I was just informed that the state of Illinois is going to waive the slot limit for the FLW Walleye Tour Championship in the Quad Cities. I have mixed feelings about it. Lifting the slot limit is going to make it a very interesting Championship, but on the other hand the slot limit was introduced to protect and strengthen our walleye population. Just my 2 cents. What are yours?
I have to agree with you on the tournament. All the regulations are put in effect to protect the resource and any misuse of it should not be tolerated. I understand the limited effect the tournament has on fish, but to give them the oportunity to forgo rules is not right in my mind.
What about others fishing the same body of water on the same weekend, are they allowed to keep fish out of the slot limit. What is good for one should be good for another, right??? 
Just my $.02.
BG
I know it probably wouldn’t hurt anything but I don’t think it’s fair. If them guys are so damn good, make them stay with the slot. Everyone else has to, no reason they should get special treatment.
In MN here, they don’t lift the slot for anyone.
One guy is the same as the other in the eyes of the law.
That’s like saying: “This guy is a movie star, he should be able to drive 90 mph because he is a movie star.”
I think flw is participating in several studys this year pertaing to release of fish. This may have some thing to do with the reason they lifted the slot. I would bet all fish will be released. I am sure there will be some that dont make it but it would be minimal. They have spent a ton of money on safe realese in years past at the bemiji tourny at the weigh in we had the dnr guys there asking questions, testing the oxygen in the live wells and timing us from the point we put them into the bag untill they got to the release tank. There may be some of the other guys here that can pin point the specifics of there program maybe they will jump in here.
Hey Jay,
I agree with you that the FLW has gone to great measures to insure the health of these fish. One of the things is that the weight-in each day will be held at the Wal-Mart in Moline. It’s only about 10 minutes from Sunset Marina. My concern is that these fish will have been in a live well all day and then tranfered to the weight-in and then transfered back to the river. I would think this would put a great deal of stress on these fish. Since the slot limit was introduced, I have noticed a large population of bigger, healthier fish. I’m not saying that lifting the slot limit is going to have a negative impact on our fishery but the law is the law.
To me, it’s not the issue of fish living or not. It’s the principal of it. These guys should not be able to bend the law in order for them to have big tournament weights.
Come on, these guys are supposed to be good, they should be able to find some slots. They are probably pre-fishing for a week, they should have something figured out. Everyone else has to deal with slots, why shouldn’t they?
I know if they did this on Mille Lacs or somewhere else, the public would be pissed. And quite frankly, I wouldn’t blame them. The weights would be huge, but it’s not right.
I would think that it makes the chance of the “Big Fish” not so fun. The slots are there for a reason. People will come to the weigh-ins for 30lbs or 15lbs. Guess the DNR and the State fisheries can be bought. How big are the fines going to be if a slot fish dies….
All I’m trying to get across here is maybe its not big weights there looking for. Dont get me wrong it will look good at the weigh in but a little more research has to be done before we point fingers at flw for buying off the slot limit. There is possably more to it than that. The ill. dept. of nat. resources could be involved in the study too. And if that is the fact, that they did get it raised for simply getting bigger weights then Thats just not rite. Noing this organization I dont think this is the case and I think the fish are top priorty. It is sad to see the weigh ins 10 min. away from the marina.
Tony, As you know these are our home waters, I have mixed feelings about no slot fish. At the weigh-ins last year, I remember commenting ” it would be cool if they dropped the slot fish so these guys will come back”. If you remember last year was a killer year for a big fish an alot of fish.And come tourney time the fishing got tough. It’s been a tough year with low water and high water temps. I am really glad were getting the flw back, I like going out an watching them fish,talking to them at the ramps,gas stations, hotels. 95% of them were awesome to talk with, some of the places they fish,an catch them is like going to school for 2-3 weeks. It is true that the slot is the law, that we must fish by, but if lifting the slot limits brings the tour pros in to town,( spending huge sums of money ) and they take all precations to release the fish alive and healthly, I’m OK with it. just my thoughts, Ron
I would have to think the slot is waived only for the 2 days of the tournament and only for the FLW fisherman. They will attempt to release all fish 
live back into the system. It is not unusual to see slots waived for a big money tourney to come to a local area and spend money at the local level. Let’s just hope they keep them alive for release. What does Iowa have to say? Which state is having the weigh in? IL. or Iowa? I only want to say I LOVE the Mississippi.
Iowa would not waive the slot limit for the 4 day event that is why the anglers can only fish Illinois waters. All the weigh-ins are going to be at the Wal-Mart in Moline IL.
The revenues generated by the 50 top teams is only going to be a shadow of last years 200+ teams. It should prove interesting.
I hate to stir the pot …. 
naw I don’t. I don’t think this exception to the law is being done for the FLW but rather for the Quad Cities area. As the Manufacturing plants (case ,Farmall Caterpiller ect ) have closed their doors in the last few years, the cities have looked elsewhere for revenue and job possibilities , keying on tourisum and the Mississippi river, aggresive cities like Moline have went out and landed national events , like the FLW Championship. With the anoucement of 1500 jobs being cut from the Rock Island Arsenal ( The second largest employer in the Quad Cities) I,m sure the Manufacturing comunity’s fate is obvious, making it even more important to insure events like the FLW are as succsesful as possible.
