Will they live

I was at the weigh in at the Melvern Walleye tournament and a number of fish went belly up when the hit the water out of the chute. They stayed that way for a long time, some where returned to the holding tanks again and then put back in the lake they still were belly up for awhile, most did swim away. My question is will they survive long term.

Also a number of fish flopped out of the chute that they had set up and the only people that were there to return them were spectators like myself. No official seemed to be watching. Attachment 128865Attachment 128866

The fish you see belly up are mostly almost dead before they hit the chute. I fish all the tournaments and usually the dead fish are due to riding in peoples livewells all day from being caught in the early morning. Melvern was actually a good day due to not many fish being dead. They will take all the walleye and put them in coolers and some of the fisherman will take them home. The tournament directors kids usually will be at the basket helping fish take off which they were yesterday as I was standing right there. It is a shame that fish die but I know the guys do their best to try and keep them alive.

Seems like they should cut the time down to 1300 check in that might save some fish. Those big sows are to expensive to loose.

It could be a kill tourney like the Crappie Tourneys, they do there best to keep the fish alive some get over stressed in live wells ,Its the KWA that help with the rearing pond that makes the walleye fishing so good . They also throw in moneys to help with stockings of our area lakes. So in my opinion the good they do for the fisheries out weigh the bad.

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Originally Posted by walleyecrazy839

It could be a kill tourney like the Crappie Tourneys, they do there best to keep the fish alive some get over stressed in live wells ,Its the KWA that help with the rearing pond that makes the walleye fishing so good . They also throw in moneys to help with stockings of our area lakes. So in my opinion the good they do for the fisheries out weigh the bad.

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I'm sure the KWA does alot to keep the walleye fishing good but I would have to think the 90 - 100 millon eggs that are stripped ,fertilized and then hatched at Milford is the BEST reason we have a good supply of walleyes in our Kansas lakes.

The rearing pond is Melverns own project that keeps that a hot lake year after year funded in part buy the KWA through labor and money,just saying what other group of fishermen organized or not is doing that. Working together with the Wildlife and parks to keep our lakes full of trophy walleye that we can enjoy year after year as I said in my earlier post also help with stocking. The KWA realizes that putting a large number of good fishermen on a lake keeping every fish they catch tourney day and prefishing Would deplete the resources so they try there best to catch and release all there walleye. Do some research on how many of those fry survive to maturity it will shock you. Tournament fishermen have help with all the new toys we enjoy today and fight to keep our fisheries in good if not great shape . I've seen more Walleye killed buy fishermen ripping the hooks out of small walleye than our lost threw tourney s Trying to save a 15 cent jig. Catch and release , cut and retie. Then go catch some Kansas Walleye for dinner.

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Originally Posted by Blackdog40

Seems like they should cut the time down to 1300 check in that might save some fish. Those big sows are to expensive to loose.

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As past members of the. KWA, my partner and I witnessed very little mortality on the released walleyes. It is unfortunate that some does occur but compared to what valuable trophy females are taken by the "walk snaggers" each spring, the numbers are not even close. The KWA is a very valuable asset to our walleye populations. If only we were fortunate enough to create the rearing ponds at each major reservoir that would be a great thing.

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Originally Posted by Blackdog40

I was at the weigh in at the Melvern Walleye tournament and a number of fish went belly up when the hit the water out of the chute. They stayed that way for a long time, some where returned to the holding tanks again and then put back in the lake they still were belly up for awhile, most did swim away. My question is will they survive long term.

Also a number of fish flopped out of the chute that they had set up and the only people that were there to return them were spectators like myself. No official seemed to be watching. Attachment 128865Attachment 128866

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Blackdog40,

Like any other event/tourney dealing with live fish, some fish make it and some don't.

The weigh-in of a release tournament cannot 'make' good survivability of fish, but it sure can 'break' it! Even the best operated and organized weigh-in cannot magically heal those fish that weren't cared for during the entire tournament. However, the best cared for fish that are in the best shape can be quickly stressed by a poorly run weigh-in.

The KWA runs a very organized and efficient weigh-in. Anglers do not wait in long lines with fish stressing in bags while they wait. Tanks with fresh, circulated, and aerated water are available for the fish before and after the weigh-in. Many event organizers are on hand to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately, walleye that are brought to the scales in poor shape cannot be 'fixed' at the weigh-in to allow for 100% mortality free release.

KWA participants receive a 0.10 pound bonus per live fish they weigh-in. Dead fish receive no bonus. A team weighing in a limit of 6 walleye receives 0.6 pounds of live bonus weight added to their total. This is an incentive given by the KWA to anglers to care for their fish.

While live release tournaments do result in some loss of the target species, percent mortality is obviously far less than the 100% one would have if all legal walleye that were caught were prepared for the table.

:highfivei am a strong beleiver in fillet and release

I was not making a judgement I was just asking a question for my own knowledge. So the answer is the fish that go belly up when returned to the water will not live. Is there something that can be done to prevent this?

I too like to eat a walleye fillet but I do not keep the larger fish, I prefer the smaller fish for taste anyway.

IMO , all tourament fishing should end or go to catch and keep after water temps reach a certain level. Here I see lots of dead Bass on our lake floating next day in summer time after a tourament.

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Originally Posted by Blackdog40

I was not making a judgement I was just asking a question for my own knowledge. So the answer is the fish that go belly up when returned to the water will not live. Is there something that can be done to prevent this?

