I don’t know if any of you guys have the real story but if you could check out lake link http://www.lake-link.com/forums/fishingreports/viewposts.cfm?Thread_ID=9687.
It’s seems the tournament guys are being hammered again
Didn’t read all of what was said………….couldn’t take it. Sure makes me appreciate this place though!
Same here. Got about 3 post into it and got sick of the guys ripping on each other and just left.
WOW!!! Like get a life hey. I quit reading all the imature comments. Sure makes me appreciate FTR / FTL all the more. Thanks to everyone one this board for being mature and civilized. It sure makes this board alot of fun when we all are ”not” acting like those guys. 
Thanks, Bill
Bieng a local resident I was very dissapointed with the fish kill… I do not fish tournaments but I do have many friends that do.. I don’t think that this is that common but it sucks when it happens to your home water 
There were a lot of big fish that washed up, I umpire with the conservation warden in pierce county and I will waiting to talk to her and get her take… it will be interesting… on a positive note I really liked the article and reply by the inn-fisherman spokesperson on the issue..
This was in the paper……..
An unusually large number of game fish — nearly 300 walleyes — died following the recent In-Fisherman walleye contest with headquarters in Bay City.
The kill is unfortunate, but the response from tournament officials is refreshing. No excuses, no attempt at a cover-up — just straight talk on what tournament officials acknowledge was a higher than normal fish kill.
A letter-writer raised the issue
earlier this week. And another call came into the R-E. We suspect many people assumed tournament officials would give us the runaround.
Instead, our call was returned promptly and our questions answered: Of the 1,500 walleye released back into the river, 292 died and floated to shore. That kill is in addition to the 200 walleye that anglers determined wouldn’t have survived and subsequently filleted and donated to a food shelf. (492 total dead fish over 15 inches)
Tournament officials still are researching where the weak link; occurred that led to the large number of dead fish. And Jim Kalkofen, executive director of the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail, made clear that the investigation will be thorough. The fact that fish turned up dead — we don;t like that and were going to get to the bottom of it; he said. ;This points to us needing to do a better job.
Warm water temperatures were thought to be a factor in the kill, but Kalkofen said he doesn;t believe that to be the case. Similar conditions were present at another tournament site without any extraordinary number of dead fish.
Officials promise an answer, and that is necessary to have confidence that the tournaments are being run professionally with utmost attention given to the natural resource. But the kill should not detract from the attractiveness of the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin fishery as a tournament site. Red Wing, Lake City and now Bay City have become regular stops for a variety of fishing tournaments in recent years. We look forward to a return of the In-Fisherman walleye tournament in 2005.
Not that it matters, but…
I was a very active participant of that site from its beginning. My participation continued for several years. After many many arguments about the direction the site was taking with the owners, I left because the site had evolved into what you see on that thread. When I discovered FTR, I was quite pleased with the content and the manner with which almost everyone comported themselves. I must also add that I wondered when the degradation would begin. Thankfully, I haven’t seen it, and am confident that all of you, won’t let that happen. I sincerely thank you for the quality of this site.
I have been “fishing” vicariously through you all this summer. I bought a new house and had to get the old one ready to sell and the new one ready to move into. I bought the new one before I have sold the old one. All I can say is this is WAY too much work! Mowing two yards, etc. I think hauling everything back and forth is worse than the work itself.
Anyway, thank you to everyone that makes this the site that it is.
Ill try and get to the point…Will the PWT, I guess better stated , Does the PWT take these situations and disarm them with replacement fish? I hope I am stating this correctly….In other words “do they leave the camp site cleaner when they leave, than it was when they arrived?”
Many tournament circuits make donations to local conservation funds to compensate for any potential impact to the fish stocks caused by the tournaments. I am not certain if this is true of the PWT in this instance.
THE ONLY WAY TO NOT KILL FISH IS TO NOT FIsh??? I don’t intend to stop fishing.
“WHACK EM, STACK EM, AND PACK EM!”…Ted Nuggent
Didn’t read it all…one word WHY???
The PWT will take the fall for this..
The Tournament subs out the work to some Group..??
Should have been the town of Bay City…or whom ever..
Should have been out gathering the Fish..part of the job.
just cause the tourney is over doesn’t mean the work is.
This is the first time the tourney was held there…were all the workers veterns of handling fish or was it there first time too?? Just a question..I’m not attacking anyone..
I do know Handling the fish all the way through the process makes a big difference….
I want it known I think it was a Success…
just want people to know there was alot going on and it will ultimatley be the PWT’s fault.
Just my two cents.
I Do fish tourneys…But things are changing..
I think out of 1500 fish caught and only losing 492 is still damn good numbers… Could have killed them all…
I heard the releasing was done by a group out of Ellsworth called the Funsters. I don’t know much about them doing work with fish. I heard some bad things about how they handled the fish but you know how rumors are.