The FlW has a good record of live release,and with many less boats involved this year, I think it is a reasonable step to insure a good turnout and succseful tournament. The pros fishing this certainly don’t need special rules to catch fish, they are here because they can catch fish under the worst conditions, but the sponsers and the FLW are putting up a huge amount of money and deserve a “Good Show”, It will have almost no effect on the fish population here and if all of the final five have a limit it will make a great end to a event that will bring in huge $$$ to a area that could use the national publicity.
“My Two Cents”
Well said mr Carnes well said.
You hit the nail right on the head Tony. Here’s the story.
Fishing invasion ready to hit Q-C again
FLW Outdoors Director of Walleye Operations, Mark Dorn, right, and Sonny Reynolds, Walleye Tour Tournament Director for FLW Outdoors stand in front of a fishing boat at a press conference at the Holiday Inn in Moline Thursday afternoon. The press conference was held to announce the upcoming Wal- Mart FLW Walleye Tour championship that will be held in the Quad-Cities Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.
Last fall, starting in early September and extending into early October, the Quad-Cities was invaded by fishermen and their boats. Some 440 walleye anglers were here to compete in the 2004 WalMart RCL Walleye Championship. The Q-C was buzzing as sightings of the colorful boats became commonplace around the community.
The 2005 invasion is about to begin as anglers will be descending on our stretch of the Mississippi River to again determine who will be this year’s walleye champs.
“There are a number of changes for 2005,” Mark Dorn, director of walleye operations for FLW Outdoors, said at a Moline Holiday Inn press conference on Thursday. “First, the name of our walleye tour has changed — we are now known as the WalMart FLW Walleye tour.
“Second, last year we had 220 boats and 440 competitors in the championship. They qualified from our tour and other sanctioned tours and tournaments, and they paid an entry fee to be in the championship.
“This year, we will have a true championship, with 50 professionals and 50 co-anglers who all qualified from our tour and who will not pay an entry fee for the championship.
“The other major change will be that the tournament will be held only in Illinois waters of the Mississippi River. Last year, the anglers reported catching a lot of fish in the slot limit and had to be released. This year the Illinois DNR has issued an exemption for the tournament so that any fish over 15 inches can be weighed-in. I’m sure the DNR recognized that of the 600 fish that were weighed in last year, only about a dozen were not released due to mortality.”
The slot length limit imposed on the Mississippi River last year restricted walleye to be kept must be between 15 and 20 inches long; all walleye 20 to 27 inches must be released immediately and one walleye over 27 inches may be kept per angler per day.
“We’re delighted to have another national fishing championship held here in the Quad-Cities,” said Joe Taylor, president and CEO of the QC Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Our relationship with FLW Outdoors is very strong and dates back to 1998. This is their third national championship here and we always look forward to working with them.
“In addition to the huge positive direct and indirect economic impact of the tournament that will be felt here in the Quad-Cities, the media exposure we will receive is priceless. The tournament will be shown on national television, showcased in national magazines and featured on countless newspapers across the country.
The $650,000 purse championship will be held Sept. 28-Oct. 1, with anglers starting the day at Sunset Marina, Rock Island. Weigh-ins will be held all four days at the Moline WalMart starting at 5 p.m. The professional champ will win up to $125,000 and the top co-angler up to $22,000.
The only problem is that moves like this create tremendous and lasting divisions between regular anglers and tournament fisherman. It’s a horribly short sighted move. A few bucks now traded for a whole new crop of people that resent tournaments.
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Well said mr Carnes well said.
I can see both sides. Im one of those guys that try too look at the benifits and downfalls of both sides and the constructive results from both sides. On the side of keeping the slots i can see where everyone is coming from when they say why should those walleye tounament guys get to keep those fish. My belief is thier not keeping those fish, they have to return them just like anybody else would, I agree thier able to put them in thier live wells and take them to the weighin but what im getting at is what for?, not to take home and clean never to be returned to the water. Im one of those guys that wish i was fishing the tournament and can’t because im not that good of a walleye fisherman. Im one of those guys on the river returning them too, these tournament guys have to return them to the water at the weigh in but thier returning them to the water too and not keeping them to harm the resource. My justafication is when it comes to all the tournament fishermen bringing those walleyes in your bound to loose just a few, very few probably. So to me because of the amount of money those fisherman and other fisherman that are there to watch the results, is it worth risking the monatary benifits and other positive results because of the loss of a very small percentage of walleyes. Does the loss of $75,000 in revenues justify the saving of a few walleyes, I haven’t completely made my mind up yet, but so far the benifits of the lifting would be better for next years tournament, im remembering that those walleyes are to be returned and would be. I can also see a rule that i think almost everybody could agree on to be for every fish thats lost to dieing the flw or walleye oranization would give the state where it was caught enough money to replace that fish with lets say a 500 to 1000 walleye fingerlings. Compensate a system for its use for the benifit of the local commerce? With the fingerling compensation the local fishery where those walleyes came from might benifit more in the long run of say 50 walleyes out of the 500 too 1000 fingerlings in a period of two years verses the loss of 3 or 4 at the tournament time weighin. 50 walleyes for compensation verses the loss of 3 to 4 in a two year period? You can see where im going with this. If the public knew that for everyfish lost the local state where the fish was caught would be compensated for the loss and gain more fish in the long run i feel that a few people, maybe many, would change thier minds if the whole tournament, local fishery and the local commerces would benefit. We’ed end up with more walleyes in the long run because of compensation of the walleye losses.
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