What has changed so much in 70 years to reduce my daily catches from hundreds ?

[The Pond King]

Fishing pressure is a very real thing. Once a bass has been caught, with a hook through it's face, fighting for its life, it's gonna take some time for that bass to recover and become unconditioned to lures again. 

 

This is why finesse fishing is becoming very important now due to the increased pressure, but if everyone else is finesse fishing, then what?

[Aaron_H]

14 minutes ago, The Pond King said:

if everyone else is finesse fishing, then what?

 

As a power fisherman.....

 

[QED]

21 minutes ago, The Pond King said:

Fishing pressure is a very real thing. Once a bass has been caught, with a hook through it's face, fighting for its life, it's gonna take some time for that bass to recover and become unconditioned to lures again. 

 

This is why finesse fishing is becoming very important now due to the increased pressure, but if everyone else is finesse fishing, then what?

Ultralight.  Works for me.

[The Maestro]

37 minutes ago, gimruis said:

It has caught on in the walleye tournament scene and its something I thought I'd never see there either.  Most all of them now are very similar to a kayak tournament.  You photograph the fish on a measuring board and they count your 5 biggest walleyes as the score.

 

The reason it has caught there is different than what we're talking about in the bass realm though.  They moved to it because of covid, not because they were worried about mortality.  They didn't want a group of people gathering together at a weigh in area, whether it was inside or outside.  It worked so well that they just stuck with it.  Muskie tournaments have done catch and release based on length for as long as they have held them too.

Every walleye tournament I've watched on tv, the fish literally look dead at the weigh in. Not moving at all and have nearly turned grey in color. I think walleye handle being toted around in a live well even worse than bass.

[gim]

4 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

Every walleye tournament I've watched on tv, the fish literally look dead at the weigh in. Not moving at all and have nearly turned grey in color. I think walleye handle being toted around in a live well even worse than bass.

Oh absolutely.  They're far less hardier than bass are and mortality sky rockets in the warm summer months.  They also permit the use of live bait whereas bass tournaments do not.

 

The difference is that they are more desirable as table fare, so if they died, it was not a big deal.  If it was a multi-day tournament, the anglers were generally not permitted to keep them after the first day, so the crowd lined up to take the dead ones (I was one of those).  On the final day, the anglers were permitted to keep their catch.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Dogface said:

 

No, it is not. The non-tournament anglers do not keep fish in live wells for hours and then parade them around. 

 

 

I thoroughly enjoy laying the cold steel to their little fish heads and fryin em up with some taters mmmmmmmm

[cyclops2]

Pike & Walleye are both VERY shocky.  If Restrained in a container or on a stringer. I have had them be breathing.  But unable to move at all.  I kill & bring them in for seniors to enjoy.  

[torm]

A lot of factors play into this which is why it is hard to help any type of fisheries in many states. Here are the ones off the top of my head caused by anglers: Pressure, poaching, fishing for the 1 man or party limit every trip, new boom of anglers, not knowing or keeping up with regulations, technology, and probably more. Working at a bait shop up here in WI I can gladly say majority of people here fish to eat regardless of age, although more popular in the old timers than young. Its hard to find trophy fish of any kind up here unless your out every day, so the majority of those guys that do find that trophy fish just ends of mounting it. I can safely say if a bass is 5lbs and up its getting mounted. Poaching is another big thing up here too which the DNR can't do anything about unfortunately. 

[cyclops2]

Good call torm. I agree with you. Repeat catching of spawning beds takes a toll.

[Glenn]

Fishing for bedded bass during a tournament isn't a good strategy, but not because of mortality or damaging fish populations.  Here's why: (it's cued up)

 

 

 

[Big Hands]

23 hours ago, QED said:

 

No one can catch fish where there are none.  In the San Joaquin County delta fishery we have increased pollution and diversion of water to Southern California so bass and striper fishing has suffered accordingly. Sucks for fishing in the delta.

 

The delta gets about 30 million acre feet of runoff from the Sierras, and of that 30 million acre feet, about 5 million acre feet is sent to southern California. 

[FishTank]

46 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Fishing for bedded bass during a tournament isn't a good strategy, but not because of mortality or damaging fish populations.  Here's why: (it's cued up)

 

 

 

 

Good stuff.  I have been preaching a few of these things for years. For instance, one of the guys I was fishing a tournament with (his boat) in clear water kept tossing a jig into a large flat filled with spawning bass. I could see the fish clear as day. He would toss his jig to one of them and he would fish that jig exactly the same way as always > bounce, bounce, retrieve and pitch again. He did this for hours, no bites. I just sat in the back of the boat and watched his mind implode. I couldn't get him to try anything else or move for that matter.  The guy that fished the edge of the bed won the tournament fishing a Zoom lizard by dragging it across the bottom drop off. 

 

 

[akmac]

10 hours ago, BassNJake said:

That is what you call a horrible tournament director and lazy fisherman

In the electric motor only tournaments I started with, we had 2 weigh in tanks that were oxygenated, a release tank that was also oxygenated, a limited amount of weigh in bags(top halves of the bags are mesh, so they can be submerged in the tanks) this assured there was enough room in the weigh in tanks and guys not standing there with the fish in bags with little to no oxygen

A good tournament will not let you weigh in a dead bass.

 

The director makes sure from the time they leave the competitors boats until the time they are released, they get the best care they can. From the hook to the mesh weigh in bag its the anglers responsibility to keep the fish alive.

 

Most tournament guys I know are extra fanatic about their fish care because they understand the value of the resource as well as the huge negative public perception of bass tournaments

I brought it up to the Director and his response was "They don't listen to me anyway".  This guy host the largest of all the open tournaments in my area.  At one of his weigh-ins I watched a guy pull out early.  He grabbed the only bass he had in his live-well and threw it as hard as he could from the upper parking into 6" of water below before speeding off.  The bass went in head first and broke it's back.  Several people from the general public were watching.  Some of us reported the incident, but this guys circus continues on.    

[akmac]

11 hours ago, Catt said:

 

This time of year with tournaments included there can 1,000-1,500 boats on Rayburn. 

 

I've seen 2,500-3,000 boat on Toledo Bend over a 4 day period. 

 

We fully understand fishing pressure 

Your still talking about a gigantic body of water that can absorb a lot more pressure than a small lake.  In order to make it more of an apples to apples comparison lets look at how many acres there are per boat.  For 1000-1500 boats on a 144,000 acres there is 144 to 96 acres per boat.  A 700 acre lake in my area can see 50+ boats on a busy weekend.  That is 14 acres per boat.  Another 300 acre lake in my area can see 30+ boats on a busy weekend.  That is 10 acres per boat.  

I'll leave you with one more thing to chew on.  We had a phenomenal lake in my area that was mostly protected from tournament pressure because of a 2 fish, 18" limit.   People would drive from all over, even out of state because the bass fishing was so good.  You could find schools of 30-50 bass, never caught so many 4-6lbers in all my life.  It was bass fishing nirvana.  Then the state of Iowa decided to allow tournament directors to set their own length and bag limit up to 10 fish.  It only took 2 years but this lake crashed hard.  Sure you can still catch a fish, but nothing like it was before the rule change.  The drastic drop in catch and quality was entirely a result of the rule change which led to a massive increase in tournament pressure.  And please don't misunderstand me.  I'm really not hating on tournament fishermen, I LOVED doing it when I was younger.  It's an awesome sport.  Really just nothing else I would rather do to pass the time.  I just wish there was a way to do it more responsibly (catch, measure, release from the spot from where they were caught), and that we had a few refuges that the non-tournament catch and release fishermen could enjoy.

[akmac]

7 hours ago, The Pond King said:

Fishing pressure is a very real thing. Once a bass has been caught, with a hook through it's face, fighting for its life, it's gonna take some time for that bass to recover and become unconditioned to lures again. 

 

This is why finesse fishing is becoming very important now due to the increased pressure, but if everyone else is finesse fishing, then what?

The next frontier- Fly fishing:)  

[cyclops2]

I may / will keep a fly rod and spinner  also for trolling. Old joints.  It is odd.  But if the weather gets windy & choppy. The fish are a joy that reduces joint pain.   ?