I know it’s their right, but!!!

[fishinwrench]

I am actually of the thinking that if there were no bass tournaments (or only 5-6 per year) and guys that wanted to kept 6 per day/ 12 possession (and ate them)...... that the bass fishing as a whole would be much better than it is now.   

I truly believe that.   

C&R (unless it is immediate) can't be good for ANY section of the lake, at the rate it is being done now.  

[fishinwrench]

If every day, guys went out all over the state and caught racoons, and took them all to Jeff City.  Every day Jeff City gets a load of coon's dumped on it.  Some days 200, other days a thousand.  Eventually the coon's are gonna be harder to find north of the Missouri River, and thicker than they should be between the big muddy and Hwy 60.

The life span of a coon is probably pretty close to the lifespan of the average LM Bass.

Why is it against the wildlife code to have a coon tournament ?

[waterpossum]

To get a better perspective of fishing tournaments through out the state of Missouri search Missouri State Highway Patrol Regattas. Stockton shows 31 permits for the month of May. Table Rock 75.  The boat permits for Table Rock tournaments as a rule are usually larger than the Stockton tournaments. Though they both seem pretty high amounts, most Stockton tournaments don't come close to filling full fields. Small 10-20 boat tournaments are the most common. I would like to see the day tournaments institute smaller numbers of fish allowed for weigh in from mid June to mid September.

[fishinwrench]

Fishing tournaments are pretty cool, lots of fun, but for crying out loud....it shouldn't be something that thousands of guys should be doing 6-10 times per month on the same body of water.   I mean good God....get a friggin life!

If competition is what you need, and it needs to be fishing related.... then have a 5000.00 winner take all casting contest every day (there's probably guys out there that don't even own a boat that could kick your butt!)  Or see who can tie the fastest/strongest knot.  You should all know by now that there's plenty more to fishin' than catching fish.   Do something that requires some extreme skill.

Trolling motor Bumper Boats on a Saturday afternoon at Lake O would be fun !  Or wait, how about a trolling motor race from Shady Gators to Millstone on a Saturday afternoon?  No seats, you must be standing.

[Bigfishscott]

Crap!! One little post and everybody’s wound up!! I think next time I go I keep my 6 to catch and release in the grease. Then the next I’ll fish a tournament. Then the next I’ll get my 6 and haul them to the other end of the lake. Hell if all the fish are depleted in your area  I’ll just start bringing them to your fave hole just send a map of where you want them. I just want not to be one  sided. O ya I think I already said this in the heading of this post.

[tjm]

If a fish is down, say, 17' and dies will it float to the  top? i know that in streams I have seen dead fish on the bottom being eaten by craw dads more often than I have floating fish.

What if the release boat sees some questionable fish and slits them open as stated in another thread do those fish float?

The upside to killing (whether to cook or to measure) all those bass is improved habitat for carp and by the time the bass are fully extirpated Euro Carping will be running contests where you adrenaline boasters can catch truly large fish.

[fishinwrench]

54 minutes ago, tjm said:

If a fish is down, say, 17' and dies will it float to the  top? 

Fish don't just float to the surface when they quit swimming. 

Any fish that dies an hour after being released is probably not gonna float.  Fish that die while you are digging a hook out of his gills float because the last thing it did was take a gulp of air.  Stick him under water, squeeze that air bubble out of him, and he won't float anymore.    A fish either has to have air or a buildup of gas inside him in order to float.

[tjm]

Thanks, wrench.

That is the way i remember my biology. As kids we would carefully remove the swim bladders and make floats from them. So if every single fish that is released dies two, three, four days after release (as some studies contend they can) there still would not be thousands of floating fish.

I don't think mortality is huge, but I'd not be surprised if it ran as high as 20% of all hauled and handled fish. If I fish barbless flies and use in the water release as brought to hand, I'd still expect some to become infected. (I don't keep my hooks sterile) One of the big reasons I quit using Rapala type lures is seeing fish die, apparently from contact with two treble hooks.

[MoCarp]

2 hours ago, tjm said:

If a fish is down, say, 17' and dies will it float to the  top? i know that in streams I have seen dead fish on the bottom being eaten by craw dads more often than I have floating fish.

What if the release boat sees some questionable fish and slits them open as stated in another thread do those fish float?

The upside to killing (whether to cook or to measure) all those bass is improved habitat for carp and by the time the bass are fully extirpated Euro Carping will be running contests where you adrenaline boasters can catch truly large fish.

one thing carpers do is take extra care of our catch.

 here is a fish that has been captured a few times, last time a few days ago and is now 34-4. fish prob is pushing 20 years old now, perhaps if bass grew as large or lived as long more effort would be put into individual fish care

[Unimog]

I wish the tournaments could go to a MLF type format and eliminate the weigh ins and hauling fish all over the lake.  The unfortunate thing is there is too much on the line (money, bragging rights) and they couldn’t keep it honest other than a judge in every boat.