Elite Series may pull out of Potomac tourney

[fishnkamp]

Let me say this. I have fished the river since the 90's and there are a lot of things adding to the rivers decline.  First pollution like the releases from coal ash settling ponds in Quantico should never been allowed.  Things like waist treatment systems not doing their jobs, and heavy development and dredging of channels for things like the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and National Harbor. The river traffic used to run straight through the middle of the bridge now there is a huge amount of traffic coming into and out of National Harbor.  That used to be a quite cove that a lot of bass spawned in. How much has that caused a decline in that huge grass bed tons of fish called home?  Now as for "the one individual' that everyone refers to as "hating tournaments".  If you ever fished in the Spoils, (that is the cove located on the right side of the river just above the WW bridge) and caught a bass you can thank that "Hater" for spending hours and hours supervising the placement of all of the old concrete which came from the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge back in the late 80's or early 90's.  He has been a champion of the river for decades!  What he has been objecting to for a long time is very visible post tournament fish mortality during the hotter months.  Most of the larger sanctioned events try to do a pretty good job of fish management, but the river also had tournaments sponsored by local bars and fish health was not always most important.  The other thing that I have seen is fish suffering from big holes around the mouth caused by the culling systems most often used in tournaments.  If these holes are large enough it can affect the fishes ability to eat by flaring its gills and sucking in a bunch of water and food.. The simple solution would be to use a system like Glory bag makes.  If tournaments would mandate their use it would go a long way to reduce the stress these fish are subjected to.  Obviously I do not believe the tournament fisherman is the main culprit but we could easily do a few things to lesson our impact upon the fishery.  He is not all wrong or right in his opinions.  Just my 2 cents.