I took my yearly Pepin trip knowing atleast two tournament were going on. I wanted to watch the weigh-ins for the MWC but fishing was far more important! Anyway after finding some info out I’m really glad I didnt.. 
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web page
I’m hoping they let the bigger ones go but doubt it……. cant believe Cabelas is involved with this.
Incase people want to know…this was a harvest tourney!
“The mighty Mississippi yielded 488 walleyes weighing a total of 1,494.7 pounds. The event was a harvest tournament by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources regulations, and the walleyes were donated to the Frontenac Sportsman’s Club, which cleaned the fish and in turn donated the catch to the local food shelf. The Frontenac club hosted the event and supplied much-needed volunteers. In other charitable news, the MWC Conservation Fund donated $15 per boat for a total of $1,080 to benefit the club’s conservation projects. To date, the MWC has donated more than $275,000 to fisheries conservation in states where its tournaments are held.”
Blame the MN DNR on this one, not the Master’s Walleye Circuit nor the Anglers that participated in this event. Master’s Walleye Circuit does everything they can to ensure hey give back to the communities they visit, and has some of the best equipment available to ensure these fish are brought back into the waters in a healthy state. Unfortunately, per DNR regulations, all tournaments after June 1st are required to be “Harvest” tournaments.
There were many of us anglers that fished this event that were sick with the fact that these fish were not allowed to be put back in the water per rules set forth by the DNR.
If this is something that does upset you (as it does many of us tournament anglers as well), the best thing to do is contact your local DNR office and voice your displeasure with this rule. If you make any head way on this, please post and let us know. Some of us tournament anglers have been trying for years to voice our displeasure with this rule and it constantly falls on deaf ears.
harvest per mn dnr you should complain to them if you dont like it
Congrats on the 4th place finish.
Nicely stated Justin. It was fun to watch the weigh ins. Good job, some nice fish.
Awesome Job on the 4th place finish justin!
They could also plan the event before June 1 so as to avoid the harvest rules. I understand the DNRs’ position that fish caught after June 1 have a higher mortality rate due to stress and lower oxygen content of higher water temps. Unfortunately river temps are behind where they normally are this time of year. The DNR had to make a cut off somewhere in order to best utilize the resource. At least the fish are being used instead of the possible delayed mortality.
This is my home waters and seeing 488 fish with over a 3 lb average (a goodly number are prime spawning females). If they had a fishing tournament on your lake where you have your summer cabin and nearly 500 prime spawning female fish were removed, you would not like it either.
This is supposed to be a test of angler skill so when they have the tournament should not be an issue. I am sure that these circuits have angler feedback meetings. Express your concerns with regards to the fish populations there. Claiming the benefits to communities and shifting the guilt trip towards the DNR where better event planning could have been done is not an ethical response.
Just my NIMBY opinion.
Very good points rmartin. 
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They could also plan the event before June 1 so as to avoid the harvest rules. I understand the DNRs’ position that fish caught after June 1 have a higher mortality rate due to stress and lower oxygen content of higher water temps. Unfortunately river temps are behind where they normally are this time of year. The DNR had to make a cut off somewhere in order to best utilize the resource. At least the fish are being used instead of the possible delayed mortality.
This is my home waters and seeing 488 fish with over a 3 lb average (a goodly number are prime spawning females). If they had a fishing tournament on your lake where you have your summer cabin and nearly 500 prime spawning female fish were removed, you would not like it either.
This is supposed to be a test of angler skill so when they have the tournament should not be an issue. I am sure that these circuits have angler feedback meetings. Express your concerns with regards to the fish populations there. Claiming the benefits to communities and shifting the guilt trip towards the DNR where better event planning could have been done is not an ethical response.
Just my NIMBY opinion.
Question: If these fishermen (many local who fish for fun often on the river) would have kept 3-6 fish per day with family or a friend in the boat, would the river be less effected? If they go out tomorrow and would (or any of you) keep a few 20″ walleyes (“3 lb. average”) will you still be on here showing concern?
