Trophy Lake

[Guest csfishinfool]

I don't what Lake you're talking about. I've fished the Rock for forty years and haven't caught a five lb. smallmouth or Kentucky. I've not broke the 10 lb Largemouth mark either. I did get close with a 9.1 lber before the fish kill. I bet less than 10% of the people on this forum have broke those records either. Is the Rock a good bass lake, yes, and getting better. Still not even close to the Lake it was, back in the Seventy's and Eighty's.

I have seen a couple of largemouth over Ten in the past seven or eight years. I've caught a smallie over five, as well as a spotted bass over five. Just saying you have the chance. Plus we live in an area of the country that doesn't promote a long growing season for the fish. Plus they are northern strain largemouths which rarely reach double digits.

[Stump bumper]

I saw what no keeping or weighing bass did on Sweepco for the few years they had in this little power plant lake. Granted it was not a big lake like the Rock but in just a few years the bass got stumped and were starving to death. You could catch 70 fish a day if you could hold a rod but 16in fish weighed 1lb. After they started taking bass out of the lake with a 10 fish limit finding 6 to 8 lbers were common and is the only waters around here I have caught a double digit bass and still see people with stringers of bass for the freezer so I have changed my mind a little about fish managment. If you want big fish sometimes you have to deal with smaller numbers.

[abkeenan]

I think if they would just put a 12 inch limit on spots, the largemouth and smallmouth populations would take care of themselves.

I agree with this

"I have seen a couple of largemouth over Ten in the past seven or eight years. I've caught a smallie over five, as well as a spotted bass over five. Just saying you have the chance. Plus we live in an area of the country that doesn't promote a long growing season for the fish. Plus they are northern strain largemouths which rarely reach double digits."

and this

[skeeter]

The negative opinions in response to this gentleman's proposal, especially the comments about financial impact on surrounding businesses, remind me of the exact, identical thing that happened back in the 70's when MDC installed the 15" black Bass limit on TR and other Missouri lakes. The Resort and Marina owners almost unanimously put thumbs down on the 15" limit and were worried that it would put them out of business or badly impact them. And you know what happened ? Just the opposite. And THAT is a proven fact!

As the World is learning, a fishery is not an infinite resource. True, we don't have "factory ships" trawling for sport fish on TR but the Lake does experience incredible commercial tournament pressure every week-in and week-out. That pressure can only be sustained for just so long....then lookout.

The one post read "First off it is the goal of tournament anglers to bring the fish to the scale alive or face penalties that in the pro-level can be worth 10’s of thousands of dollars. Hence now we have better live well systems and additives to help insure fish survival" and that is certainly true, but, many of us are concerned about what happens AFTER the weigh-in with the cameras rolling and the endlessly yapping commentators carrying on while Joe Pro holds his fish up for all to see and after all that sponsor-financed hoopla is over we are fed up with finding the water around release sites with numbers of dead, floating, quality Bass after large, commercial tournaments.

If nothing else, my thoughts are to place a well-defined area of the lake into a so-called "Trophy Fishing only" area similar to what MDC has done on several streams and Rivers for Smallmouth and Trout.

Like the gentleman who started this thread, I've been around a while too and am concerned about the future of the Lake and whether the same fishing opportunities will be available to my Grandchildren. My two cents.

[Smalliebigs]

I can't agree with you more Skeeter, there is nothing worse than seeing the carnage after a big tourney.You may not see it the next day but, two and three days after the event you will see bass floating in the vicinity of the weigh in and I think it sucks. I don't live on a beautiful lake like the rock and it kills me to see that, I can only imagine how someone would feel who lives on such a killer lake seeing the floaters. Your idea of a trophy area of the lake I like and should be considered. I have fished only 5 tournaments and I do like some aspects of them a great deal but, it's not worth the carnage if you ever get the chance to see it first hand.

[Feathers and Fins]

A trophy area would be a great idea . Also it would be nice to have an area for the tournaments to place there fish where they could be treated with care for release. But i think more so would be to stop the practice of lipping the bass for the photo ops at tournaments, I would love to see a survey done on how many of those fish are the ones found floating up. They take so much care in making sure they live to the weigh in, the same care should be given after. I hate seeing them jerk big bass out of the bag and fling it around for the photo op I know that has to do damage.

Closed seasons are not the answer Fish are caught and released daily, some live some die for certain. But we could place better handling and care restriction on tournament anglers to try and help negate some of the loss. Fish are a resource and it is not for me or anyone else to say people cant keep a fish to eat. But a tournaments goals are to release and if thats the goal then better handling practices only seem reasonable.

I wonder though if this conversation would happen if tournaments went to catch and keep?

[inshore]

This is what I was trying to do just get some coversation and thought processes going. Personally I feel there is room for all of us on the lakes

if we all use common sense. A guy fishing for fun or in a tournament should respect each others rights. I do agree that the tournaments should take

better care of the fish and if they don't they should be fined and barred from the lakes. This is also MDC's area of responsibility and they should

enforce the law if there are any on care and handling of tournament fish. While on this subject I have observed a lot of non-tournament anglers not

properly handling fish they were releasing. The knife cuts both way.

