Fall Shad

[Al Agnew]

I think Wrench has it kinda right.  Back in the old days before tournaments became popular when I used to fish Wappapello a lot, those balls of shad would move onto a stump field and the big boys would start going through them like a threshing machine.  You could catch a few big bass on just about anything that remotely resembled a shad--the predecessors of the Rattle Trap were effective, as were shad colored crankbaits.  The bass pretty much stayed on the stump fields, or maybe just off the edge of the river channel next to them, all the time, and just waited to ambush the shad when they strayed into the wrong neighborhood.  You would occasionally see smaller bass chasing the shad out in the middle of the channel or up into shallow bays, but the big ones waited for the shad to come to them.

I do very little reservoir fishing these days, but when I fished a little tournament on Pomme just about every year a few years back this time of year, we'd see those shad balls, and even when they strayed into places where theoretically there should have been some bigger fish waiting for them, they went unmolested except for a few small bass that darted through them now and then.  Chasing the shad balls was almost entirely unproductive for decent fish.

[Mitch f]

I always go back to the tagging survey a couple of years ago on the Meramec, Huzzah, Courtois  where nearly 50% of the tagged fish were caught in a relatively short period of time. Still makes me depressed.

[Seth]

19 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I am on a crusade about the constant practice of relocating fish.  I'm really getting sick of it.  There has to be a better way to score all these tournaments.

Do you have anything in mind? The kayak tournaments go by total inches of fish, but that wouldn't fly boats fitted with big livewells just for holding fish all day. A way of transporting the fish away from the ramp would be nice, but that still doesn't solve the relocation issue of a lot of the fish. There just won't be as many fish at Alhonna, PB2, etc. With so many anglers having GoPro's, you could weigh the fish a scale, get it on video and release it. The issue with that is making sure everybody is using a scale that is certified and weighs the exact same.

If everybody was honest, you wouldn't have to haul fish back to a weigh in station. When you throw money on the line, people have a hard time staying honest, especially if it is a lot of money.

[Quillback]

40 minutes ago, Seth said:

If everybody was honest, you wouldn't have to haul fish back to a weigh in station. When you throw money on the line, people have a hard time staying honest, especially if it is a lot of money.

That is it, when it comes to money, people are going to want to see the fish.  And in the big money tourneys there is the drama of the weigh in. 

[fishinwrench]

There is no denying that we have the technology now to weigh immediately and score.   We have Go-pro's, Cellular phones, wireless internet, GPS tracking, ect. 

Scales could be easily networked together and could even have a video camera of their own built into them.  The odds for cheating would be no different than they are now.  

I guess the only downside would possibly be that waypoints could be recorded for every single fish caught, so future tournaments on that body of water might get really interesting after that info leaked.

As far as tournament fishing being a spectator sport..... I'd rather watch the event unfold than simply watch the guys weigh fish at the end of the day.

[Terrierman]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

There is no denying that we have the technology now to weigh immediately and score.   We have Go-pro's, Cellular phones, wireless internet, GPS tracking, ect. 

Scales could be easily networked together and could even have a video camera of their own built into them.  The odds for cheating would be no different than they are now.  

I guess the only downside would possibly be that waypoints could be recorded for every single fish caught, so future tournaments on that body of water might get really interesting after that info leaked.

As far as tournament fishing being a spectator sport..... I'd rather watch the event unfold than simply watch the guys weigh fish at the end of the day.

I suggested that ^^  type of thing on a local fishing radio show a couple of years ago and heard nothing but excuses.  The tournament guys have other priorities if you ask me.

[fishinwrench]

5 hours ago, Terrierman said:

I suggested that ^^  type of thing on a local fishing radio show a couple of years ago and heard nothing but excuses.  The tournament guys have other priorities if you ask me.

Tournament guys just wanna catch fish and win.  Having to babysit a box full of fish all day is a hindrance, not an asset to the program.   So what was their position ?

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Tournament guys just wanna catch fish and win.  Having to babysit a box full of fish all day is a hindrance, not an asset to the program.   So what was their position ?

Too expensive, people would find a way to cheat, weigh ins are great and that would never work.

[fishinwrench]

Tournament fishing is ALREADY too expensive.  I know of only a few that can retire comfortably from it.  If you can't afford a set of the required scales then you spent too much somewhere else. Sell some Wiggle Warts.

In all my years of milling around competitive fishing, whether participating or being involved otherwise, I can only recall one incident of alleged cheating.    If polygraphs soothe the suspicions then keep right on requiring them. 

Weigh-ins are a clusterf@$#.  More discrepancies are brought up as a result of weigh-in errors than any other issue (outright cheating included).  

I truly am about to launch a full scale crusade about this.  If tournament organizations in this state refuse to warm up to the idea then I'll go after it from a different direction.   If there were only 10 or 12 tournaments per year on a body of water I wouldn't be near as fired up, but there are 10 darn near every WEEK.     

It's time to reel this crap in and re-rig.  

[Old plug]

I go along with the bass like to stick in there home area. In the summertime some school up and move deeper but within their home range. I am alwys  on thee lookout for those devils. Because I know if I can  catch them rising to eat shad and I might be able to limit out with keepeers in minutes. They do not do that consitantly. And never on the surface. Last time this happened I and my son caught 7 keepers in about 15mnutes at the most. The bass were were rising from a drop off about 25ft or better down and feeding to feed on shad at about 10ft to 15 ft. I just happened to see them doing it on the depth finder. Around here I would expect sonethimg a lot more thrllling fishing under a surface shad ball. Big blues do that a lot.  I have done many battles  over the year with them in that sitution.