Tournament Bags

[The A-man]

Hope someone with a bit more biological knowledge than I can answer this question: 

Can Bass survive being held out of the water, stuffed into plastic bags for a tournament style weigh-in? 

 

 My local fishery is nearly a 2,000 acre reservoir with lots of healthy bass, bream, and crappie. The majority of the cover is remaining tree tops or old brush that was left once the area was flooded. Went fishing for the first time this spring today on this lake and noticed a sizable crowd out on the water around me. After returning to the boat ramp, I came upon what was the weigh-in for a local redneck tournament with plenty of men holding tournament style bags of very healthy bass, stuffed like sardines with little water in those bags. I’m an avid/lifelong outdoorsmen and will fully support all outdoor sports, but I felt sick seeing this many trophy fish stacked in bags for a lengthy weigh-in that probably took 20 minutes from boat-to scale-to back in the water (should also mention this lake is an electric motor lake only, hardly any of the boats had live wells being that most of them were 500 dollar Jon boats). So does anyone have actual knowledge that Bass can handle the stress of being thrown in a plastic bag for a lengthy weigh in? Or do I need to find a lease somewhere and personally manage a few farm ponds...?

[Darth-Baiter]

I love the new format with the volunteer on the boat for fish documentation and quick release.   Same goes for the CPR method the kayak guys use. 
 

 

[Michigander]

It is pretty easy to make a livewell out of a cooler or similar, so I would not assume that these boats did not have livewells just because of their hulls.

[MN Fisher]

20 minutes ago, Michigander said:

It is pretty easy to make a livewell out of a cooler or similar, so I would not assume that these boats did not have livewells just because of their hulls.

Back when I had the 14' runabout, that's exactly what I did for a livewell - 55qt cooler with a 'cooler kit'

[Michigander]

5 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Back when I had the 14' runabout, that's exactly what I did for a livewell - 55qt cooler with a 'cooler kit'

We made one out of utility sink when we started tournament fishing from a pontoon boat. Housed this nearly six pound smallie well enough, lol.

[jbsoonerfan]

5 hours ago, The A-man said:

Hope someone with a bit more biological knowledge than I can answer this question: 

Can Bass survive being held out of the water, stuffed into plastic bags for a tournament style weigh-in? 

They sure can.

[MN Fisher]

51 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

They sure can.

No different than taking aquarium fish home from the shop in a plastic bag...just that the bag for bass has to be a bit bigger.

[David 7]

I’ve been wondering this a lot this summer whenever I see pictures of the local tournaments with people holding up their bass at weigh in. I just can’t imagine that it’s good for the bass. Would be interested to hear some statistics. Have heard stories of big kill at bodies of water that held trophies, but it’s word of mouth. I much prefer the MLF format or even the KBF for local tourneys. Not that I fish tournaments but I think that would be much easier on the bass. 

[A-Jay]

24 minutes ago, David 7 said:

I’ve been wondering this a lot this summer whenever I see pictures of the local tournaments with people holding up their bass at weigh in. I just can’t imagine that it’s good for the bass. Would be interested to hear some statistics. Have heard stories of big kill at bodies of water that held trophies, but it’s word of mouth. I much prefer the MLF format or even the KBF for local tourneys. Not that I fish tournaments but I think that would be much easier on the bass. 

I do not fish competitively.

Nothing against it, just not my style. 

Love watching and learning though. 

Tournament Bass fishing has been a part of the sport for a long time.

It's evolved quite a bit and the earliest versions were clearly quite a bit different than the product we see today. 

Somehow the bass survived all of it.

I expect both these trends to continue & improve. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

[TnRiver46]

34 minutes ago, David 7 said:

I’ve been wondering this a lot this summer whenever I see pictures of the local tournaments with people holding up their bass at weigh in. I just can’t imagine that it’s good for the bass. Would be interested to hear some statistics. Have heard stories of big kill at bodies of water that held trophies, but it’s word of mouth. I much prefer the MLF format or even the KBF for local tourneys. Not that I fish tournaments but I think that would be much easier on the bass. 

 

34 minutes ago, David 7 said:

I’ve been wondering this a lot this summer whenever I see pictures of the local tournaments with people holding up their bass at weigh in. I just can’t imagine that it’s good for the bass. Would be interested to hear some statistics. Have heard stories of big kill at bodies of water that held trophies, but it’s word of mouth. I much prefer the MLF format or even the KBF for local tourneys. Not that I fish tournaments but I think that would be much easier on the bass. 