The one group of fishermen we have failed to hear from are the TR guides. I have a great respect for anyone who can make a living on the water and would love a little input.

[Feathers and Fins]

Inshore: My biggest fear about over restricting tournament anglers is they would go to a Catch and Keep. Think about it, The law has size limits and bag limits and regulating how they handle fish or require them to prove non-kill could easily push them to the KEEP side. 20 boats with semi or pro anglers could do alot of damage when there is a tournament or 3 each weekend. There are a lot of clubs around here, I have seen 3 on Beaver at one time. Where i would support Voluntary efforts and better handling efforts it would have to be just that voluntary.

Perhaps Marinas can get involved and get a LARGE tank to place the fish in for 48 hours after the tournament this could be a boom to them for spectators to see the BIG BASS as the recover. I dont know the answers but we do need to be very careful as to not make it where tournaments decide to go with the laws and just say we will keep all fish. Skeeter had some good points for sure.

[Guest csfishinfool]

Inshore: My biggest fear about over restricting tournament anglers is they would go to a Catch and Keep. Think about it, The law has size limits and bag limits and regulating how they handle fish or require them to prove non-kill could easily push them to the KEEP side. 20 boats with semi or pro anglers could do alot of damage when there is a tournament or 3 each weekend. There are a lot of clubs around here, I have seen 3 on Beaver at one time. Where i would support Voluntary efforts and better handling efforts it would have to be just that voluntary.

Perhaps Marinas can get involved and get a LARGE tank to place the fish in for 48 hours after the tournament this could be a boom to them for spectators to see the BIG BASS as the recover. I dont know the answers but we do need to be very careful as to not make it where tournaments decide to go with the laws and just say we will keep all fish. Skeeter had some good points for sure.

Tournaments used to be that way. Ray Scott founder of B.A.S.S set the standerd and was the first to introduce catch and realse tournament fishing back in the seventies. I don't think you would have to worry about it going back to the old ways.

I watched a tournament on T.V. for the Texas Bass Classic. It's a high profile tournament where all of the top anglers from the FLW, B.A.S.S, and PAA all fished against each other. In this tournament there is an observer in every boat. When a keeper fish is caught it is weighed in the boat and then released after the weight is recorded. The contestants are allow to bring one fish over 21" to the weigh in each day. Upon arrival to the host ramp the one fish they were allowed to keep are loaded into a holding tank in the back of a truck. Texas Parks and Wildlife department fisheries biologist along with the pro ride back to the weigh in site which is serval miles away at a convention center. The ride there the biologist moniters the dissolved oxygen content, the ph, and the tempature of the water in the tanks. After the contestants weights are revealed to the crowd. They hold there one over 21" fish to excite the crowd and pause for pictures. After they are done the fish go into a larger holding tank(also monitored by bioligists) where they are allowed time to revive befor being released back into the lake.

While the catch and release weighing may not work in a smaller circut say like anglers in action. Just for the shear reason that there is no way there would be that many people available to observe all of the anglers. But I would love to see Missouri Conservation Department biologists at the weighins monitoring the conditions in the tanks on the parking lot. And the conditions of the release tanks. If the conservation department doesn't have the time or manpower to do this, then there should be a state, or federal law that would fource tournament orginizations to hire a fisheries biologist to monitor conditions and record data from each tournament.

I was at a tournament at Table Rock in May about two years ago. The weather was in the ninetys, and the weigh in water tanks were place right on black top. The water was warm to the touch in the tanks. After I weighed in and took my fish to the release tank I was absalutly appaled by how many fish were dead in the tank. As well as a bunch of fish floating in the lake around the weigh in site. I expressed my concern with the tournament director. I told him that his tanks were hot. His reply to me was that he had already placed around seven or eight bags of ice in the tanks to try to cool them down. I got to thinkin about how many mistakes were made at the this event. For one the tanks should have been placed under a shaded canopy. And for me the biggest mistake was how much ice was used as an attempt to cool the water. If you use the right kind of ice you can put as much as you want in the tanks to cool them down. But when your using a ready ice bag from the walmart you are introducing chlorene and who knows what else to the fish. With the eight bag of ice used I would say that had a harsher effect on the fish than the warm water did.

I believe this was an easaly preventable mishap. If there had been someone actually monitoring these tanks, and the locations of where the tanks were placed. The loss of fish probably wouldn't have been near as bad.

Just my thoughts on a very reasonable solution to this issue.

[glennL]

After reading everyones opinion and every one of them has some very valid paoints, it obvious no one will be happy with any decision.

Except this one.

If you want to eat fish, eat the white bass, crappie or walleye, or support the local restruants.

Everyone should catch and release all the Smallies, Large mouths or "K's".

.