Culling

[Oregon Native]

Here I believe is an interesting scenario  and would like some input out of curiosity.  I will be fishing a semi final pretty soon where there is a no culling rule.  Five in the livewell.....five stay.  I'm fine with it as everyone will be under the same gun but it strikes me as interesting that this is going to be a by gosh or by golly tourney!.  Rather than have a plan with hopes to cull.....well.....you get my drift.

[Team9nine]

A few areas in the upper Midwest have similar rules. Makes for interesting tourney strategy. Over here, as long as you immediately release a legal fish after catching, you can keep fishing. It's only if you add that fish to the well that it then counts as one of your limit. If you practice and have an idea of what it will take to be competitive, most guys release the smaller fish early on, trying for quality bites. It will come back and bite you sometimes, though. Always somewhat of a gamble, and no absolute right or wrong way.

[12poundbass]

That was be a pretty interesting tournament to fish. I could see it messing with your head. What do you do? Go offshore after the bigger ones who are less frequent and gable on not getting a limit? Or do you beat the bank and get a small limit? What if you have 5 smaller ones and someone brings 3 decent ones that smokes your 5? 

 

See I'm second guessing everything and I'm not fishing the tourney! I'm not mentally stable enough to fish a tournament like that! ?

 

Good luck, make sure to let us know how you did.

[looking45]

I agree, if you're able to get some practice time in, you'll have a pretty good idea what kind of weights will be coming in. With no practice, it's a crap shoot. It's a pretty good bet that 5 fish just over the minimum size  limit isn't going to be doing you much good.