Outdoor News June 22, 2012 by Tim Lesmeister
http://www.outdoornews.com/June-2012/Those-Tournaments-are-Still-Killing-Fish/
“All the fish died from delayed mortality.”
Do Plastic bag weigh-ins have a place in today’s tournaments, esp. during summer months. When Ray Scott first got the idea of C/R clubs and tourney’s quickly went to wash tubs and plastic bags. But we know so much more now and have many alternatives. Time to move the needle ahead and into the this Century.
Tim Lesmeister and his PETA friends need to get a life and
leave real people alone. He found some study somewhere and that makes it fact and then he goes on to state that all the fish died. He is grasping to make his argument. Here is a news flash for him—-fillet knives kill fish. Why is he not out there protesting the making of fillet knives??? I would bet you that nowhere near all the fish died that he saw and it is a pretty good bet they had a better chance of living than if they had all been filleted. It is sad when fishermen fight among themselves and gives the Antis more ammunition to wage their battle against us. I guess I am stretching the facts calling this Lesmeiter guy a fisherman but I will give him the benefit of the doubt—which is more than he gave the tourney guys he witnessed that day 
You know I like the Rednecks (you and Jr), but I think you are over reacting a little bit. He is not anti-tourney.
He also said as much that he’d prefer that if the fish are dyeing that he’d prefer they get filleted and sent to a food shelf.
He is advocating that tourneys use an oxygen system for the bags. I can’t say I disagree, especially when these tourneys want to advocate catch and release and keeping the fishery healthy. If that is the case they should strive to constantly update their means of keeping fish alive from catch, to weigh-in, to release.
Is he shilling for the company for some reason? I don’t know. He says he’s not, but who really knows? I don’t care if he owns the company, as long as it takes another step in reducing mortality.
Is it feasible and cost affective for clubs? That I don’t know.
Sure, we can always rationalize anything by pointing out a greater good or harm. So what? The topic is about holding up to eight large bass in a plastic bag with less then 1-2 gallons of water for an extended period of time (5-15 minutes). And sure we can legal kill X number of fish. So what? The issue is C/R not catch and kill. Paper tournaments, water weigh-ins, bag aeration are all with-in even the smallest events ability.
Everyone wants to point at a greater harm, which is just a good way to avoid dealing with the problems.
Every single participant in any bass tournament in Minnesota has the right to keep 6 fish. That means 12 fish per boat for most tourneys. That is their RIGHT by state LAW.
Fact of the matter is, most tournaments have a self imposed six fish limit. Most tournaments practice catch and release and do it as effeciently as they are able.
Even if half the fish die, the impact is positive because that means the participants took less they allowed BY LAW. Another way to look at is they saved half of the fish they caught. LEGALLY.
Catch and release is an ETHIC, not a requirement. I prefer to catch and release and take great care with my fish to return them in a state that helps insure their survival. That is my CHOICE. My MORAL code compels me to do so.
My MORAL code also prevents me from FORCING my ETHICs on others. I believe that as long as others follow the LAW they they have a RIGHT to do as they see fit. Apparently Mr. Lestmeister doesn’t follow MY MORAL code. He perfers to FORCE his ETHICS on others, and force them to buy a product that he likes and is invested in.
I would pefer Mr. Lesmeiter mind his own business and stay out of mine. Last time I checked our bass population was healthy and judging from my six fish, 20.15 lbs BAG on Pelican on Saturday they bass aren’t in trouble.
By the way, I released all fish alive and well and I’ll bet money not all of them died.
I got a thick skin Pug and I like you too—-in a redneck sort of way 
I am just tired of everyone piling on tournaments. To say all those fish died is a gross exageration. I am not saying all the fish lived but I would bet you more fish lived than died and that is better than the odds if they had filleted them. Tournaments are such a small part of the overall picture but they are a lightning rod for the Antis and so when other fishermen start piling on then it seems like it is just crazy. All walleye tournaments in Minnesota this time of year are catch and kill by law but on the rare occasions when I have fish to weigh in i have been known to accidently drop them back in while trying to get them back to my fillet knife. They swim away and I am betting most live to bite another day. In my old and not so good eyesight it sure looks like fishermen keep finding ways to fight among ourselves instead of pulling together. Maybe tournaments kill some fish but so do people who catch them to eat but you do not see tournament guys get up on the podium and bad mouth the guys looking for a meal. If I went over the line then I am sorry but it is a touchy subject for me. Some of the best fishermen—and nicest guys—- I have ever met have been the ones kicking my butt in tournaments. They are good guys and stewards of our resource and they get painted with a villians hat way too often.
