Damage from tournaments

[Stratocat_Joe]

On 2/12/2021 at 6:41 PM, redux said:

Making sight fishing illegal would not work. Why? Guys can find fish, mark them (electrinically or with land marks, twigs, grass, etc), back off until they are out of sight, and then cast to them. Boyd talked about this a few months ago in a Bass Talk Live interview when asked.

Couldn't help but notice the foreshadowing/irony of this post, given the BPT's fiasco at Lake Cayuga earlier this year...

[TnRiver46]

42 minutes ago, Stratocat_Joe said:

Couldn't help but notice the foreshadowing/irony of this post, given the BPT's fiasco at Lake Cayuga earlier this year...

I was thinking the same thing! 😂 

[J Francho]

Cayuga is in m back yard. The fishery is doing fine. 

[WRB]

Our bass lake are impacted by lack of rain during droughts and too much soiled run off rain water during extreme storms every so often. The silt is a big problem reducing the reservoir depth drastically the fish must servive the silt and decaying brush lowering DO levels grown durn low water periods flooded during storms.

This cycle finally impacted both Castiac and Casitas this Calendar year. Trophy bass lakes to you can’t catch a legal bass nearly over night.

This isn’t a fishing pressure issue it’s a water quality problem that will resolve it’s self over time.

Ecosystems age and change over time, nothing we can do except volunteer instead of complaining.

The crash didn’t happen from tournament pressure, it was the ecosystem that crashed.

Tom

[Deephaven]

Weekend traffic and general traffic on lake Minnetonka is harder on the fishing than the 30 or so tournaments that are on it a year.  That being said for the first time in a really long time my best day on tonka this year was opener

 

[Woody B]

I hate tournaments for various reasons.   With that said, I don't think there's long term effects on a fishery.......unless there's way too many tournaments.   I'm against government regulations but common sense should be used when scheduling tournaments.   Some of the clubs around here have tournaments when it's simply too hot for bass to survive in a live well.  They have rules about releasing bass so they "release" their dead bass after weigh in.   

 

I think most lakes have up and down stages.......possibly without any influence from fishing pressure, tournaments, pollution, or any other man made problem.  Water levels are low around here, but it's due to lack of rain, not stuff the power companies are doing.  Most of the farm ponds and streams are low too.   I may be too trusting, but I believe the various pollution problems are better now than they've been in decades.   

 

 

[TnRiver46]

That’s definitely the trend here @Woody B. The papermill in canton , NC has been heavily polluting the pigeon river for 100 years. I think it was sometime in the late 80s, there was no life whatsoever in the water, just black sludge. The river is now excellent fishing although still polluted, just way less polluted. It’s easy for them to dump poison (chloroform) into the water because it all just flows right out of NC into TN. 
 

then you have the ocoee river which was very close to fishless but not completely for a long time due to cooper mining practices. It’s pretty good fishing for bass nowadays, one really positive thing the govt has done is clean up waterways  

[Woody B]

Nevermind

[J Francho]

Why not? Here's a chance for many a keyboard warrior to put their money where their mouth is. 
 

What does this have to do with damage to a fishery? Seems like pot stirring and anti-tournament rhetoric to me. 

[J Francho]

I love all the griping about mod edits on posts, and then this. Be a man, and have a reasonable discussion about a stated opinion. I'd think more of anyone that was willing to do that than cover up their tracks. I respect opposing points of view, and I just want to understand. 

[Mike L]

There’s no denying the positive economic impact that tournament’s give each local community. 
They are one of the driving forces of the tackle industry as a whole to help bring improvements in the Research and development of the baits and equipment we use. 

I also feel that tournaments are the biggest contributor of increasing awareness of our natural resources, and overall awareness and growth of the fishing industry as a whole. 

 

 

Mike