Don't shoot the messenger just sharing and making us think.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Alabama news alert!   
 

 

[Quillback]

Lake Fork has a slot limit, the Elites were on it last year, so the argument that the big boys won't come if there is a slot limit is not a good one.  

What kind of surprised me is that director of the Bama trail, said that they had a 20-25% mortality rate.  That's still pretty darned high.  

[Al Agnew]

3 hours ago, Seth said:

I don't see it making much of a difference. There ain't a wintering hole on those rivers that most of the avid winter bass anglers don't already know about. Those guys don't even have FFS on their river rigs. I'm sure you could use it to see a fish eat your lure, but it's not making a difference in who is winning a river tournament. Ya'll act like this is a new phenomenon, but a lot of the guys I know have been fishing these river tourneys for 30+ years now. If they were going to destroy the bass fishing, it would have happened a long time ago. A lot of the guys that fished the rivers when I started aren't even doing it anymore. I'd bet the tournament pressure is lower now that it was when I first started fishing them in 2012. That's not a bad thing either because it was a bit ridiculous at one point when there were a good 4-5 clubs running at the same time. There's really only one that draws good numbers and a few smaller ones now.

As for crappie, side imaging helped increase my crappie catching ability FAR more than FFS ever has. I went from rarely getting limits to rarely not limiting when I got side imaging. Side imaging has been on for over two decades and yet there are still plenty of crappie to be caught. If that didn't wipe them out then I don't see FFS doing that job any better. The only thing FFS has really done in regards to crappie is allow anglers to target the larger fish. That matters in a tournament, but your average weekend Joe isn't going to pass on a bunch of 10 inch fish to try and catch a 14 incher. He's just looking for some fish to eat. I'm not sure how Truman , TRL, Pomme and other reservoirs are fishing these days since I mainly fish LoZ, but the average size for crappie is the best that I can ever recall on LoZ in my 15-20 years of chasing crappie on it. I do have FFS, but I am not using it to single out larger fish when I'm out fishing for food. If it's a tournament then I'd be out in the middle of a cove single poling for the bigger fish. Dock shooting and fishing brush is going to put a limit of 10-11" fish in my boat quicker than single poling would though so I do that the majority of the time.

Of course this is all just my opinion based on what I've seen first hand as somebody who fishes river tournaments and owns a Garmin Livescope. I don't do the winter tournaments since those are typically won by whoever can get to a certain spot first and my boat is way too slow for that stuff. Plus I'd rather go fish for something else in the winter like crappie or trout than a bass. I'll save them stinkin bass for the warmer months where I can get out and swim if they are being stubborn. 😁

Not every wintering hole is straightforward as to where the fish in it are located at any given time.  Sure, some of the holes I fish, the whole pool isn't very big and the fish-holding spots are few and small, or else one little stretch of bank is good and everything else is too shallow to hold fish in normal clear winter water.  But there are plenty of them that are a half mile long, deep from bank to bank and from head to tail.  These are pools that I might spend a half day just trying to find the fish when you have to fish slowly and carefully in the winter, because they won't be everywhere.  It is in these pools, seems to me, that FFS would speed the process up considerably; just cruise it looking for fish, make some casts when you find some to see if they are bass and interested.  Successful fishing, whether tournament or not, is all about efficiency.  The less time you spend making casts to places where there aren't any fish, the more efficient you are at catching fish.

Are these winter river tournaments impacting the populations of bigger fish?  Who knows?  But seems to me that it's a bit of an arms race.  As anglers get more efficient with better equipment and knowledge, they catch a greater PERCENTAGE of the bigger fish.  So it could very well be that there are just as many fish being caught now as there were 20 years ago, but those numbers are a greater percentage of a smaller total number of big fish.  And as efficiency continues to increase, at some point the numbers of big ones caught will start declining because the available pool of big ones from which to catch them gets too small. 

[Al Agnew]

17 hours ago, Gavin said:

Well Al, put some skin in the game and push  your river tourney friends to go to catch, photo, release. You know them all. You fish with them. 

Of those I fish with, a couple are seeing the problems and backing off fishing the tournaments somewhat, while a couple others are adamantly unconvinced.  Heck, I might be smart, but not everybody thinks I'm a genius😁...they don't listen to me.  Besides, I'm getting too old to fight more battles.

[fishinwrench]

I have had to stop voicing my personal opinion on Livescope fishing because once you say anything negative about it, a large portion of the fishing community immediately determines that you are an asshole and that you belong in the Randy Blauket category.....and they avoid speaking to you, or bringing their boats in to you for repairs.  🙄 

The whole issue has gone political. 

[Flysmallie]

37 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

I have had to stop voicing my personal opinion on Livescope fishing because once you say anything negative about it, a large portion of the fishing community immediately determines that you are an asshole and that you belong in the Randy Blauket category.....and they avoid speaking to you, or bringing their boats in to you for repairs.  🙄 

The whole issue has gone political. 

Dude, that’s the American way! Everything is political. 

[fishinwrench]

47 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

Dude, that’s the American way! Everything is political. 

Yep, hell I learned how political Mountain Lions were a couple weeks ago.....And I learned it right here on OAF.   😅 

Those bastards should run for state office ! 

[Maverickpro201]

Billethead and fishinwrench, do not worry I will not judge you or waste a shell on you.

Never shoot the messenger because the next time he may have something you should know. 

Wrench sometimes people just do not understand that not all people think like them. I hate to say this, But sometimes and I mean sometimes, I do agree with you. You can work on my boat anytime I am in your area and need help for sure. I hold nothing against anyone's views. Even If You Were Wrong. 🤣🤪🤪🤩  

[BilletHead]

7 minutes ago, Maverickpro201 said:

Billethead and fishinwrench, 

             BilletHead and @fishinwrench in the same sentence?  Wow looks like I'm running in a tough crowd. Then to think a shell is involved gives me the creeps 😬.

[dan hufferd]

I was not there when it happened, but I suppose limits were imposed based on the impact fishing/hunting had on the population of what game you are going for.  At some point there were no regs' on anything, and I would assume populations got decimated. (I have a talent for stating the obvious)

I bet we are better at reacting to improved harvest methods than we were 100yrs ago.

Example: In my area you can hunt varmints with thermal imaging, and a rifle after dark. My neighbor has a 22-250 with a can and thermal (really nice set up) he put serval coyotes and bobcats to sleep last year after dark. He probably has 8K in that set up.

I remember a day not too long ago when there was none of that allowed.

I wonder how long it will be before there are no bobcats or coyotes?

Then the varmint regs' will tighten 

Anywho, I feel like we are doing the same with sport fishing but I reckon we are reacting fairly quickly.

I think hunting deer with armed drones is probably next, probably at night from the comfort of the truck or living room, probably just paint balls or something, "shoot and release" kinda thing, it will be too much work to drag it out of the woods and process it.

Sorry for getting off the path.

We used to catch fish because we like to eat them, we are way away from that now. Don't taste that good anyway😜