What happens to the dead fish?

[billmac]

What happens to the fish that don't survive the tournament?  Are they used in some way, or just discarded?

[BassHawg2293]

I have no idea what major trails do with them, as for my club, if we have dead fish someone eats them. I take mine to a guy at work the few times it's happened 

[Oregon Native]

Sadly I've seen a lot of happy turtles around weigh in's!!

[Bluebasser86]

Usually they're just left in my experience. A big part of the reason why the little group I fish with went with the MLF format. 

 

I remember once at Grand Lake, OK seeing over a dozen bass dead or dying after a club tournament got done weighing in. I looked at those fish and just thought how terrible of a picture that paints for non-fishermen. Even people who would otherwise have no opinion on tournament fishing could easily be put off by a scene like that. I think that's why more and more we're going to see the weigh and immediate release type tournaments to try to increase fish survival. 

[BassNJake]

Fish care should be of the utmost importance with tourney anglers as well as the directors of the tournaments.

Do not allow any dead fish to be weighed in and don't dispose of them at near the ramp.

Tourney fisherman already have the stigma that they "kill" every lake anyways.

Leaving a bunch of floaters give the naysayers all the ammo they need.

 

 

[J Francho]

They're typically taken home and eaten, or fed to the dog, in my case.  I've heard of some clubs taking the fillets to a homeless shelter.  It would be pretty bad form to leave dead fish behind in a tournament.  Just one or two floating corpses would give plenty on shore a bad impression of tournement fishing in general.

[Fishingmickey]

     This topic hit's a nerve with me. I kayak tournament fish and I really like the CPR format.  In five years time I know I have caused the demise of at least one fish.  I think about the some terms we as bass fisherman use to describe catching a fish. Ripping lips is probably foremost one that comes to mind. Seeing pictures with blood dripping down the side of the fish or covered in dirt of grass. The hero shots with holding a obviously large fish by the bottom jaw horizontally and no belly support at arm's length. Holding five fish in two hands. 

     I'm not a namby pamby tree hugging attributing human feelings to fish kind of guy but I also believe in not giving non-fishing people and PETA types ammo to crap on my favorite past time.  I'm probably going get fried in oil and burned at the interweb stake for making these comments. Anyone else feel the same way?

FM

[J Francho]

We are stewards to the water, and representatives of our hobby to anyone watching. 

[billmac]

FM: Agreed.  When I started watching tournament videos recently I was shocked at how roughly the fish were handled.  I'm sure most of them get to the scales alive but I'm not so sure about afterward.

 

If you fish, even if you are a dedicated catch and releaser, you are going to kill a fish once in a while.  Some fish clearly won't survive, and others will no doubt die after you've released them, but we owe it to the resource to do as little harm as possible, and that includes how we remove the hooks, and not wiping the slime off the fish.  I know this doesn't apply to bass, but I always shudder a little when I see someone holding a fish by the gills.  It may be fine, but I don't like it.  I never reach into the gills, even if it is just the gill plate.

[J Francho]

You can't lip a trout, salmon, northern pike, musky, pickerel, bowfin, or walleye. 

[billmac]

I know that.  I've caught all of those but salmon and bowfin.

[ww2farmer]

In the tournaments I run, a dead fish is the property of the angler who caught it. And he/she is not permitted to leave it on sight. They can take them home, use it for garden fertilizer, dog food, eat it themselves, give it away, or what ever. But leaving them behind is a big no-no and gets them the ban hammer from me.

[ratherbfishin1]

My thoughts have always been that if a fish ends up not making it, you can still, to some extent, let nature do it’s thing. Depending on where I am fishing sometimes I feel that putting a fish that is surely going to die back in the water is still okay because something like a turtle or other fish will eat it. If it is a public area, however, I wouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t want to offend people.  With this said, I only can recal ever killing one fish.

[kenmitch]

On 2/28/2019 at 6:49 PM, ratherbfishin1 said:

My thoughts have always been that if a fish ends up not making it, you can still, to some extent, let nature do it’s thing. Depending on where I am fishing sometimes I feel that putting a fish that is surely going to die back in the water is still okay because something like a turtle or other fish will eat it. If it is a public area, however, I wouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t want to offend people.  With this said, I only can recal ever killing one fish.

 

June of 2017 I was fishing a lake up in NorCal for bluegill as the bass weren't biting around the campground. Strictly catch and release as I"m not much of a fish eater. One of them didn't make it in the end. It swam away funny and wound up being a floater a few minutes later. At first I was a little bummed out that I hurt the little guy, then I heard the cry of a Osprey as it swooped down and swept it away. Was actually an amazing site to see mother nature in action. Weird how nature has a way of taking care of things without our intervention.

[jbsoonerfan]

Mother Nature does it with all creatures. Whether intentional or not, the food chain exists because of the way species are wired. Scavengers have to eat. It doesn't matter if the animal was hit by a car, shot, or died of natural age, buzzards will find it. As much as it sucks to think about bass dying, something is benefiting from it.

[jaimeastin]

If I kill it, I would prefer to eat it.  Bass is not a bad fish at all...  It’s all BS that is a bad tasting fish.

 

with that said, I would prefer someone eating it and last resort leaving it for nature.  

 

I know now it’s important for fish to stay alive and points are deducted if they aren’t, but the MLF format is really cool.

[J Francho]

1 minute ago, jaimeastin said:

It’s all BS that is a bad tasting fish.

This is highly subjective and depends a lot on where the fish is from, water quality, forage, and temperature.  Great Lakes smallmouth are pretty good.  The largemouth, not so much.  Taste like spoiled mud.  I've had largemouth from southern lakes that aren't too bad.  They still have a strong flavor I don't prefer, unlike all the blue gill and perch, that actually taste sweet to me.

[jaimeastin]

10 hours ago, J Francho said:

This is highly subjective and depends a lot on where the fish is from, water quality, forage, and temperature.  

That can be said about all fish, but I agree.

 

I just hate to see people bash other for eating it if they choose to or spreading misinformation.  Personally, bluegill Steve my favorite fish but I have tried many if the fish I catch.  I released the majority of the fish I catch, especially bass... But there are times when I am fishing for food more than sport.  My wife keeps getting on me that I haven't brought any fish back, but shoenher pictures.  In the colder months are perfect times to try bass 

[haggard]

They just fade away...

 

[scaleface]

Turtles have to  eat too .