Sounds like they are wanting a cut of the money from these tournaments to me.

Paper tournaments from mid June to mid September. Bass clubs won't
have a problem with this and the more competitive trails can find a way to work around this time period if they need to.
I know several bass clubs that do paper exclusively year round and they are doing fine.

Anyone know the mortality rate of a bass if they are not caught by a fisherman?





The reason I ask: waterfowl hunters get "blamed/credited" for making a big dent in the population when, in fact, they are only responsible for less than 6% or so of overall waterfowl mortality..... I wonder if tourney guys are getting the short end of the stick here...

Will wants rules that fit his agenda for what he is doing. Obviously he's anti-tournament.

Rules have to be the best for all.

I always say if you like the way California does things then there is a state by that name you can live in.

Fishspanker, I guess anyone that disagrees with you is old and senile, huh?

I hope no one got paid for writing that. I couldn't stick it out and never got to the word license.

A good article makes the point quickly and then fills in the details.

This article hammers you with the details first making you wonder where they are going and then you just give up and say, whatever.

I'm not sure I get everything sumfish is saying here but what good would a new tax(ie.license) be? I would like to see fish being handled and cared for as well at weigh in as they are by the fishermen, but a new fee would not do anything to fix that. Does he think that if tournament fishermen and promoters paid more that a gov. agency would make things better? There is no way. If something is broken with tournaments that is causing major harm we the tournament fishermen need to work with the promoters to fix it. It was said in a reply above that lakes cycle, that is very true. I do think that heavy fishing pressure hurts the bite but probably doesn't have a big impact on the amout of fish in a lake.

I am still waiting for my fat bank account. We are in our fourth year and I am still pumping money into the business. I know many other trails that are in the same boat. If I had no passion for tournament angling and the fellowship with anglers I would have bailed after year one.
Nature takes care of it's own whether we are involved or not. Without some mortality and consumption we would have lakes full of stunted starving bass and not enough forage to maintain them.
Glad to hear I will be getting rich soon off of this tournament trail, the wife will be very happy. LOL

money, money ,money,,tax,tax, tax,,,. My question is why is it always about money. Just like stated above, us paying more isnt going to fix the problem.. Why dont they put a tax on pleasure boaters, whos boats tear up the shore line and cause erosion? the bigger the boat the higher the tax? ohh yeah I know why they dont do that because the law makers are the ones in those pleasure boats. its all a bunch of BS.

What I love is that all those "evil" tournament anglers could legally go out and keep their limit of fish every day if they wanted to. That's what buying a fishing license allows us to do. But because a handful of fish die during a tournament with many contestants, tournament anglers are the demise of the fishery?

Most people don't even keep bass anymore, which I believe is a bigger problem than the few dead fish from a tournament. Look at falcon, all the gill netters down there, but yet she still keeps on trucking and putting out some toads...

I fish Rayburn as its my home lake. I will concur with Mr. Kirkpatrick's assessment that the lake is not producing the number of double digit bass it did in the 90's ... by far. There are the occassional 10's and 11's and a rare 12 or 2 yearly but where are the bigger fish we saw commonly in the 90's? Anybody??????

I don't think the numbers are there either.

Reasons for this are probably multiple. My guesses (in order of importance) would be:

1. not the massive grassbeds we saw in the 90's.

2. Tourney pressure with higher quality anglers (the learning curve is going up even for the everage angler).

3.Too many SUMMER tourneys.

4. LMBV in '99 hit Rayburn hard (but it hit Fork too).

5. To a lesser extent a meat mentality population of fisherman that will filet a 5 lb+ bass as fast as they will a 14" bass.


Solutions:

Y'all can add them as you see fit or argue my points but I think the summer T's need to be regulated somehow. Delayed mortality has been proven on stressed fish.

A slot would be awesome for Rayburn. That would slow down some of the T's and manage the meat mentality fishermen.

The grass issue I have no clue about ... the huge grassbeds that matted Needmore and Coleman Flats along with Farmers and mostly the Black Forest may never return to mid 90's coverage but I think this would support a much larger bass eco system.

A more aggressive Florida strain stocking program for this 115,000 acre lake.

Higher water levels in the spring to safeguard the spawners and the fry.




About Will Kirkpatrick ... He is not senile ... he can be an arsehole of major proportions. There may be some hypocrisy in his article in that he may be OK with his clients keeping their double digit bass but I don't know this for a fact. Neither does anyone else unless they have firsthand knowlege. But, he is very knowlegeable about the Rayburn fisheries. I've talked to him a few times FTF and also listen to him on the radio on Saturdays(Texas Fishing and Outdoors with Brian Hughes). I can't argue with his information or hypothesis , although there are plenty of points in the articles one might pick on but the major info is true... there are less big bass in Rayburn!

Don't shoot the messenger if you don't like his message.

I do not agree with charging tourney fisherman extra ... they pay for their license and that should be enough. I only know one major T promoter on the lake but his trail is making money and he is too. (Sold his retail business in town and moved to the lake full time to run his trail).

My $.02 !

+1

You inadvertently prove a point against the heavy pressure that fishermen put on lakes. Yep ... gill netting is an issue on Falcon ... they do catch some big bass. But Falcon probably gets about 1/10th the pressure that Rayburn gets. So maybe fishing pressure does play a part in fish populations ... especially big fish.

I do agree with you that many more bass fishermen practice catch and release now than 20 years ago.

How many of you summertime T fishemen have oxygen cylinders onboard your boats??????

http://www.oxyedge-chum.com/tournament_mortality_bass,_crappie_&_walleye.htm


I'd guess very few!

Look,the less we kill;The more we catch. What's so hard about that? Reduced bag,or,Big Fish only,tournaments in Texas in june, july,and august.