Wait a minute? 30 percent mortallity on legal size fish in any tournament is not acceptable!( in my mind anyway) I am not against any tourney fishing, be it bass or walleye or cats or ??? But if they loose 30 % 
after the weigh-in I 
will be campaigning for all tournament fishing to be discontinued. 
After all most all tournaments are about the money and if it contributes to a 30 percent elimination/reduction of the species in the legal sizes, then we don’t need it! I would expect the best course of action would be to determine the cause of this loss and then a plan must be implemented to assure it doesn’t happen again. Someone is accountable and I would hope we see an accurate/factual report on what went wrong and what is being done to return the fisherie to pretournament health if possible? Is there a published standard in the appropriate DNR regulations for expected losses as a result of tournament captures? 
Just me ranting. Hope it’s worth more than two cents? 
Lets face it, a Blitz on an area by a number of well equipped experienced fisher persons is not beneficial to that fishery at any time. But Sponsors (money) rule. It is a sad situation.
The tournament trail that I’m currently fishing handles the fish weigh-in a little differently. We bring the fish from our live wells up to the scales in a bag that is provided by the tourney. We then go into the scale area, measure for any short ones then weigh the fish. At that point the anglers release them back into the water themselves. This way, the tournament doesn’t have the responsibility of making sure the fish are brought in healthy. They do have a .25 lb penalty for each fish that isn’t at least gilling when you get it to the scale. 
Steve
skhartke
With all due respect, in my opinion, your tournament trail is still very much responsible for those fish. Or at least they jointly share responsiblity with the participants. They held the event. They chose the waters. The weigh in point. The time of year. Besides that, the real point here is public perception of immediate and delayed mortality attributed to tournaments (why oh why do walleys have to be so darn fragile?) and I can assure you that if 300 walleys washed up on shore following one of your tourneys public opinion would focus the blame on the trail and not on the individual anglers. So from that angle it’s definitely in the best interest of the trail to not only assume responsibility but to really embrace it.
Best regards,
Hey Chitwood..
The standards for the DNR are being written each tournament that happens….
In the begining the limit was 12 fish. 
your best 12 and you ate them…Not many people can catch a limit of legal fish in a short 8 hour period. 
The Minn average is 1 walleye per 8 hours on the water.
Now days we have all kinds of restrictions…
But man has the equipment and boats improved…we have 20 foot boats that will do 70 MPH…
For what purpose make you a better fisherman I think not.
The thing on the tourney they had over 300 people fishing for three days thats a total of 5,400 fish that the state says they can legally have. That total was not meet.
So I think we got by in very good shape with them returning all the fish. Even with a 30 % loss..
Tournaments are here to stay weather we like it or not..it is only going to get larger and larger..
I agree with you on Money does rule…and there is big bucks and ego’s in the fishing industry.
As far as Pool 4 goes it is and has been the best fishery in the Midwest…there aren’t many places that can house every national walleye tournment in the country for three years in a row..and keep producing amazing weights.
I do think we need to regulate the number of tourneys per year on Pool 4 ..not that I think it will hurt the fishery just that I’d like to fish with less boats buzzing about….(in my dreams)…I don’t have a 20 foot boat… later 
There is not a single DNR in the United Stated that bases there daily limits on the assumption that those limits will be filled…Period!…If those limits were filled either in the sport of hunting, and or fishing, our fisheries and habitats would be QUICKLY depleted. So….it is far from correct to throw numbers out like those to rationalize feeling better about a bad situation. There is a place for tourney fishing. I look forward to fishing some tourneys in the future when it becomes a bit more financially viable for myself and my family. BUT being involved in anyway as a participant and or a director bears the responsibility of being EXTREAMLY concenscious of your resourses. All of the great people on this site, and personal friends of my own, would not be adimate about proper fish handeling, selective fish and game harvesting, and catch and release practices, if it was not our responsibilities that we as outdoorsmen bear to ensure that hunting and fishing is kept a enjoyable, and responsible pastime for ourselves and our children. Something went wrong! Restitution should be paid! In any fishery 300+ fish of legal size; lost; is a VERY big deal. “Just my 2cents also”.
I hate seeing a 30% death rate but at the same time if the fisherman were keeping their fish caught, and legally can, like alot of fisherman do, and I’m not saying there something wrong with that, then it would be a 100% death rate. At least they are trying to keep as many fish alive and returned to the water as possible and I have to give them credit for that. I don’t know what went wrong, something did, and I sure hope they find out what and fix the problem. This has never happened before on the PWT and I kind of wonder if the Wisconsin DNR Rule of having to take the fish back out to the open water a ways from the weigh site to release them instead of being able to release them right away didn’t have something to do with it. It adds ALOT more stress to the fish that way. Thanks, Bill
I hope that tournament sponsors will come to realize, that rude participants, fish kills, and squeezing the locals out of the landings, does not promote the product they are advertising. In fact does just the opposite and could encourage boycotts. All these could be corrected without outlawing the tournament — it is just good business to keep the end user happy.