As a pioneer of walleye tournament fishing, I am always confused when this stuff comes up. I got blasted at a tourney years back for killing 6 fish one day but was told by the same person keeping limits for 3 the next day when “fun’ fishiing was okay.
’nuff said by me here. Please enlighten me?
I cannot speak for other fun fisherman, but I have only kept (1) 17″ walleye for a dinner this year and the last few years it was none. This was not a fun fishing day for a few local anglers. It was an all out assault on the current prime spawning population of the fishery by people highly skilled in doing so. The 3+ lb average is only that. There were plenty of 5+ lb fish removed. The winning team had a 5.8 lb average.
Hard as it sounds, long as they kept their legal amount of fish, they did nothing wrong. The law is the law, whether a guy catches 6 10 lbers and puts them to the knife or keeps 6 15 inchers and puts them to the knife–all the same, all legal fish. I hear your pain, but your confusing your subjective, personal ethics with the legal right to keep fish—tournament of not.
Tournaments will evolve (look at AIM), but long as they did not break the law, they did nothing wrong—-it just was not right in your eyes. Your opinion is fine, we all have one. 
Why not more of the AIM style (C.P.R.) tournaments? Protects the fishery and works for them.
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They could also plan the event before June 1 so as to avoid the harvest rules.
Or run it out of the Wi side of the river.
The MWC could or should have imposed it’s own tourney rule such as only one over XX inches to limit the kill. Lot of ways to avoid the bad press on these summer tourneys.
-J.
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I cannot speak for other fun fisherman, but I have only kept (1) 17″ walleye for a dinner this year and the last few years it was none. This was not a fun fishing day for a few local anglers. It was an all out assault on the current prime spawning population of the fishery by people highly skilled in doing so. The 3+ lb average is only that. There were plenty of 5+ lb fish removed. The winning team had a 5.8 lb average.
I find it quite hilarious that the same people who supposedly strive for CPR, and especially releasing all of the big females on pool 4 in the spring….have absolutely no problem with killing all those big fish this weekend.
Hypocrisy at it’s finest…
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I cannot speak for other fun fisherman, but I have only kept (1) 17″ walleye for a dinner this year and the last few years it was none. This was not a fun fishing day for a few local anglers. It was an all out assault on the current prime spawning population of the fishery by people highly skilled in doing so. The 3+ lb average is only that. There were plenty of 5+ lb fish removed. The winning team had a 5.8 lb average.
I find it quite hilarious that the same people who supposedly strive for CPR, and especially releasing all of the big females on pool 4 in the spring….have absolutely no problem with killing all those big fish this weekend.
Hypocrisy at it’s finest…
Your reply missed the mark. I’m sure all of the participants wanted a live release format. The Minnesota DNR mandates the kill. I see no hypocrisy.
-J.
Voice your opinions to the MNDNR, WDNR, FLW and MWC–these changes can occur, just have to go thru the proper channels.
More is known now than ever on the mortality,stress,etc.-so, your points are valid—but, are totally invalid if subjective and point fingers for fingers sake. There are many issues in bass and walleye tourneys that can be cleared up with the format that AIM uses, this being one of them. The age of having to bring fish to the stage for entertainment value is going away-sure, I’ll agree it’s nice to see live fish but it’s not the end all it once was.
Call ’em up or write them a letter-enough people do it and they will change.
Pugs, nothing better than smoked muskie! 
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Call ’em up or write them a letter-enough people do it and they will change.
X2 Doc!
Last time I checked name calling and bashing fellow anglers, some of whom you have never met or know what proactive measures they have taken to try and better the situation at hand has never changed a DNR ruling…Just a thought.
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Call ’em up or write them a letter-enough people do it and they will change.
X2 Doc!
Last time I checked name calling and bashing fellow anglers, some of whom you have never met or know what proactive measures they have taken to try and better the situation at hand has never changed a DNR ruling…Just a thought.
if the partisapents of these tournaments were to boycott a tourmament with this format how quick do you think it would change?
