Yeah its something everyone sees different I guess. Ive fished a lot of tournaments, and the only fish Ive lost or seen die are bad hooked ones. But Im sure some people take less care then others. We lose weight with dead fish so we try to keep them alive the best we can. If its hot we buy ice for the wells, modern wells are made to keep cool in real good these days, we put stuff in the wells to give them vitamins and all to help them recover from the shock and calm down. But theres only so much we can do in reality. Ive only lost 3 fish out of over 200 that Ive brought in myself. 1 died because a livewell broke...2 were bad hooks. I also had 2 that Im sure died in the long run, both also bad hooks. I remember them so well because we hate when they die. Pretty sure FLW (the tournaments I fish for) doesnt allow you to keep them for any reason. I dont eat bass anyway, and have no way to cook them in a hotel room. The ones that are in rough shape they try to help recover, with holding tanks and all but not sure how well they do, theres really nothing you can do in most cases. But Im sure some smaller tournaments are a lot different and care less about the fish, and thats sad. Im glad I dont take part in them. If we could kill none I promise we would do that. Not trying to change anyones mind or opinion, as Im sure I cant no matter what lol. But in my experience, we dont lose many and the few we lose, just about any catch and release fisherman would have also lose, they just dont know it because the fish swam off like it was fine at first.
I have been to some FLW Tourneys at Guntersville and they do a great job with the fish. It's the Bubba Tournaments that need to be better managed. I suppose they can kill them and throw them back if they want to legally, its just not good for PR.
I agree the major tournaments are run much better, and they take fish mortality very seriously. Problem is there are numerous smaller leagues and events that do not. I'll admit that seeing a floating bass doesn't bother me much. Seeing a bunch of floating muskies after a competitive muskie tournament...that one burns my *** a little.
Oh ya. I do a few weekday trips to some metro lakes here in the cities and I just about want to hop aboard some other boats from time to time. Bringing a fish into the boat for the unhooking process, running around in circles for a minute looking for something to measure it with, take 45 pictures, hand it over to your buddy, he drops it then picks it back up for another 10 pictures, and back into the water... I see something like this a time or two a year and it really ticks me off.
Here is my big brookie right after catching him, I gotta snap a pic of him on the wall... Here is my big brown on the stream.... and the mount.... I want a smallie but he has to be a lil bit bigger than this guy...
That's a very impressive wall. I caught this thread late. I'm in MD, and have a 26" 8lb brown trout as my claim to fame from the rivers out in the western part of the state and am very impressed with you and your buddy's brook trout. They're native here too and I've been lucky enough to catch one with my fly rod but not more than 8". Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Here's how much of a dumb *** I am- Prior to the 1.5 pound sunny I caught at least a dozen other ones that were bigger the day before. I didn't realize at the time they were that long. I figured they were all 3/4 pound fish. Mounting a stringer of panfish has always been something I wanted to do. I screwed that one up. I caught all of these right before they started sponding last year (2012). They were all males. Thanks Vito and cmonsta.
Great pics guys. Love the wall rybo...did something happen to that basses head? Love the Walleye Steve, and the panfish idea. Like i mentioned, i want a pumpkinseed to mount with my bass. Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
That a Northern right? Man is that gonna be a beautiful mount! Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
Heres a few more pictures of that bass... And a smalley that was just a tad too small for the wall... I always thought it would be cool to make a glass coffee table with a few big channel cats laying in some logs...just never had the funds to mount 30" fish. If i did...this old black warrior and his brown sugar momma would be included. I love catching big farm lond cats. Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
I'm getting a replica mount of this wild brown I caught on the fly. 27" and just shy of 8 lbs. I let him swim away after a bunch of pictures and measuring. I've caught a ton of fish that are bigger on private streams but this was a real trophy for public water and to be an old hold over/wild fish. For those that are wondering, 11' 4wt Echo Shadow PE rod with 4X tippet on a small streamer. I was fishing for stockers and this guy nailed me. Fight was about 8 minutes to the net and had a fellow fly fishing team member net him for me after I couldn't get him close enough to do it myself.