Tournament anglers are major scapegoats for anything that happens. We too are the locals using the ramps, it just so happens we decided to fish a tournament on a certain day.We give the non tournament anglers the right of way at the ramps also. We will help them get launched and get underway. We also treat them the way we would want to be treated on the water.
I do not like to see fish washed up any time. But how about all the deep hooked fish that are killed everyday. I agree that the mortality number is not that bad. Break it down and it would be the same as 14 boats taking a limit of fish per day. That on an average happens everyday on pool 4. The other option at this time would have been a harvest tournament, where all fish would have been donated locally. There are strides being made in the tournament business to eliminate mortality. By all working together and and being concerned about our fisheries I am sure we can reach a 0% mortality.
Quote:
skhartke
With all due respect, in my opinion, your tournament trail is still very much responsible for those fish. Or at least they jointly share responsiblity with the participants. They held the event. They chose the waters. The weigh in point. The time of year. Besides that, the real point here is public perception of immediate and delayed mortality attributed to tournaments (why oh why do walleys have to be so darn fragile?) and I can assure you that if 300 walleys washed up on shore following one of your tourneys public opinion would focus the blame on the trail and not on the individual anglers. So from that angle it’s definitely in the best interest of the trail to not only assume responsibility but to really embrace it.
Best regards,
H2O,
I think we are on the same page. In some of the tournaments that I have fished, they keep the fish in a big holding tank, or holding area. The tournament that I am fishing now thinks the best way that a fish can survive is to return it to it’s ‘normal’ water asap. I think I may have mispoken when I said that the trail doesn’t have any responsibility. I think they have embraced their responsibility through the fact that they release the fish immediately after weigh-in, they penalize for any dead fish. Also, one thing I forgot to mention, they will allow any angler to weigh in fish early if they feel that it would allow the fish to live.
I think any tournament trail’s mentality should be that whatever would keep the most fish alive is best. I’m not sure why holding tanks, or holding pens are necessary. The tourney trail is only going to be able to do so much with the fish once they’ve been weighed. I’ve seen holding pens with 175-200 fish that have been set up in 3 foot water on a hot summer day. Obviously, these fish are going to be under a good amount of stress.
So, once again, we’re on the same page. I just think that tourney fisherman, and the tournaments trail’s have to both shoulder the responsibility for the fish’s survival. Of course I fish bass tourneys now, so maybe it’s just easier for them to make it.
Steve
Quote:
Tournament anglers are major scapegoats for anything that happens. We too are the locals using the ramps, it just so happens we decided to fish a tournament on a certain day.We give the non tournament anglers the right of way at the ramps also. We will help them get launched and get underway. We also treat them the way we would want to be treated on the water.
MOST Tournament anglers are great guys!! They are respectfule of other poeple nice guys etc ..etc.. it is that other 20% percent or whatever that give the tournament guys the bad name.. The ones that zip by you at about 30 feet or get pissed cause your fishing the wingdam they want to win money on….. I see them all the time, at the resort and on the water… the ego’s can get as big as theire motors… It is because of those few guys that make alot of other tournament guys look like dinks… If I was a tournament fisherman I would look at my peers and tell them to practice the same respect …. it only takes a couple bad apples to make the rest of the bunch look like [censored]…
All the discussion and speculation on holding tanks and release after the weigh-in is not issue in a paper only tournament! Should not be a problem with honest, regulation compliant tournament anglers. I am sure that sounds sarcastic but I did not intend sarcasm. Paper tournaments could dramatically reduce the stress on the fisherie. Something to consider for the future.
What is a paper tournament? The lack of a negative effect on the fishery sounds great.
What stress on the fisheries? Permits are issued for tournaments. If it is deemed that the fishery could not handle the pressure, the permit would not be issued. Day in and day out limits of fish taken for eaters has much more impact than a couple of days of tourney fishing.
Maybe so Don, but are you saying the DNR manages the fisherie to include a 30% mortality rate on all tournament fish brought to the weigh-in? I have fished probably thirty permited tournaments in the last 4 years and every permit said live release. I don’t have an issue with tournaments themselves, just one that killed 30% of the fish they weighed. I initialy did not buy into the paper tournament concept when I first heard of it but I have come to believe it is probably the future of much of tournament fishing. Whatever the kill number was, I am certain the DNR permit was to have those fish back in the river and swimming, not floaters. I have known a fisheries biologist for 40 years and have discussed these things with him. The kill may not have been devastating but had a negative impact. Plus the perception of tournaments by non-anglers took a big hit. There is probably more damage in public opinion than in the lost fish? Just my opinion. That and a dollar may get you a cup of coffee?
Be SAFE on the water and on the way home on the road.
Where are you fishing tournies at? Usually in the summer months the tournies are deemed harvest tournaments. That means no fish can be released. That being said an estimated 30% does not seem so bad. I am not arguing the fact that steps can be taken to avoid any kill during a live release. The fact I am stating is that overall the impact on the fishery is minimal. Like Mountain Man stated, the only way not to kill fish is to quit fishing. That just aint going to happen.
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