I’m not going to say which way is right or wrong, but I cant see taking that many fish out of a system. I have only started to fish all of P4 in the last few years and it is awesome! I drive 3hrs just to fish it. I used to fish tournaments off and on and also have fished a catch kill. I think there could have been a better effort made by the DNR to take fish to a near by hatchery or maybe make a man made rearing pond to monitor and release the healthy? I do not have the answer and not bashing the guys fishing the tournament at all. I just think the DNR needs to stop and think how this really will affect the system in the next year or two? There will always be a mortality to the fish but not 100% like this weekend. This just my 2 cents
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I just think the DNR needs to stop and think how this really will affect the system in the next year or two? There will always be a mortality to the fish but not 100% like this weekend. This just my 2 cents
Keep in mind that these tournaments and its participants bring in a ton of money to the local economies and are normally welcomed by the communities they visit. Kill tournaments are definetly not good PR, and most tournament circuits understand that and try to avoid them as much as possible.
My point is that I wish the DNR would change this ruling in order to allow these circuits to do the right thing and put these fish back in to the water they were caught from. They have the technology to release these fish, they just need the OK to do so.
Even if they were to only get 20%, 30%, or 40% survival rate, isn’t that better than 0%? I don’t understand the rule, was the date picked to discourage tourneys after June 1?
ET
Everyone has their own vested interest in the subject, myself included. I do not particularly like large fishing tournaments, especially where I spend 99.9% of my fishing time. I do however find them interesting in seeing what was caught and how. I have even gone to weigh-ins. I have nothing against professional tournament fisherman either. What I cannot agree with is blaming the DNRs’ rules for the fish kill. More thought certainly could have been put into this. I am all for contacting all parties involved and voicing your displeasure even if no laws were broken.
I could be way off base here but if the pros and especially the local anglers felt this strongly about it,,, they didn’t need to enter the tournament right? Money, sponsors and league aside. They chose to catch and kill the fish right? Writing the DNR is nice but I think the best solution is to not show up.
Tounament my 
That was a slaughter Might just as well been using nets.
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I could be way off base here but if the pros and especially the local anglers felt this strongly about it,,, they didn’t need to enter the tournament right? Money, sponsors and league aside. They chose to catch and kill the fish right? Writing the DNR is nice but I think the best solution is to not show up.
I agree with this. Now on the other hand how do you think killed more walleyes over the weekend. The MWC guys or recreational anglers? Keep in mind the MWC guys only killed 5 per boat. I would bet the recreational fishermen may have killed many 6 fish limits per boat.
It is a shame all those big walleyes had to be killed for this.
Is this the same river that is open to fishing year round? How about they close the season for a period to save those fish?
The river has shown since the beginning of time a resiliency and ability to bounce back. Everybody’s opinion is noted, but you would have a better chance of changing the logging industries practice in Oregon.
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I agree with this. Now on the other hand how do you think killed more walleyes over the weekend. The MWC guys or recreational anglers? Keep in mind the MWC guys only killed 5 per boat. I would bet the recreational fishermen may have killed many 6 fish limits per boat.
I’ll be the first to throw myself under the bus for this one and admit that I took five female walleyes this weekend unfortunately for this tournament. (First walleyes that I have kept all year with over 300 hours logged on the water)
And still I personally feel horrible about it. So much that I was the guy at the weigh station asking if I could keep my fish so I could then sneak them back to the dock and get them back into the water to swim another day.
Could anglers like myself simply quit fishing these types of tournaments?, sure. But I personally feel that the underlying issue relates to the rule in place and that these tournaments can still have a place and be a very minor threat to the fishery if this rule were modified.
Well I have personally written the MWC and Cabelas. I just do not believe that it is the DNRs’ job or responsibility to personally sanction these tournaments on a case by case basis. They are trying to manage the fishery and as such set a date which I am sure was based on average water temperature for that time of year. I may still write them if I change my mind about this. I also understand how badly some of the participating anglers must have felt about this and hope you will voice your concerns with the organizers and rules committees.
I’m not a tourney angler, much less a walleye guy, but isn’t the rule about kill tourneys more for public opinion?
If they could be released and 10% of the caught fish died at the release site, wouldn’t this thread be about the 50 dead 3 pounders found along shore?
Just an outsiders point of view.
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