Nothing going to change.... UNtil a few lake homeowners see the floaters around there docks. Then ???

How many fish were floating, hundreds?

This being the discussion it is........I can't under stand why tournaments that use marshalls or even co-anglers don't do the paper thing like MLF. Someone with a little creativity could create video to back up the weigh in at the end of the day that would be just as exciting as the angler holding up the fish.........

Water is 87-93 Degrees....

I saw a good number of floaters at a private lake two weekends ago.

Surface temps were close to 90.

Did not take a tourney to kill some of those fish. Just the stress of the hot water alone will do in the weak ones.

I like fouzmans idea; its just too hot to be carrying these fish around in live wells all day and expect that most wont die.

I wonder if our GWs are ever going to start nailing people at these tournaments for tossing dead fish back in the lake after the weigh in.

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https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdo...ing-regulations

In that case, is it the tournament director's responsibility to keep those fish?

It wasn't that many years ago that BASS Opens were allowing culling of dead fish in Texas. It was this rule that was used to implement their new rules of no culling dead fish. Enough people spoke to BASS to get that changed.

maybe having lakes where tournaments are allowed and some lakes that not...

20 boats 5 fish=100 fish taken of their honey holes.. next day i go to fun fish and no fish there

and people wonder why the lake is "Tough"

At the last Bass Champs tourney on lake Fork I saw them put dead fish in a cooler instead of back into the lake, that is how tourneys should handle their fish. If you got a problem with fishing in the heat then stay home. The water temps at Bridgeport on Sat. were 89 to 91 and most of the anglers that I witnessed were fishing shallow, so I don't think that the fish were kept in any hotter water than what they started in as long as the anglers circulated their tanks. Yes the fish could have been stressed, but there is no substantial proof to this. The tourney we fished was a charity tourney, not sure why they picked July for it instead of a time of year when it is cooler and they could get a larger number of entrants.

People who don't tourney fish and think all tourney angler bring in limits always crack me up. 20 boats = 20 fish maybe a lot of times lol... tourney guys go out and zero and have just the same tough bite you do when you go out the day after and think they stole/killed the fish off your spot. The difference is they pay money to get their butts kicked like that haha

People don't wonder why the lake is tough. Idiots do People understand with 90* water temps comes tough fishing with massive changes in the ecosystem. As much as all of yall want to make what the tournament anglers are doing your problem... if you aren't a part of the tournament it isn't your problem to solve honestly. They harvest the fish legally, and should find something better to do with dead fish, but it's well within their rights to not return the fish to the lake after they harvest it. I don't like seeing natures bounty wasted either, that's why I always suggest donating the fish. The irony is, it's a perfect solution, which does nothing at all to placate the whining and crying about those fish being gone from the lake.

Understand none of them are going to stop fishing, and with 100% of fish being returned tot he lake, even with 90% mortality, you are getting back 10% more fish than you have any right to. So again, SHUT UP AND GO because yall don't even have enough perspective or objectivity to discuss the matter in any meaningful or impactful way outside of cackling like a bunch of hens and accomplishing nothing.

Because catch & release that isn't 100% successful year round is the same as "we kill them and use every single part" hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... lets go with nah, and get your head out yer butt and quit trying to be controversial and start trying to be intelligent. Comparing bass to buffalo is so stupid it aint even funny. Do you have any idea how many offspring a single fish has? And most anglers aren't even eating them, they are trying to send em back. Just stop man... you aren't clever or witty or sharp. You are just stirring drama making absurd statements like that. I am all for intelligent debate and discussion but this aint it.

Well its easy to see that "intelligent debate" is not your forte. Bass/Buffalos is not a literal comparison, of course. Apparently your embarrassed because someone takes your "intelligent" issue to task. Relax it will be easier for you to remove your head from your one sided opinion and you two sided "cheeks".

At least I see someone understands the 'not a literal comparison'. My example that wasn't meant as a literal comparison. My sarcasm was taken as fact.

If we had 'stocked' bison, like we stock bass, we'd have the problem we have with feral pigs, right?

I don't think anyone has any solid proof that there was/is 100% mortality. In every tournament I fish, and have seen fished, we do our best to send off solid swimmers. We do monitor and collect dead fish (for whatever purposes to avoid waste). Yes, I am sure there is some delayed mortality, but again someone must prove to me it is close to 100%.

Then again, no one has confirmed the number of floaters that triggered the original post, either.

We aren't going to come to an agreement, but I for one can see points to be made on both sides of the argument. I agree we should all go back to what makes us happy, fishing and harvesting, tournament releases, or pure catch and release. The fish will be fine (if nothing else, our tax dollars at work, right?)

To minimize cheating during paper tournaments have all that are going to get a check take a lie detector test!!!!!!
The S.I.T. tournament on Lake Amistad is not a paper tournament, but anyone that is going to get a check, at least one member of the team will be polygraphed.
This is not a may be tested, they will be tested. I am sure that it keeps people from cheating.

I wonder how many guys had ice in their live wells to cool the water down to 70 degrees as I've seen many numbskulls recommend? The fish go from 70 degrees into 92 degree 2 stroke polluted slop at the ramp and the result is what we see here.