I too like to eat a walleye fillet but I do not keep the larger fish, I prefer the smaller fish for taste anyway.

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Blackdog40,

I didn't think you were making a judgement.

I had hoped I was providing you with some info that you would find useful.

I think you have asked the million dollar question--Is there a way to prevent fish from going 'belly up' when returned to the water after a weigh-in?

Many organizations have worked and continue to work to answer that very question. KDWPT has requirements for black bass tournament weigh-ins. You can read these requirements HERE.

In short, conservation agencies, tournaments organizers, and anglers are all working to provide for zero/low mortality events.

Jigger you have to go fishing to use a fillet knife.

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Originally Posted by Craig Johnson

Blackdog40,

I didn't think you were making a judgement.

I had hoped I was providing you with some info that you would find useful.

I think you have asked the million dollar question--Is there a way to prevent fish from going 'belly up' when returned to the water after a weigh-in?

Many organizations have worked and continue to work to answer that very question. KDWPT has requirements for black bass tournament weigh-ins. You can read these requirements HERE.

In short, conservation agencies, tournaments organizers, and anglers are all working to provide for zero/low mortality events.

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So Craig, what are the mortality rates of the new fingerlings that are released back into our Kansas reservoirs and also I think i heard that the natural reproduction rate was less than one percent in our lakes, would you please coment on this too. Thanks

There are some tournaments that make you bring your fish in on ice. Imagine 200 boats with a 5 per boat limit. Losing some at the ramp in Kansas isn’t that bad compared to others. Look at how many fish were brought in to the weigh in and see how many died. The catch and release percentage is much higher. The KWA does a great job with the tournaments and they give back in a huge way that most don’t know about.

:dono Turtles gotta eat too.

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Originally Posted by slabby joe

So Craig, what are the mortality rates of the new fingerlings that are released back into our Kansas reservoirs and also I think i heard that the natural reproduction rate was less than one percent in our lakes, would you please coment on this too. Thanks

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Slabby Joe,

You ask a very good question. I did a lot of looking yesterday to try to find a good answer to your good question. I didn't do a lot of finding....

We don't currently have any data on stocking survival of walleye in Kansas waters so we have used data obtained from other states. We do however know that our stocking rates are effective in maintaining walleye populations in waters capable of supporting them.

As one would expect, mortality on walleye fry and fingerlings stocked in Kansas waters is quite high. The larger the fish at the time of stocking the lower the expected mortality so fry stockings have the higher mortality rates (or the lower survival rates). Looking at data from other states we can expect mortality to exceed 95% for stocked fingerlings and even higher for stocked fry. Stocking success can vary greatly from year to year due to conditions present when fish are stocked. Some years may have very good survival rates while other years may be poor if water temperatures are too cold and no food in the form zooplankton is available to the young walleye at the time of stocking.

I too have heard the "only 1% of the Kansas natural spawn recruits to the population" saying but I haven't been able to find any info to support it. However, it may not be too far off--for some lakes. Lakes like Marion and Wilson have self sustaining walleye populations so their recruitment rates from natural spawns would obviously be higher than lakes that really heavily on supplemental stockings to maintain adequate walleye population density.

While all the above sounds pretty negative as far as getting any walleye from our stockings the stockings do contribute to the population. While I was at Hillsdale Reservoir we conducted a three year study on the contribution of stocked fish to the walleye population. From 2000 to 2002 walleye marked with oxytetracyclene were stocked during the spring. Electrofishing was used to sample young of the year walleye during September. The YOY walleye were shipped off to the lab and the fish were analyzed for the presence of the OTC mark to see if they were a result of the spring stocking or if they were a result of natural reproduction from within the lake. The results were impressive.

In 2000, only fry (2.3 million) were stocked. 96.5% of the YOY walleye sampled were a result of the 2000 walleye fry stocking and 3.5% resulted from natural production.

In 2001, both fry (2.3 million) and fingerling (57,250) sized walleye were stocked. OTC analysis showed that 77% of the YOY walleye were a result of fry stocking, 7% were from fingerling stockings, and 16% were natural production.

In 2002, both fry (2.3 million) and fingerling (57,250) sized walleye were stocked. OTC analysis showed 75% of the YOY walleye were stocked as fingerlings, 23% were stocked as fry, and 2% were natural reproduction.

From the above results you can see that the fry stockings, even with the expected high mortality rate, contributed heavily to the Hillsdale walleye population two out of the three years of the study. Fingerlings comprised the majority of the YOY population stocked during 2002. Natural reproduction contribution ranged from a low of 2% to a high of 16%. Although we don’t have ‘exact’ numbers on the mortality rates of Kansas stocked walleye we do have data that shows these stockings are productive and contributing to the walleye populations throughout Kansas.

So in short Slabby Joe, if you are still reading, mortality is very high on the fry and fingerlings KDWPT stocks in Kansas walleye waters. Despite the high mortality these stockings do contribute heavily to the walleye populations. With low natural reproduction rates common throughout Kansas these stockings are necessary to maintain walleye population density at levels that produce productive fishing for Kansas walleye anglers.

Thanks for the reply Craig, I'm pretty shocked at the high mortality rate of the fry and fingerlings but your Hillsdale study definetly shows the importance of the KDWPT stockings, I was also surprised at the natuural reproduction rates at HD during your 3 year study. You guys are doing a great job and I know all of us fisherfolk appreceiate your efforts in making Kansas fishing some of the best around! :highfive :notworthy