibly 20). I'll see if I can get the girls to video the attempt. If I hit it I'll tag Donny Reed in the video

Cool. Please let us know what they say. I carry Gieco liability on my two paid for trucks and always kinda worried about how they would handle a claim, so when this latest job popped up and they told me it was Gieco my first reaction was "uh oh".... but so far they have been great to deal with.

In all of my years of tournament fishing I can honestly say that I never felt cheated, or suspected anyone that I fished against had cheated. My partner and I got hung up on a polygraph test once because they drilled us about "was your partner within sight of you all day" and my partner had hopped out at an access to run up and go poop......and obviously I didn't join him in the $#ithouse. They finally let it slide, but it took an hour of deliberating about whether it was ok that we couldn't answer that question truthfully or not.

Busy? Yes. Too busy? Depends.

My favorite thing to point out, on the topic of relocating critters, is that no other MDC regulated critter is allowed to be collected, transported, and relocated. If the negative results of doing so are nil, they why not allow it ? You can't even live trap and relocate coon's from your property, legally without notifying MDC of your intention to do so, and getting their consent. But it's ok to move bass repeatedly for thousands of guys every stinkin' day.