There’s plenty of statistics out there. Some tournaments have almost zero percent mortality, some have over 75%. The ones where fish die a lot are typically in hot weather. All those competitors could legally eat the fish they catch and it wouldnt hurt your fishery at all 

[David 7]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

There’s plenty of statistics out there. Some tournaments have almost zero percent mortality, some have over 75%. The ones where fish die a lot are typically in hot weather. All those competitors could legally eat the fish they catch and it wouldnt hurt your fishery at all 

Yeah I’d be fine with that; I have zero issues with folks eating their kill. I just don’t want to see someone kill the fish accidentally just to release them. I’m sure the pros at BASS do it pretty well but I’m not sure how efficiently the local guys are at doing it. 

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, David 7 said:

Yeah I’d be fine with that; I have zero issues with folks eating their kill. I just don’t want to see someone kill the fish accidentally just to release them. I’m sure the pros at BASS do it pretty well but I’m not sure how efficiently the local guys are at doing it. 

I agree with you but still yet, a fish released has a better chance at surviving than one you eat, even if it’s a 1% chance of survival 

[GaryH]

As stated by AJ as tournament rules evolve we’ll see less and less fish mortalities. Maybe in the near future we’ll see all tournaments use the catch weigh and release.

[J Francho]

Locally, Conesus Lake has a tournament on it every day of the week from June to December, sometimes more than one.  That lake has plenty of other angling pressure as well. Yet it churns out near 20# bags regularly, and lunkers in the 6-8# class as well.  If tournament pressure were going to negatively affect a fishery, it would happen here.   I do not feel tournaments have any lasting negative effects on a healthy fishery.

[gim]

It is proven that warm weather and water temps dramatically increases mortality.  That's not a rumor.  Its fact that has been studied with data for many years.  Warm water holds less oxygen than cold water does.

 

I am of the opinion that most bass anglers, including those in tournaments, care about the health and well-being of the quarry.  If science says that there is a higher mortality of bass if they are stuffed in a livewell, cooler, bag, etc and then released, then we need to consider altering the format.  I personally think this is coming in the future and many tournament formats have already moved to it.

 

Walleye tournaments are very popular here - even more so than bass.  And they are much more prone to mortality than bass are, so the vast majority of them have now gone to CPR format.  You catch, photo/measure, and release the fish.  The lengths of your 5 biggest fish are converted to a standardized weight for you score.  It was already moving in that direction before the pandemic, but now its the standard.  Kayak tournaments use a very similar format with total length too.  Muskie tournaments are immediate catch and release after size verification.

 

If all we're doing here is holding up a couple big bass for a photo at the weigh in for personal glorification, then we need to consider an alternative.

[Bluebasser86]

Our little reservoirs get pounded by recreational and tournament pressure all through the summer. Every year during the heat of the summer, I'll see several pictures of guys holding up big, obviously dead bass and smiling for the camera. I'm sure the fish is just thrown back at the ramp afterwards. Our water temps get north of 90 degrees because the lakes are shallow and temps get high for extended periods. A lot of fish are caught first thing in the morning and then hauled around for 6 or 7 hours in a livewell, that's rough. 

 

I'd like to see at least a reduction in the limit (3 instead of 5 maybe), but even more I'd like to see a change to CPR style tournaments. The tournament pressure is immediately evident on the lakes here. One of the lakes that really turned on last year, was producing over 100 fish a day with 15-20lb bags that were a mix of smallmouth and largemouth. Tournaments were scheduled nonstop, anglers fished it daily, and now a good day is 15-20 fish with 8-12 pounds winning most tournaments. It took one year to overfish it. My favorite smallmouth lake was nearly destroyed the same way. It took 3 years for it to bounce back once it went over the edge. Still not back to where it was but much better than a few years ago. It came back the most once they stopped having tournaments on it because the fishing was so bad. Seems like more than just a coincidence. 

[TnRiver46]

18 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

 

 

If all we're doing here is holding up a couple big bass for a photo at the weigh in for personal glorification, then we need to consider an alternative.

Even if it has been proven that the tournament weigh ins don’t effect the health of the bass population????

 

Just as it has been proved that cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, it has been proven that the weigh ins don’t effect fish populations 

 

I don’t really enjoy the weigh and immediate release format, it can’t be as accurate weighing on a handheld in a boat as scales on dry land

[BassNJake]

This boils down to the tournament directors and how they choose to run things.

