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My club has held tournaments on my home lake and lakes outside the county for years, bringing in bags of fish to weigh in. If livewells are overcrowed and/or the aerator can't get the job done, then fish mortality happens. Even standing in line 10 minutes holding a bag of fish waiting to weigh them takes a toll. Most of the fish are never eaten and get trashed rather than see a bunch of them floating dead.
Is it worth a few bucks or a place in the stats?
Well just like catching them I highly doubt it helps. Or maybe it helps by thinning out the population, less competition for food and getting rid of the larger fish that might not live much longer anyway? :dono
What's the difference on the population if they all die or all get eaten - none.
In tournaments there is going to be some fish that die for any number of reasons but the same can be said about recreational fishing. Tournaments have a penalty for weighing in dead fish so they try hard to keep them alive. Never fished in a tournament but I don't hold it against the ones that do. Stress kills fish. I've had fish go belly up and I did everything right. When it comes to fishing there's going to be some fish mortality.
I used to fish bass tournaments and the clubs had a rule: only two in line to weigh fish. I hope most of the five-limit bass made it. When we're talking panfish, I'm talking up to 20+ fish/bag x 15 anglers. That's a lot of fish dying and for what?!
There are no penalities for dead panfish.
Our state agency that enforces bag and size limits, has no rules when it comes to tournaments yet will fine you if you are over your 25 fish limit in crappie that have to be at least 10"; 50 fish limit for sunfish. The regs are in place but never enforced for who knows what reason.
Here's another: I can get fined if I transport fish from a lake and put them in my private pond - supposedly to prevent the spreading of disease to the fish in the pond. Haven't seen a dead fish yet nor one with disease anywhere and I've caught many species in many waters. (Note: I don't keep bass because the ones in the pond were from a fishery via a stocking permit, plus many years of spawned fish are present along with those of panfish.)
Seems to me protection is in name only and not in practice or a few tournament rules would be in place. Plus, who's to say what water is over or under populated? To my knowledge no lakes in my area have ever been surveyed in the last 50+ yrs. and I have inquired. Seems the state is grasping at straws.
Who's to say that killing over 100 fish in a tournament is even detrimental? Who's to say that livewells aren't contaminated from diseased fish released in another lake and if so aren't transmitted to fish being released in the current water?
But, I do value wildlife and I'm all for conservation. I will always do my part in protecting the fish I love to catch, knowing that ALL fish I catch are returned to the water immediatley - unless a few photos are taken. Those that are transported have good aeration and I've never yet found fish floating - even after 3+ hours in the tank.
Most of the crappie tournaments on my home lakes are seven fish limits, but yes, I'm sure some die.
Most are 5 to 7 fish limits and your dead fish is removed from your bag and doesn't count! You don't stand a chance a fish short. Most everyone takes good care of their fish. That said, some are going to die! We've lost a couple over the years. We keep 8 fish in the livewell on 7 fish tourneys and 6 on 5 fish tourneys. I would bet the guy out to catch dinner kills as many crappie as a tournament does. Lucky for us all they're very prolific!
For sure no matter how big the tournament is and how many they might kill there is absolutely no way there will be a negative impact on the white crappie population in any public waters .
We reduce a 40 acre lake by literally thousands a year and the outcome is a slightly lower ketch rate and an average fish size about 3 to 5 times larger than what it was when we started that program.
Not so sure about slow growing black crappie up north though , a serious hammer festival on a smaller water body , with mostly big fish in the mix , might very well change the average fish size :dono
My :twocents, I think FFS has reduced the injuries of Crappie in competitions compared to 8-16 poles out with 2 hooks to the pole, loaded with live bait, hooking & netting every crappie & landing, handling & weighing, then tossing the culls back in the lake. Seems actual numbers hooked per boat would be much less? Am I off a bit here?
The above is something I will propose to the club, but knowing the big egos that I'm sure will oppose the change, getting it adopted will be a chore.Quote:
Most are 5 to 7 fish limits and your dead fish is removed from your bag and doesn't count! You don't stand a chance a fish short. Most everyone takes good care of their fish.
Granted, the reproductive capacity of most freshwater fish is exponential, but quality suffers over the years after hundreds of quality fish are removed annually especially from small lakes such as ours. Plus, as Ketchn said, the growing season in the north is much shorter than in the south. Fishing regs sure as **** don't protect them! It's up to anglers to help protect those dumb animals the best way possible that got hooked in the first place.
Not sure about tourneys but check this out.
Clarion Ledger - MDWFP hopes to maintain quality crappie...
Hope Pap can fix this to open.
The rproblem with state fishing regs is enforcement. There is none in NYS. Getting checked is like winning the lotto - 1000 to one if that much.
