what happens to the fish and the fishery

Hi all I was just wondering what others thought or know about what happens to the fish and fishery during river tournaments. I have fished a few so I am guilty too. I have been fishing some of my favorite bass spots the last few weekends only to find another tournament going on. This is the 3rd one in three weeks. What happens to the fish when they are pulled from there normal spawning beds and pulled up or down river a pool or two. Over those three weeks there were atleast a dozen boats in there each weekend. If each one of those boats pulled 3 or 4 fish out of that spot and ran them up river through the locks they are absolutely displacing these fish. And the fish they are displacing are not the small ones they are the 2.5 to 5 pounders if not bigger. At the beginning of the year I was having no problem catching bigger fish but now it seems after every tournament the number and quality of the fish is going down. What kind of impact will this have on a fishery. a dozen boats 4 fish each 3 weeks in a row if my math does not fail me thats 144 quality bass out of one little spot. I know these fish are released but a don’t think they are running some of them back down through the dams to the other pools. I posted this in the bass tournament forum as well.

Back in 91 I fished a tourney Mid-May on Minnetonka.It was granted a variance by the DNR and people from the U of M were there.They had each boat tag one of their larger fish and mark on the map where it was caught.They implanted tracking devices in a selected number of fish.In Sept. they repeated this process at the State Tourney,also on Tonka.I believe they found that the fish dispersed more in the spring with some traveling several miles back to where they were caught.In the fall they stayed closer to the release sight.I realize,this is not the river.

I’ve always had problems with bass tournaments during spawning season for this reason. One tournament alone won’t cause havok in the fishery, but multiple tournaments in a row is cause for concern.

The biggest problem I see is that tournament directors/planners want the biggest catches available for a given body of water. The easiest time to have that happen is during the spawn since the fish are so accessable. Sheesh, look at what B.A.S.S. does for it’s tournaments. Many are scheduled to coincide with the spawns on different lakes. Very, very, very bad.

The multiple big tournaments could be moved into the fall. Similar weather patterns and then you don’t mess with the spawning cycle as much.

The bass fishers are getting better every year with the sharing of information via the Internet and other means. I’m seeing more and more limits caught in tournaments. The fishers are now much more able and willing to target the bigger fish. I don’t mind it the rest of the year, but spawning season tournaments should be more restricted.

I don’t know what weigh ins you have been to this spring so far but the ones I’ve been at have had awful catches. It has so much more to do with the weather and water levels for catches and not the tournament directors trying to put a tournament on when it will be good fishing. I’m sure most tournament directors are just happy to get their permit. And there are so many more fish out there than you would think. We don’t catch em’ all. I think the fishing has gotten better and better over the years and the fish will be just fine even if we transplant a few. Remember, it works both ways. Some fish get hauled up and some get hauled down. For the most part it really probably evens out.

I brought this up last year. I think they should not have the tourneys during the spawn. I have no proof but I think the smaller fish are the ones that end up spawning when they take the big females away from their beds.

I agree and feel this happens both for Walleye as well as Bass Tourneys. They should limit the fishing to just one pool, that way the fish are at least released back to that pool. I know fish migrate, yada yada yada, but I am quite certain most of them just find a new home wehre they are released. Its not like “Homeward bound” where the dogs find their way home. I am not sure fish “know” how to get home after being transported around all day in a live well.
I know the Big Walleye tourney in Stoddard two weeks ago had 570 entrants. Of that number 128 people registered fish, They take the fish and put them in a huge livewell they have. After weigh in is over every one of them is released between Stoddard and Brownsville. Most of them were not caught anywhere near there. Once again, this could all be eliminated if the tourneys were limited to just one pool.

I agree with you that they don’t pull the rope, wait for the green light the lock through but like I said there is so many tournaments that go out of here and go out of there and what is taken here is put back there by the next tournament. I would bet to say that it comes out nearly equal. And if the DNR is issuing these permits I would say they have done their homework and its probably ok.

My point is no certain pool even slightly seems to be “fished out”, if thats what your getting at.

Hey Buzz! Good to see you on this board, too with the same issues as the wmi board. I agree with all. They should be limiting to just one pool and those fish get released in that pool. I know the KFAN, the Everstarts and BFLs have all made attempts to do this. And I also have to agree that it hasn’t affected the fishery at all (in pools 3,4 and5 anyway). I have yet to fish the river this spring for bass (except on P2) but from the reports I’ve seen it’s doing well. Seems to get better every year.

*Summer tourneys seem to have more fish morality for obvious reasons and maybe that’s why we don’t see those anymore on the river. Plus it could be worse…we could be killing all the fish like the wallleye tourney guys have to do.

One of the comments I saw was that the tournaments target the spawning season in order to get heavier weights. While this sounds good, it simply isn’t true. If you go out to Classicbass.com, you can see a list of the MN tournaments scheduled this year. There are are 21 for May, 43 for June, 42 for July, 55 for August, 20 for Sept. and 5 for Oct. What is true is that in May about the only place a MN tournament can be held is on the River, since the inland season doesn’t open until the end of May. And as someone who has been fishing bass tournaments for the last 10 years as an AM in a couple of the Pro/Am circuits, I can tell you weather plays a big part in deciding when to have a tournament. When a tournament date is being planned, the people running the show want to have the maximum number of people show up, and if the weather is likely to be bitter cold, you aren’t likely to the numbers you want. Otherwise you would see a lot more tournaments in late Sept & Oct, when the big fish are out there chowing down for the coming winter. And of course there is hunting season to consider, so later in the fall isn’t considered too desirable.