In the electric motor only tourneys I used to fish had 30-60 teams.

Before the tourney was a working livewell check to make sure livewells were aerated.

The Director had 4 huge tanks that were aerated and treated with sure life

He provided 10 weigh in bags that were 1/2 mesh so that the fish kept in the bags could be held under the water at the tanks before weigh in. 

This assured fish were either in the aerated livewells or the aerated tanks.

After the fish were weighed in they were placed in one of 2 holding tanks and then released

(a state biologist said it would be better to release them at the shore instead of handling them multiple more times putting them back in livewells at transporting them to the middle of the lake to drop off)

Any fish that did not make it were taken home/ donated to a spectator

 

When I went to fish the BFL's and the Everstart series they were run the same way.

 

A lot of tourneys down here are not held to that same standard but I dont see very many dead fish after those either

[gim]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Even if it has been proven that the tournament weigh ins don’t effect the health of the bass population????

 

Just as it has been proved that cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, it has been proven that the weigh ins don’t effect fish populations 

 

I don’t really enjoy the weigh and immediate release format, it can’t be as accurate weighing on a handheld in a boat as scales on dry land

 

I don't tournament fish so I can't really comment based on personal experience.  I release the fish I catch after I measure or weigh them and take a photo.  They never go in a live well, cooler, bag, etc when they're caught by me.

 

Perhaps we can start looking at a water temperature thresh hold.  There is a specific temperature when mortality starts to exponentially go up and once we reach that, we could go to all immediate catch and release.  I am not a biologist so I don't know exactly what that thresh hold would be.  In your specific location where the water discharge is that keeps the river cooler even in midsummer, it would not be as much of an issue.  The two B.A.S.S. events I attended in person (AOY in 2015 and 2016) were very entertaining and mortality was low because they were in mid September and the water had already started to cool off here.  They were very anal about how those fish were handled and stored and then ultimately released.  It was obvious that they take pride in trying to keep mortality as low as possible.  Most competition is not like this though simply because they don't have the resources or money to pull it off.

[TnRiver46]

33 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

I don't tournament fish so I can't really comment based on personal experience.  I release the fish I catch after I measure or weigh them and take a photo.  They never go in a live well, cooler, bag, etc when they're caught by me.

 

Perhaps we can start looking at a water temperature thresh hold.  There is a specific temperature when mortality starts to exponentially go up and once we reach that, we could go to all immediate catch and release.  I am not a biologist so I don't know exactly what that thresh hold would be.  In your specific location where the water discharge is that keeps the river cooler even in midsummer, it would not be as much of an issue.  The two B.A.S.S. events I attended in person (AOY in 2015 and 2016) were very entertaining and mortality was low because they were in mid September and the water had already started to cool off here.  They were very anal about how those fish were handled and stored and then ultimately released.  It was obvious that they take pride in trying to keep mortality as low as possible.  Most competition is not like this though simply because they don't have the resources or money to pull it off.

That’s just on the upper end of my particular reservoir, and there is rarely a tournament competitor anywhere around. 15  miles downstream from my house the water is in the mid 80s and that’s where all the tournament traffic is. When they had the classic here in 2019, not a single competitor went upstream from Knoxville. Water on the upper end is in the 60s and 70s all summer, downstream it can get to 90. Apparently the places I fish suck if you want to fish a tournament haha

 

another lake I fished two weekends ago was 66 degrees on the upper end. I drove downstream about 4 miles and it was 83. The water has to slow down in order to warm up and it doesn’t slow down until the mid portion of the lake most in most cases 

[Chris186]

I haven't fished tournaments in a while, but when I did, I would always add Sure-Life Please Release Me to the livewells. With hotter water temps the aerators stayed on manual. When I got to the weigh in, I have a bag with the mesh liner so I could leave the water in the bag. I also would always run a battery powered aerator in the with in bag as well. Fish get weighed, go right back in the bag, then back to the lake. I would try to keep them in the water as much as possible in a tournament. Never lost a fish. These days its just catch, picture, release unless it looks to be over 5, then I will weigh it.

[David 7]

I suspect that the popularity and influence of both MLF and KBF will eventually turn the tide for local tournaments. The CPR movement (if it can be called that) is stronger than ever. Humbly I think that’s a good thing. Not just for fisheries, but for the bass themselves. If we’re not going to eat them, we should want to ensure that they live.