Delayed bass mortality rate

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by MidTNKayakAngler

CPR Tournaments just don't have that same feel to spectators when they see someone at the podium fist pumping with a bass in their hands.

Have Craig or Mike stand up with SD cards raised in each hand after the next tourney to see.

[MickT]

Originally Posted by jad2t

To my knowledge they're all stocked because Stripers can't reproduce in fresh water and Hybrids are born sterile since they're a test tube experiment.

That was my understanding as well, but I never use "never" or "always" when talking about ecosystems. They will always make me a liar if I do. Triploid grass carp and hybrid bluegills are supposed to be sterile as well and they reproduce. Stripers spawn in freshwater but go to the salt shortly after hatching. I don't know how critical ocean-going is to their life cycle. I would suspect there is some minute level of natural reproduction, but not enough to sustain sport fishing populations.

[agelesssone]

While cruising on Old Hickory today I saw about a 5-6 lb bass belly up. Have no idea what caused it's demise, just sad to see.

Anyone who told you hybrid bluegill are sterile was somewhat less than well-informed. Some hybrids are sterile, such as hybrid stripers and grass carp; it certainly happens that even these sometimes reproduce, but it isn't common; but some hybrids, such as hybrid bluegill and hybrid crappie, reproduce readily.

[Reel Tune]

Originally Posted by Travis C.

Have Craig or Mike stand up with SD cards raised in each hand after the next tourney to see.

We'll have to try it Saturday night

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by MidTNKayakAngler

Fancy, lol. I thought some ran oxygen tanks, and shot oxygen right into the livewell, and when those oxygen bubbles came to the surface and popped it created dissolved oxygen? Just what I thought. I don't know if it works or not, but anything has to be better than nothing.

I wonder what happened to all the bass in the initial BASS tourney's. They weren't catch-release until 4 or 5 years after they were formed and the early tourney years I believe were far more than 5 fish daily limits. Granted that change to catch-release is why live well aeration was developed.

Could they have ate them all or used it as food on the trail? Different times and different folks but curious none the less.

[Andy M]

Originally Posted by agelesssone

Isaac, what kills the fish is the stress of being kept in a livewell all day. Plus the beating and battering that happens when they are slammed around in there all day with the running and gunning most tournament fishermen do.

Bad handling practices can hurt too. Try not to handle any part of the fish's body, and don't hold them by the jaw and lift them to horizontal. If a photo must be taken, let the fish hang vertical. Too many people hold the fish's jaw and then raise it to horizontal which injures the fish.

Lots of catch and release fishermen are well intentioned but ill informed.

And the guys that prefish for tournaments just go in and educate fish that most likely won't bite those same lures a few days later. Another study purports to show fish retain a memory bank of lures for about a week.

Myself, I would disagree with that study, having fish break me off, only to catch it again later it the day with my "lost" lure (plastic worm both times) either stuck in their jaw or swallowed in their belly.

Good handling practices will allow most fish to survive.

So what you are saying that an article to bad mouth those "tournament guys" is 100% fact while an article "I" disagree with is wrong.

Come on guys, drive to flippers and patrol around, no where near 50% of them die. No doubt summer time conditions and staying in a live well will reduce the mortality of the fish but to assume one study on one lake apples to all tournaments is absurd.

I don't care if people keep bass for eating as long as they are following the limits so I'm not one of "those people" either, but I do fish lots of tournaments and realize that because of the popularity of tournaments Many, Many technological advances, new lures, improved ramps and parking, and better equipment have come along at reasonable enough prices that normal folks can afford them.

[agelesssone]

Originally Posted by Andy M

So what you are saying that an article to bad mouth those "tournament guys" is 100% fact while an article "I" disagree with is wrong.

Come on guys, drive to flippers and patrol around, no where near 50% of them die. No doubt summer time conditions and staying in a live well will reduce the mortality of the fish but to assume one study on one lake apples to all tournaments is absurd.

I don't care if people keep bass for eating as long as they are following the limits so I'm not one of "those people" either, but I do fish lots of tournaments and realize that because of the popularity of tournaments Many, Many technological advances, new lures, improved ramps and parking, and better equipment have come along at reasonable enough prices that normal folks can afford them.

Andy the "delayed mortality" was noted in the study to have happened up to fives days later. The stressed fish were held in "ponds" for a week after stressing.

[XxthejuicexX]

Maybe it was the Ponds????

I would tend to side with the studies, and the people who have posted in this thread noting their own observations that concur with said studies. Studies have been done on not just caught and released fish in tournaments, but in general fishing among recreational anglers, and biologists are finding that mortality is much higher than what the average angler might think. Just because the fish swims off, even if it does so vigorously, does not mean it won't die a day or five days later. Even fish that are returned to the water within thirty seconds or less of being caught, and that are not foul- or deep-hooked, can die just from the stress of being caught. The amount of energy fish exert during the fight is many, many times what they do in their daily lives otherwise; it's akin to if one of us suddenly had to run a mile at a full sprint the whole way.

I guided two guys from Pennsylvania back the first week of May. The biggest bluegill they caught was a coppernose that was 10.5" and would have easily weighed between twenty and twenty-four ounces. The fish was lip-hooked, and we only had it out of the water for two photos and then quickly back in; and yet it floated up on its side within a couple minutes of release, and five minutes later was dead.

And that's not a fish that had been in a livewell for eight or ten hours, and was then paraded up and down a stage for minutes at a time out of the water. Just my opinion, but the current fish-handling practices of tournaments are pretty indefensible.

[ditz1]

I have no stats but I am sure that a percentage of caught fish die sometime in the future from the catch and/or release procedure. I am also quite sure that the percentage goes up by a large percentage because of poor handling. Bouncing around in a live well and putting in a plastic bag for weighting in probably at least triples the mortality rate. Bass tournaments have done nothing but hurt our fisheries. Now they do the walleye and redfish tournaments. Fishing is a blood sport but do we really need to increase the blood. Let's do deer hunting tournaments if we want to see some real blood. How many deer can an individual kill in a week.

[TNBronzeback]

Alot of that hinges on time of year and water temps too.
If your fishing a deep lake 30-40 ft down in the south in august....the surface temp could be 90 degrees.....you catch fish 30-40 ft down....im sure the temp difference is pretty drastic....for lack of better words.....you could be slowly boiling the fish to death as its already using energy during the fight.
Its a tough one...
In the hunting world, ya wound an animal....ya do what is right and finish the animal off, yet in fishing, we hook, fight, exhaust, poorly handle the fish, then toss em right back in. Thats a crude and simplified version of it in most cases, but im sure you guys see what i mean.
Just my 2 cents into the convo! Lol.

[Reel Tune]

Originally Posted by Travis C.

I wonder what happened to all the bass in the initial BASS tourney's. They weren't catch-release until 4 or 5 years after they were formed and the early tourney years I believe were far more than 5 fish daily limits. Granted that change to catch-release is why live well aeration was developed.

Could they have ate them all or used it as food on the trail? Different times and different folks but curious none the less.

I think most were cleaned and eaten.