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Tim Lesmeister and his PETA friends need to get a life and
leave real people alone. He found some study somewhere and that makes it fact and then he goes on to state that all the fish died. He is grasping to make his argument. Here is a news flash for him—-fillet knives kill fish. Why is he not out there protesting the making of fillet knives??? I would bet you that nowhere near all the fish died that he saw and it is a pretty good bet they had a better chance of living than if they had all been filleted. It is sad when fishermen fight among themselves and gives the Antis more ammunition to wage their battle against us. I guess I am stretching the facts calling this Lesmeiter guy a fisherman but I will give him the benefit of the doubt—which is more than he gave the tourney guys he witnessed that day
…..x2..and thats all i got to say,dont want to P O the BIG CITY KIDS AGAIN .rrr
I am no inventor. But it seems simple enough to come up with a portable cart that contains a oxygenated tank that can be wheeled boat side, fish removed from live well to cart then wheeled to weigh-in site. quickly weighed and returned to aerated cart. i don’t have much interest in tournements but I don’t have any beef with them either. seems like this would be a good way to preserve the fish.
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If I went over the line…
No you didn’t. And I am pro tournaments. I am even pro people keeping and eating bass if that makes them happy.
The only real lecturing I like doing is promoting selective harvest.
Part of the problem with these new fangled computers is that what a person types and what he means to say is not always the same. I am guessing if all of the guys in this discussion were sitting around drinking cold ice teas and talking about this we would all be civil and share some of our ideas and it would in no way get heated. I am betting even if this Leistmeister fellow was in the group there would be no lynchings or gunplay I just don’t understand how he can be out driving around and stop into a harmless little bass tournament and then walk away from a bunch of ====I am betting anyway==== nice guys and go home and blast them for what they were doing. If I took off driving in my car and ended up in downtown Minneapolis and wandered into a club full of young adults drinking and listening to a band play their type of music I might not enjoy the experience. It would never cross my mind to suggest the club be shut down because the music is damaging their ears and obviously there is more drinking going on than I approve of. They would be breaking no—or very few —laws and I might not go back but it is their right to enjoy what they enjoy. I am guessing the bass tournament he stopped at was not breaking any laws but he felt compelled to write a whole article about it when he should have obviously been writing about the dangers of the new remove your plug law
FYI Tim Lesmeister is a member of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Awards Committee, co-host of Outdoors talk radio AM 1130, he is a tournament angler and has fished many of the Pro circuits. This doesn’t make his opinions any smarter then, say mine – but he is not an outsider looking in.
Hmmmm Why has the phrase “It is better than catching and filleting them” have to do with the discussion at hand. It sounds like it is a felony committed on the bass population. The anti bass contesters seem to be quiet. hmmmmm
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FYI Tim Lesmeister is a member of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Awards Committee, co-host of Outdoors talk radio AM 1130, he is a tournament angler and has fished many of the Pro circuits. This doesn’t make his opinions any smarter then, say mine – but he is not an outsider looking in.
…..and his blog is basically an advertisement for the Oxygenator??? Wonder if he would get a kickback if every tournament angler were “Required” to use the product as he argues for???
-J.
If I were a bass guy, I imagine I’d probably raise quite a stink about this. Until they dramatically change the way that they do the weigh in, and decrease the mortality rates, I’d just as soon not have Bass tourneys. Am I anti-tournament, No I’m not, but it seems to me that someone who truly appreciated the species would not be ok with “only half of them dying”.
Fortunately for me, Im not a bass guy… 
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Im not a bass guy…
I think if you were, you would understand the writer of this blog grossly overstates the mortality of these fish at bass tourneys.
-J.
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If I were a bass guy, I imagine I’d probably raise quite a stink about this. Until they dramatically change the way that they do the weigh in, and decrease the mortality rates, I’d just as soon not have Bass tourneys. Am I anti-tournament, No I’m not, but it seems to me that someone who truly appreciated the species would not be ok with “only half of them dying”.
Fortunately for me, Im not a bass guy…
Maybe we should all stop fishing completely. There is too much risk involved.
Unfortunately it isn’t black and white.
He probably stopped at a little club tourney. These guys aren’t out there fishing with jerseys and boats covered with sponsors. There is no large crowd, PA systems and jumbotron. This is a bunch of guys who enjoy fishing competitively and wagering an entry fee to do it once in a while. To me I say let them have their fun. If a few fish die in the process, well that is life.
I don’t know all the DNR rules around clubs and their tourneys, but there is a limit, something like 25 boats, before you have to start paying fees and get a license. So if there are 25 boats X 2 fishermen and a limit of 5 (most tourneys are 4-5 limit so you can legally cull), that’s 250 bass on an exceptional day. Half die. That’s 125 bass out of a population of how many on Minnetonka (in this case)?
A blog for Oxgenator makes me laugh. A few years back while waiting to weigh walleyes in at a FLW League Tournament on Lake Bemidgi, the DNR did a study on air saturation in the livewells of boats. Well my livewell had one of the highest concentrated air content, natural lake water, no ice or chemicals. My friend had an oxgenator in his livewell and he had one of the lowest air concentrations. So the point I am making is just keeping the fish supplied with a natural air supply coming from the lake the fish lives in, ie water, should be all the fish needs. Having too many people standing in line with fish in bags without fresh water moving is not a good thing. I dont believe in the Oxgenator or any of the miracle in the bottle fish formulas that claim they can keep fish alive. Natural water from the lake they live in is the best way to keep a fish alive in my opinion. 
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FYI Tim Lesmeister is a member of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Awards Committee, co-host of Outdoors talk radio AM 1130, he is a tournament angler and has fished many of the Pro circuits. This doesn’t make his opinions any smarter then, say mine – but he is not an outsider looking in.
Lets just guess how many of those tourneys he has fished in where he has placed his linit in those same bags as he discussed in the story. I don’t know where he got his data but I don’t think it is real accurate. They have tagged fish at weigh in’s and follwed the motality rate of these fish after release, the mortality rate was rather low – Like 10-15%. Do I think fishermen and tournments can do a better job sometimes – Yes. But most of the tourneys I’ve attended have done a great job of getting the fish from the livewell to the weigh in scale and back into the lake rather well.
I think the point you are forgetting here is that the tournament brings a lot of anglers together, that I think would probably not all be on that same lake each trying to take 6 fish if they weren’t in the tourney. Fishing tournaments pressure lakes and fisheries.
If the tournament organizers can do something better to increase the mortality rates of fish being released after catch and weigh-in, that is a positive thing.
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Every single participant in any bass tournament in Minnesota has the right to keep 6 fish. That means 12 fish per boat for most tourneys. That is their RIGHT by state LAW.
Fact of the matter is, most tournaments have a self imposed six fish limit. Most tournaments practice catch and release and do it as effeciently as they are able.
Even if half the fish die, the impact is positive because that means the participants took less they allowed BY LAW. Another way to look at is they saved half of the fish they caught. LEGALLY.
Catch and release is an ETHIC, not a requirement. I prefer to catch and release and take great care with my fish to return them in a state that helps insure their survival. That is my CHOICE. My MORAL code compels me to do so.
My MORAL code also prevents me from FORCING my ETHICs on others. I believe that as long as others follow the LAW they they have a RIGHT to do as they see fit. Apparently Mr. Lestmeister doesn’t follow MY MORAL code. He perfers to FORCE his ETHICS on others, and force them to buy a product that he likes and is invested in.
I would pefer Mr. Lesmeiter mind his own business and stay out of mine. Last time I checked our bass population was healthy and judging from my six fish, 20.15 lbs BAG on Pelican on Saturday they bass aren’t in trouble.
By the way, I released all fish alive and well and I’ll bet money not all of them died.
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If I were a bass guy, I imagine I’d probably raise quite a stink about this. Until they dramatically change the way that they do the weigh in, and decrease the mortality rates, I’d just as soon not have Bass tourneys. Am I anti-tournament, No I’m not, but it seems to me that someone who truly appreciated the species would not be ok with “only half of them dying”.
Fortunately for me, Im not a bass guy…
No one has said it’s ok if half the fish die. You take a phase out of an entire post to make your point but you don’t comment on the context and point that was trying to be made.
I do care about the resource. I do play by the law. I do practice catch and release ethics.
Go ahead, critize, condemn and editorialize about some facet of fishing that you don’t participate in and could care less about if they shut down.
Just remember one day, whatever kind of fishing you do, and the ethics you practice while you do it, won’t be good enough anymore, and it will come under fire too. Maybe people will come onto this website and talk about how maybe you shouldnt be allowed to do it anymore.
As fisherman we are being attacked and targeted daily. Let’s sit around and fight amongst ourselves. Then sooner will be the day we can all sit around an talk about “back in the day” when we used to be allowed to fish.
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If the tournament organizers can do something better to increase the mortality rates of fish being released after catch and weigh-in, that is a positive thing.
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I agree with you 100%. And if the article had been written with an informative tone then I wouldn’t have taken issue with it.
Unfortunately it was not written that way. It was an attack on the cheap, small tourney guy “who obivoulsy doesn’t care about the resource”.
I’m angry because I expected more from Mr. Lesmeister. I thought he was better than petty sterotyping.
Every single one of us can do a better job of being ttewards to the resource. Mr. Lesmeister included. He could have informed rather than attacked and would have stood a better chance of converting some to his ideas instead of alienating those he chose to sterotype.
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Every single participant in any bass tournament in Minnesota has the right to keep 6 fish. That means 12 fish per boat for most tourneys. That is their RIGHT by state LAW.
Fact of the matter is, most tournaments have a self imposed six fish limit. Most tournaments practice catch and release and do it as effeciently as they are able. {clipped}
Excuse me, I don’t want to sound snipy or anything, but did you not mean to say a self imposed 5-Fish Limit.
As 6-fish/Bass is per State Law and if you put 6-bass in your livewell, your done, you cannot keep another bass nor continue fishing for them.
All Tournaments I’ve been in limit you to 5-Bass.
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Every single participant in any bass tournament in Minnesota has the right to keep 6 fish. That means 12 fish per boat for most tourneys. That is their RIGHT by state LAW.
Fact of the matter is, most tournaments have a self imposed six fish limit. Most tournaments practice catch and release and do it as effeciently as they are able. {clipped}
Excuse me, I don’t want to sound snipy or anything, but did you not mean to say a self imposed 5-Fish Limit.
As 6-fish/Bass is per State Law and if you put 6-bass in your livewell, your done, you cannot keep another bass nor continue fishing for them.
All Tournaments I’ve been in limit you to 5-Bass.
You are correct, if it were a one person per boat tourney. The one I fish is a team tourney. There are two anglers per boat. If one doesn’t show up then the rules as you stated would apply. Also if two anglers caught 12 they would be finished for the day. We have two anglers but a 6 fish limit. Sorry for the confusion.
The next thing you know, they are gonna want to stop us from texting while driving….
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Hmmmm Why has the phrase “It is better than catching and filleting them” have to do with the discussion at hand. It sounds like it is a felony committed on the bass population. The anti bass contesters seem to be quiet. hmmmmm
Still no answer. I have two more questions. 1) if you are In a 3 or 4 day contest and you are allowed the possession limit of twelve must you stop fishing until you gift or eat the 12 to be able to keep fishing. 2) In a contest on the Miss. in multiple pools that occurs several times in the open water season how do the several hundred bass return to the high percentage spots they were taken from?
Mr Lesmeister, you are more than welcome to donate an Oxygenater system and tubs to Denny Nelson. His info can be found at dennyssuper30.com. We’ll gladly use one.
Until then…STFU
Bullet you were the first to name Denny’s. Hope he thanks you for the plug.
Not sure if it’s the tournament he’s talking about, if in fact he was even at a tournament. But we use bags, and even though I don’t care much about fish dying, I wouldn’t mind seeing tubs at the weigh-ins. It’d be much easier on my back.
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Not sure if it’s the tournament he’s talking about, if in fact he was even at a tournament. But we use bags, and even though I don’t care much about fish dying, I wouldn’t mind seeing tubs at the weigh-ins. It’d be much easier on my back.
Wow did I read this one correct? “I don’t care much about fish dying” I have another question With a contest on the Miss. What state collects the state income tax on the earnings or does the winner pay his own state the tax?
If I was worried about fish mortality, I would quit fishing period.
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