AAHHH the great bass tournament debate rises again. first of all if the DNR really saw a huge problem in fish being realesed in a different pool then they wouldnt let it happen. second the tourney dates have always been set up for the best possible weather for that month. I mean come on people with the way this spring has been do you really think the tournaments are pulling the majority of bass off beds. whats the water temp up to know 54 to 58 degrees. I bet there are very few if any bass on beds. the mississippi is the single best fisherie in this whole darn state, better than the next three combined when you compare acreage and fish population. you cant find 1 biologist,game warden,or the majority if fisherman both recreational and tournament that will say that the ol’ miss isnt turning out more and bigger fish than EVER befor. Look at the DNR surveys, Look at the reports. HECK look at the tourney winning weights!! if this body of water was being negativly impacted by years and years of tournament fishing WHY does it take 53 pounds to win a tournament that used to take 40 pounds to win. or is the REAL complaint that someone was in your spot. if thats the case we all have to do a better job of finding a way to share our great states water since it is no more, or less yours than it is mine. cant we ALL try to find a way to better get along. thank you for your time.
corey waller “wallerbass1”

Amen to that

Just playing devil’s advocate here and my knowledge of bass is pretty limited so I may be way off base. When fish are pulled off their beds, will they completely abandon that spawning cycle or will they attempt to re-establish themselves in an area to dump the eggs?? Seems like this would have a negative affect on a pre-spawn females. Let alone the stress of riding in a bass boat at 70 mph getting the crap kicked out of you. Seems natural to assume a lot of stress on the fish. I’m woandering if there has been any telemitry studies done on this??

I undertand the fishery may be as strong as it’s ever been, but it wasn’t only a few short days ago a guy was getting scolded for keeping the breeding stock. Seems kind of hypocrytical considering what the bass are subjected to by tournaments.

Don’t blast me, just educate me.

Im not trying to blast anyone we all have our opinions. but sometimes people let opinions get in the way of facts. yes the DNR has done studies on the effects of tournaments on spawning fish these are all available from the DNR as public information. if you have trouble getting them I would be glad to assist, as i do have a connection with the director of metro fisheries.in a nut shell it is all timing with the fish and the tourney. now we all know not all of the fish in a population go to the beds at the same time fish are individuals too. water temp and level play a huge part in the movement along with weather conditions and moon phase. if a fish is in the middle of active spawning “dumping eggs” and is removed from the area she probably will not re-nest. but if she is in preperation for the spawn and is removed from the nest she probably WILL re-nest and finish DUTY as a female “womans lib better not read that part”. Now you will notice I never said she left because she was caught and the reason for that is because there and WAY bigger factors that would have a much larger effect on the sucess of the spawn in a given year. For example if the majority of a population is getting ready to “dump eggs” and say the weather turns to CRAP with way below normal temps or dramatically falling or rising water levels the majority of those fish (now we are talking in the thousands or tens of thousands) are going to pull off the beds and and we are going to get a bad spawn that is fact. someone used 144 fish off one spot in this thread, now that sounds like an out of the ballpark number but lets us it as a worst case senario. that would mean that 50% so 72 of those fish were female and 50% so 36 of those fish were ready to “dump eggs” and say 50% so 18 of those fish were brought to scale. (lets also remember that based on the water temps so far this year the bass have only come in to the pre-spawn stages of the cycle.) But we are using worst case senario so it would seem to me that the weather,water temp,level and flow would have a much bigger impact on the fisherie than 20 tournaments, AND the ol’miss just keeps on CHUGGING along and putting out more and bigger fish than ever befor. what we should be concerning ourselves with is protecting spwaning grounds from dredging,pollution, siltation,and other habitat distruction. its like all other creatures in the world deer and ducks for example give them a good place to live and they will do the rest, and they will do a DANG GOOD job at it. we harvest millions more deer than ever befor, and because they have a good place to live we have more and bigger deer. if we continue to clean up rivers and protect habitat and spawning grounds from destruction ol’ miss and any other body of water for that matter like keep making more and bigger fish regardless of recreational or tournament fishing. thank you for your time. Corey Waller “wallerbass1” 651-214-8875

Thanks man! I don’t have an opinion on this, simply because of my lack of knoweldge when it comes to bass. I know they are a much more resilient that the eyes are, and that’s about it for my knowledge. Thanks for sharing the info.

Wallerbass1 said alot,but here is one thing to add,MN,has a closed season on bass,by opener of bass fishing it is expected 80% of MN,lakes and rivers will have spawened out for bass,in other words they cannot perdict the spawn,so it is impossible to schedule an event around the spawn.
If it so happens there are two large events that hit the prime of spawn the relacation of fish is so small compared to the eco-system.[An angler will never fathom how many fish there are in an healthy eco-system,no matter how fragile the system is.]
As I posted in another fourm anglers are giveing relocation of fish and the impacts to much credit to a very small group of anglers.
Bass fishing keeps getting better and better in MN.