wow, now that is a fish of a lifetime!!!!!!!
I would not be surprised to see a new state record prespawn female come out of that system.
Think the biggest issue now with that system is fish being caught off beds or during prespawn and hauled miles away in a livewell to a weigh-in. These fish essentially will not spawn, beds are killed due to gobies and in the long term will promote less-smaller bass. Last year, was a real bummer to go by many, many empty beds due to fish being removed and hauled miles away. Essentially, when we would catch one, you’d release it and back it would go, down to it’s bed and life would go on. Would be so simple for tournaments, such as the Sturgeon Bay Open to progress to a Catch, Record, Release format that AIM uses–for fish pics, take the hero shot and put on the web. For this time of year it makes complete sense and is the good of the fishery.
Really, bringing fish back to the scale and holding them up for a few locals in the crowd to see? Think AIM has this one licked—heck, we even are using it for our local walleye league. It floors me that the biggest proponents of catch and release (bass guys) have been SO SLOW at doing this–as I bet many have pits in their stomachs knowing the fish in their livewell is no longer going to be able to spawn and it’s bed is being riddled by gobies.