I hear tell Mississippi enacted all them new regulations due to FFS and the onslaught on the big 4 .....
figured sooner or later someone would figure it out .....
pretty sure it isn't about the tournaments there , it's about the droves of folks hitting the big 4 daily and hammering all the big fish out of them waters .....
seems to have taken place here years ago , we "HAD" us a 3 lber lake in Texas back before the introduction of FFS , but Texas don't care about trophy sized crappie and let them take all the big fisheez away ....
good news is the population is still intact , just most of the extra large ones are gone .....
no worries here though , because for me , size don't really matter , I just wanna ketch dem fisheez :Rofl
The big ones can’t get away now. They follow them around and pester them until they bite with a bait in their face.
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See if this works, Chaunc :dono
Fair chase bro ......:RoflQuote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave336
Seen as fella bragging about chasing a big crappie 400 yards ....
I started a crappie club about a decade ago.
Here are my observations from a decade of local club crappie tournament fishing. This may be long and ramble. Sorry. just the way my mind works.
Over the decade the club has grown from 10-15 boats per tournament to 25-35. This year we have 29 teams qualified for our 2 day classic. almost 100 members.
Fish die, no dead fish can be weighed. I've seen more fisherman come up with creative ways to keep fish alive than I can count when a few bucks are on the line. $40 per team to enter, and $10 for big fish. Pay out 100% at the ramp 1 in 5 boats that enter. I'll let you do the math.
I've seen dead fish. What I've never seen is dead fish in the water. Every fish caught either goes home, or is released alive.
We have a 7 live fish limit at the scales. You can bring the lake limit, but only weight your 7 biggest. Some release their fish, most take them home for dinner. Some don't want to do either and donate to someone who is stock piling for a fish fry for a cause; Veterans for Anglers, Anglers for Kids or some other event where they have a fish fry.
Every lake has an average size Crappie. 90% of the fish at the scales are average. You get a few exceptional anglers who catch above average fish. Slabs for that lake.
Every tournament has anglers who don't weigh, who weigh an average bag, and those who bring in a big bag. Statistically, 2/3rd of the anglers fall in the two lower categories, average fish or no fish. So 1 in 3 tournament anglers bring in bigger than average fish. In a 30 boat competition, 10 out of 30 boats have 7 fish each bigger than the rest.
Lake effect- We hold 10 tournaments a season on 6 lakes. 5 tournaments in teh spring, 4 in the fall and the 2 day classic. Our lakes are 300 acres up to 11,000 acres and the classic this year is on a new lake in a different state. We work with the IDNR and will target lakes that are over populated. We want to pull out crappie on smaller lakes to help them average size get bigger. We did that on Lake XXX and saw the average size grow from 7" to 9" in a couple of years. Nobody wants to fillet 7" crappie, but we did and we fished it to help the DNR control the species. It gave the Walleye a chance to grow and help maintain the lake. The walleye size limit was just raised and the crappie limits were changed too.
I witnessed a coutny lake get pounded hard during covid. It was the only lake open in this state. Everybody and I mean every body went to this 300 acre lake to fish. It has a 10hp limit. I showed up to fish and was floored. 1 spot left int eh parking lot, I took it. Every point, and every cove had a boat in/on it. I didn't recognize any of them. I wasn't about to give up my spots to some out of towners so I went boat shopping. Yep, I cruised the lake looking at boats and how the owners had them rigged. Stopped and asked them questions, etc. Bought my next boat from that days events. It took almost 3 years for that lake to recover, last tournament I weighted a 13" crappie and got big fish. I didn't have enough to back her up and ended up in 8 place. Average size crappie on that lake that day was 9 1/2".
Now, to be fair, there are 3 crappie clubs in teh region. we all fish 2-3 of the same lakes 2-3 times of the year. These are larger bodies of water 5,000+ acres. The 5,000 acres body is a power plant cooling lake. Always has hot water, even in winter. Never freezes over. All of our lakes get very little pressure during the winter months. Too cold and no safe ice. The ramps maybe frozen over, but the main lake is open water.
Guides- they fish the lakes daily. Pulling a 2-3 man limit out 1 to 2 times a day. Some of the guides fish our tournaments.
So I ask you, which has the biggest impact; Guides, 2-6 tournaments a year, or the daily fisherman?
As an FYI- DNR monitors our fish health and makes adjustments to creel limits. Recently they made some adjustments. Some lakes are 10fish over 10" and 5 under. Some are 10 under 10" and 5 over. Impossible to get 7 fish over 10" on a lake with a creel limit of 5 over 10" unless you have a partner. I usually fish alone. 9 7/8" is as close as I push that 10" mark for my unders.
Now if we were talking about bass tournaments, that would be a different story. Just about every weekend there is a bass tournament on some of our lakes.
Bragging or just plain S T R E E C H I N G the truth? 4 football fields? Really?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
Bragging or just plain S T R E E C H I N G the truth? 4 football fields, 1200 feet? Really?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn