8th Annual Mp Church Tournament Catch and Release and New Rule

We limited the number of fish in your live well to 10 at anytime during the tournament. This allowed you 7 to weigh in and 3 in case a fish or two would die. At the scales all fish including the 3 extras were to be released. There were 147 tournament fish weighed in and only 18 did not swim away. So 129 tournament fish were released to be caught another day and to get even bigger. This is an 88% success rate. We think this was great for our first try. We would like to challenge all tournament trails to practice "catch and release" at their events. Catching big fish is the goal of all tournament fishermen. Lets all do our part to keep the big fish in the lakes.

NEW RULE - It was brought to our attention that one of our entries got out of their boat and fished several docks by walking on the dock during the tournament. We did not have a specific rule about not leaving your boat but it was always assumed. The rule now is: NO ONE MAY LEAVE THEIR BOAT AT ANYTIME FOR THE PURPOSE TO CATCH, NET, OR RETRIEVE A FISH. DURING TOURNAMENT LEGAL FISHING HOURS 7AM-2PM YOU MAY LEAVE YOUR BOAT TO TRAILER YOUR BOAT OR IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY (fire, mechanical issues, or you just got to "hit the woods". NO EXCEPTIONS!

I like the new rule, but would like to see it taken even further. I fished many tournaments over the years, and as the years passed, equipment, techniques, and electronics have given the fishermen a decisive edge. This holds particularly true for those more fortunate anglers who like the best of everything, and can afford to purchase it. Rod limits have been in place for some time, and I feel 8 rods maximum per boat is a fair number and it works for any size boat. Two baits per rod is also a good fair number. That takes us to rod length. I have no issue with rod length either. If you want to use a 20' rod that is fine by me. What I want to see is nets eliminated, or net handles limited to say 5 feet. The angler is supposed to play the fish back to the boat. Not net him some 15 feet away from the boat! I also would like to see a no cull rule come into play. When a fish is caught, the angler must decide right then and there if that fish is to be kept to be weighed, or released so the angler can keep fishing. Once the set amount of fish has been caught and placed in live well. The angler must stop fishing and return to the weigh in sight. This policy would greatly reduce fish mortality during fishing tournaments. It would also make the tournament anglers think their way through a day, not just go out and catch and keep every fish that bites their hooks. Not trying to ruffle any feathers, just passing on some random thoughts on competition fishing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Inkdabber

I like the new rule, but would like to see it taken even further. I fished many tournaments over the years, and as the years passed, equipment, techniques, and electronics have given the fishermen a decisive edge. This holds particularly true for those more fortunate anglers who like the best of everything, and can afford to purchase it. Rod limits have been in place for some time, and I feel 8 rods maximum per boat is a fair number and it works for any size boat. Two baits per rod is also a good fair number. That takes us to rod length. I have no issue with rod length either. If you want to use a 20' rod that is fine by me. What I want to see is nets eliminated, or net handles limited to say 5 feet. The angler is supposed to play the fish back to the boat. Not net him some 15 feet away from the boat! I also would like to see a no cull rule come into play. When a fish is caught, the angler must decide right then and there if that fish is to be kept to be weighed, or released so the angler can keep fishing. Once the set amount of fish has been caught and placed in live well. The angler must stop fishing and return to the weigh in sight. This policy would greatly reduce fish mortality during fishing tournaments. It would also make the tournament anglers think their way through a day, not just go out and catch and keep every fish that bites their hooks. Not trying to ruffle any feathers, just passing on some random thoughts on competition fishing.

---

you should watch the cabelas national walleye tour tournament on the mississipi and watch the hard decisions the pro walleye had to make whether or not to keep a walleye as no culling was allowed. Makes the tournament for like a chess match, some guys released to many fish and as a result didnt weighin a limit. This especially becomes tricky if you lose a bite and released to many decent fish early, i can definitely see your point of view.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by micorps

you should watch the cabelas national walleye tour tournament on the mississipi and watch the hard decisions the pro walleye had to make whether or not to keep a walleye as no culling was allowed. Makes the tournament for like a chess match, some guys released to many fish and as a result didnt weighin a limit. This especially becomes tricky if you lose a bite and released to many decent fish early, i can definitely see your point of view.

---

The no cull rule I speak of came from watching a Walleye event a few years back. I really liked how tough decisions had to be made on the spot, not after 30 fish are in the live well. Like you said, make the wrong decision, lose the bite, you are short of your limit come weigh in time. It really adds another degree of difficulty to the day. It also opens the door for other anglers to snatch victory from the hands of defeat by out thinking another fellow competitor. Eliminating nets, or reducing the lengths of handles will also make things tougher. Just think how many big fish will be lost while trying to get them in the boat while the fish is dangling some 16 or 18 feet out at the end of one of those long poles.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Inkdabber

The no cull rule I speak of came from watching a Walleye event a few years back. I really liked how tough decisions had to be made on the spot, not after 30 fish are in the live well. Like you said, make the wrong decision, lose the bite, you are short of your limit come weigh in time. It really adds another degree of difficulty to the day. It also opens the door for other anglers to snatch victory from the hands of defeat by out thinking another fellow competitor. Eliminating nets, or reducing the lengths of handles will also make things tougher. Just think how many big fish will be lost while trying to get them in the boat while the fish is dangling some 16 or 18 feet out at the end of one of those long poles.

---

Agree that would be an interesting tournament to see the outcome. Also agree on your idea of no nets, crappie have no teeth, get your hands dirty lol. I can see nets allowed for walleyes, them gill plates are like razors and well i refuse to put my fingers in their mouth, but crappie tournaments could be like bass.

Well if we get too many rules won't nobody fish. Those walleye and BASS tournaments have tournament officials and/or cameramen in the boat so they comply with rules. That's just not gonna happen with a simple crappie tournament. The length of the rod has nothing to do with where the fish is when it is netted you just let out the line and raise the rod and the fish come to the side of boat. To hard to police what few rules we have now. All good points but a cheater is a cheater regardless of how many rules there are. We do it once a year for our church missions. If a person cheats they are cheating God!

Keep it simple and fun, it's a church tournament. Should be no stress and fun for the whole family.

Amen!

Just for the record, my comments were meant for Crappie tournaments in general, not specifically this church tournament. I'm in favor of making tournaments more competitive for anglers of all skill levels, regardless of equipment as it once was. Boat size wasn't a factor, electronics not much of a factor, neither were poles or nets for that matter. Just anglers out trying to catch a nice mess of fish the best they know how. If they weren't successful, they still had the awards dinner, and prize drawings to look forward to after the fishing was done.