https://www.bassfan.com/docktalk_article/23530/Balog:-Is-Coosa-River-the-first-domino
What isn’t documented is negative impact to fisheries included in the study. Maybe Balog will supply that too so we get a complete picture. Happy Holidays!
Fouz

Steve Kennedy has a background in fisheries and he says the study is pretty flawed is an old study.

There most likely is no study. If you read the announcement, it's a bunch of estimates.

Another political decision with no hard facts for backup. Tournaments and tournament fishing are easy and popular targets.

Anything Balog says is for his own ego gratification and a few clicks. Heck, Randy is better.

Yep. The guy is a self focused blowhard.

several years ago,Auburn did a tournament mortality study on Eufaula at Alabama Solo tournament....it was mid summer,hot as hell and i warned the tournament director to not participate but he did anyway...they took the bass,put them in a basket and hung it underneath the walkway leading out to the gas pumps at lake Point marina...worst place in the lake to have placed the fish...shallow,probaly hottest water temps in entire lake plus no current nor wave action to oygenate the water.....I believe they had a 50% mortality rate or more....those fish had no opportunity to swim to deeper, cooler and more oxygenated water......and....if tournament mortality was so harmful,why are there numerous examples of heavily fished lakes having better fishing now than they did 30-40 years ago?

Grand lake doesn’t fish better.

FYI

Here is a more detailed discussion of the results of the study.

https://www.wired2fish.com/news/will-slot-limits-end-bass-tournaments

Not the results of a study because there was no study.

A bunch of estimates without any data to support an already made political decision.

Maybe it the fisherman, not the bait... Dan

west point,eufaula and oconee in my area all have had slot limits at one time or another and it didn't do a damn thing for the fishery except screw up tournaments.....the problem is that our fishery management can't get it through their heads that almost no bass fishermen keep bass to eat....and.....it only takes a few spawning bass to re-stock a lake every year....the big problem is stripers eating bass and no cover in lake for the young fish to escape being eaten....
if bass tournaments were the problem,guntersville would have been ruined years ago...same with lake martin which is full of fish...

Yes, there was "a" study. 3 masters theses from one of the top fisheries research universities in the country were just completed this year regarding this exact topic; see below. Masters research theses like these usually take 2-3 years to complete. I haven't digested all three theses entirely yet, but the tagging and telemetry study is similar to what most states are using these days to estimate mortality. They're not just tossing tournament fish into a basket sitting on the ramp and watching them for 24 hours. It's much more complicated and thought out than that. There is also much data from the state that hasn't yet been published; the file referenced in the Wired2Fish article summaries it (again, see blow). We can disagree on the conclusions and management proposals made from the data collected (which, by the way, I do have strong objections to), but stop claiming this was a data-less driven proposal.

https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/ha...%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/ha...s_4_22_24.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/9183/Rubino_thesis_1.pdf?sequence=4
https://assets.wired2fish.com/uploa...eg-Changes-on-Coosa-River-Reservoirs.pdf

No doubt in my mind that there is a high mortality rate for keeping fish in the livewell for extended periods of time.

I’m speaking in general- I’ve never been a good fisherman.😆

OUCH, shots fired! But I can relate.

I think your correct.

Yup, fish mortality is not a problem when I’m on the water.

about the only thing I kill, is gasoline.

We are the ultimate conservationist!😆

No detailed quantitative study of release mortality in all that garbage.

Typical thesis work where a candidate researches what others did, and fills in the rest at the keyboard. Lot of estimates. Darn few, if any, hard numbers relating to tournament mortality.

I fish a couple relatively small lakes with HEAVY tournament pressure. I don't, and I don't know anyone that does, see a lot of dead fish. In fact the release areas are hot areas to fish. If release mortality is upwards of 75% in the summer, I know several small coves that would smell bad.

I lived on the Coosa 74 - 79 and know how good it was. If it's not as good now, it's not because of tournaments. It was easy then. I bet it's hard now. People want a scapegoat.

Catch and immediate release is politically correct. The goal is to eliminate all conventional tournaments. "Studies" will be developed to support that goal.