I personally think all tournaments should have a limit. 100 seems to be the best number from my perspective. We now how the TTO Pro series if you want to do some high stakes gambling etc... All fields definitely need to be capped.

I won't disagree w/ you.

But when we as a community start using personal opinions to force a number that each believe is proper, it can get ugly and stall out progression.

Studies have to be done by reputable operations on the sustainability of the resource.

From there, educated measures can be put in place.

All this resource talk. If It would be legal for every single person on the lake to keep a limit of bass for dinner, how is a tournament where every bass is released, hurting the resource?

All this resource talk. If It would be legal for every single person on the lake to keep a limit of bass for dinner, how is a tournament where every bass is released, hurting the resource?

One business cannot dictate anothers.

But one thing is for certain...

The more pressure you put on any resource, the more likely that resource will not sustain.

Think of it this way. There are only so many baseball fields/facilities in the state. Which means you can only schedule so many baseball tournaments each weekend. Which means there are only so many spots for teams to enter. Once they are full, it's full.

Our lakes can't just sustain as many boats as you can pack them with.

It's our responsibility to protect the resources.

Tournament sanctions are for profit businesses. They will not limit their ability to create revenue. Like any other business.

Protecting the resources our public waters afford us lies in anglers/contestants hands. We have to push/force for protection.

If we don't, the end will come as the resource will be pushed to it's inability to sustain.

A good example would be Kansas deer permits. There are only so many issued each year. And each year there are trophies to be had. Because the resource is protected for a thriving herd.

I suggest we as a fishing community bring these issues to the Texas Parks & Wildlife to implement ideas and ways to protect the resources. The risk here is putting government in charge of the resources. Which, in a way, happens already. Just not to the extent we have to apply for permits to have a Tuesday night working mans derby.

So we can either put the pressure on the tournament sanction to protect our resources, or put it in the hands of municipalities.

Our lakes are not hurting. Our lakes have thriving populations of fish and every study done show that tournament fishing does not harm our fisheries. TPW regulates our lakes very well They stock millions of fish in lakes across the state each year and they keep very detailed harvest and electroshocking data to make sure our lakes are not depleted of resources. Sam Rayburn is the perfect example. It is one of the most pressured tournament lakes in the nation and has been since the 1970s. To this day it continues to pump out fish at an amazing rate. Nearby Toledo Bend is another example, fairly pressured by tournaments, but the major difference is the tremendous number of people who keep bass to eat on toledo due to its border with Louisiana. Even with this added pressure it is still a good lake.

Overall pressure of people fishing is what makes it harder to catch fish, not tournaments. Fish are smart, and they learn us anglers. The only way to make the fish "easy" to catch is to limit the number of people allowed to fish a lake, but of course then you could not go fishing anytime you want.

The worse thing for fishing is pressure! Go to an unpressured stock tank that has a population of Bass and throw anything you want and you will be successful. Fish that same tank every day with the same bait and you will see your catch rate go down after just a day or two. If you release them all did the fish go anywhere or population decline? No they just got educated and pressured. Go to a very pressured public lake that you are very familiar with after close to 30 years of fishing it and you will fight for 5 or 6 good bites in a full day because of pressure.

I am in favor of "X" number of tournament permits issued per lake per year based on a yearly study by a biologist. Yep this would be govt. and I can't stand govt. involvement in things. When people can't police themselves, it becomes necessary to make stupid rules! I am also in favor of limiting the size of a tournament field to "X" number of boats per water body acre first come first served.

Why do high school tournaments have entry fees? I/we didn’t have to ante up before a football game or a baseball game. We didn’t win cash after the dust settled.

The inclusion of money makes this NOT a “high school sport”. Inclusion of money will always bring out the worst in some people.