I will admit the first thing I thought about when the weights went down this winter is maybe all the pressure has caught up with Big Sam. One thing that makes me optimistic is that weights are down on all the area lakes due to the extreme cold. The rest of the year will tell the tale. In my opinion the fishing the last couple of years has been as good any in the last 20 or so. I caught more fish in the month after the largest McDononalds Tourney ever than I have ever caught on the lake. And even if 30 pound stringers don't start showing up in March there are other factors to be considered. It is natural to have highs and lows in bass populations. I'm just glad the lows on my home lake are still pretty good.

Im a tourny fisherman, I currently fish the South TX 5 and local BassChamps events; however I am unbiased and call it like I see it as it relates to the effects of heavy tourny pressure on lakes!

What I see around here is that the tourny fisherman are so over protective and into these tournys that they dont want to acknowledge any of the negitive impacts that these tournys have.

Look guys, we got to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror from time to time and self evaluate. Nobody is saying that tournys need to be banned or trying to keep you from having fun. However, tourny fishing as a whole needs to check itself and start acting more conservationally responsible. As more and more people are getting involved in tourny fishing, more strain is put on these lakes that hold them.

The problem is that it is the same handfull of lakes that hold every tournament! These lakes are getting hammered to death right now. We got to slow down on them a little bit or they will stop being so fun to fish! There are plenty of other good lakes in TX to share the burden! We need to start spreeding it out.

Also, alot of tourny anglers need to quit being so selfish when it comes to consevation talks. The main focus should be on the bass, and not our "Good Time!" The bass is what gives us countless hours of fun, without them it wouldnt be much fun. Use a take care of the bass first attitude, and the fun is inevitable!

I agree, Jigawho. If affecting a spawning fish does not bother the population of bass can someone tell me why everytime a crappie caught on Rayburn goes in an ice chest and there are still a ton of crappie in Rayburn but almost every bass is thrown back, but yet there seems to be less bass each year.

Hunter's Dad I'm glad your skill set at catching bass has improved that much because most people that have fished the lake for the last 20 years will tell you that the lake is nowhere close to what it was before the fish kill. That's not my opinion, that comes from people like Stan Burgay, Dicky Newberry, Mike Lowrey, Lance Lowrey, John Gunnels, Mike Metcalf and Lance Hughes. You can argue with them!

All those guys you mentioned are sure enough sticks and have way more of a track record on Rayburn than I do. I respect each of their opinions greatly. I may have overstated the 20 year thing. I remember the low water years and how easy it was to catch fish. I didn't know much back then and still the fishing was great. You can also look at the sharelunker donations and make an argument that the mid 90's were the best. I also remember the first few years after the fish kill and how lean things were compared to what they are now. All those guys you mentioned are big time tourney guys. I would be very interested in their opinion of how the tourney fishing has effected the population. I just wonder if maybe habitat conditions like hydrilla coverage and water levels might be more of a factor than the tournaments. There is still an immense amount of pressure on the lake that is not tournament related. It's easy to single out one group or another. In 3 or 4 months I may be singing the blues as well and might be worrying more about the demise of my favorite lake.

Out of curiosity can I get some opinions?

Is the fishing tougher on Fork than it was pre LMBV?

Why?

Has it not recovered?

Tourney related pressure?

Fishing pressure in general?

Hunter's Dad, Im sure that all of those things go into effecting a lake's overall fishing performance. Diseases, grass die offs, cold winters, droughts, and other natural occurrance all contribute and it is just not heavy tourny/rec pressure that decreases fish catches.

But, the thing is that we can do something about the negitive effects of tournys and recreation fishing on lakes, whereas we cant do alot to help those acts of God! So, even though it is not all tournys, us tourny fisherman and officials can do a lot more to keep fishing up on certain lakes than what we are doing now.

Do not think of this as a bad thing cause it will only increase the overall enjoyment and success of our events. Im telling you right now, Ive heard about 20 ideas from TFFers in the past 2 days that would drastically improve the fishing on some of the most heavy hit lakes. All of these ideas can be easily implemented, with minimal cost and without taking any fun away from our competitions.

i think post like this are just made in attemps to get at people. telling people what to do with thier fish. haha. cracks me up everytime.

I am a biologist in west texas,,I have been involved in several studies, durring summer months (water temps above 80) the servial rate for your average tournament is less than 30%,,they may swim off and look fine but within 30 - 60 days they die! cooler water increases there chances as does proper handling..stress and the removel of the protective slime are the biggest killers!

Nitro this post is not to get at anyone and it is not telling anybody what to do with their fish. It is asking them and informing some fishermen that might not know that if they are planning to release their fish, what effect it might have on the fish. Your best odds for the surival of a big fish is to let her go as soon as possible. You have all the right to do with your fish what you want, but it is our responseability to protect the resorses for future generations.

What this post is about is getting more people to use better care in handling their Bass. If we all take better care of the fish we intend to release they have a much better chance to live and be enjoyed again. This applies to tournament and recreational fishermen that CPR/ release their catch and care whether it lives or dies.

It is also a request that folks realize killing female Bass during the spawn hurts the overall health of the fish population. Especially on smaller lakes with high fishing pressure. Fishing is pretty good in Texas we would like to educate a few more folks to help keep it that way.

We are just offering help to those that want to learn a better way to enjoy our sport.

Bazz

How about making it a 3 fish limit for individual competitions? Or a 3 fish limit per person state wide limit, period! I remember when it use to be 10 fish, when I was a kid fishing with my Dad, and we Never caught anything over 2 lbs! A 15 incher was considered a good fish and it came home with us. Things have definitely improved since then, but there may still be room for improvement.

Maybe the pro tournament guys should be better educated.....How many times have I seen the pro tournament guys prancing aroun d the stage swinging a huge fish by the lip and then the fish dies. A while back, I watched a tournament held on Fork (I think) where each boat had a person with a scale that weighed the fish and then it was released - great idea....and the first I saw of it was in Texas...

Good job Texas.

As a side note a slot limit and a limit of one fish over a certain inch size works good around here. Also I fish a lot in Florida and there are some lakes there that have 100% immediate catch and release on all LMB. Works well down there.

Good point. Besides being low in oxygen, warm water is just a petri dish of micro-organisms and bacteria. If you let that bass hit the deck and flop around, it could be a death sentence. Another thing about summertime bass is a lot of them need to be fizzed. I'll have to find the post from last summer, but someone on here did a net study as well. It was a tournament director on Rayburn I want to say. Anyway in their study they were looking at ways to decrease mortality in warm water. They had professionals fizz the bass the proper way, plus they gave all caught fish a salt dip to help restore slime coat. Give me a minute and I'll see if I can find it.

I believe it. I spoke to a TPWD employee and I threw out a 30% post tournament mortality number and the TPWD guy reflexively laughed and told me to try 50% as a post tournament mortality number. I leave my fish in the water at all times when I lip them,unhook them, and let them go. If it's a giant,I lift it about 6" out of the water with 2 hands, to feel the fish's weight, then let it go.

Took awhile but I finally found it.


Anglers Lodge from TFF did the study. He is a tourney director on Amistad (sounds like one of the good ones who care too).

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...200#Post3673725

Amistad Fizz Study - July 2009 Results - In conjunction with Anglers Lodge Summer Trail

Here are the results from the study that was conducted on our tournament fish from last weekend. Mind you, this is a small control group (# of fish) so the percent rate has to be taken into consideration. There were four catagories : Control Fish (Shock Boat caught); Non-Sick Fish (Did not need fizzing); Sick Fish (Needed to be fizzed,but weren't) and Sick Fish (Fizzed). The fish brought into weigh-in were first put in a tank that had been cooled with ice down to 74 degrees and Sure-Life addatives, pure oxygen from tanks into the tank by bottle/stone, then it was decided which group to put the fish in, then was put in a salt dip tank for 10-12 seconds. After that they were released into net holding pens situated in a boat stall that were 42 ft. deep and as wide as the boat stall. Fish were held for three days. Here are the results :
Total Fish - 58

Control Fish (shock boat) - 100% Survival 7 fish
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Non-Sick Fish (Did not need fizzing) - 60% Survival 18 out of 29
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Sick Fish (Not fizzed) - 76% Survival Rate 8 out of 11
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Sick Fish (Fizzed) - 85% Survival 9 out of 11
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Initial Mortality for tournament - 10.7% 6 dead
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Delayed Mortality with study fish - 27.5% 16 dead
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Total Mortality for both tournament fish and study fish - 38.2%
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Total Survival for tournament and study fish - 62%
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The study fish were introduced to see what would have happened had other ways of doing things had been done to the tournament fish. Not just our way of doing a weigh-in, that way a comparison could be made. Just thought ya'll might like to see this, as we had an outstanding survival rate for a summer tournament. So the on the water weigh-in does work, and compared to other moratality rates other tournaments have had, ours is in the top percentile of survival rates. Had fish care suggestions been followed, a lot more would have survived. As it was, almost 40% of the fish brought in were upside down. And quite a few didn't use any livewell addatives or ice either. That was one of the questions asked. Time to tighten down the teaching hat.