No cull rules on team events

I have a question on tournaments that are no cull and with curcuits like FTO and MTT what do they do to prevent this??

Not much they could do I don’t think other than hope everyone is honest. I know when I fish an event they don’t have to worry about anything because I don’t catch enough to worry about culling

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Not much they could do I don’t think other than hope everyone is honest. I know when I fish an event they don’t have to worry about anything because I don’t catch enough to worry about culling

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We must fish together

I fished the Minnesota Walleye Trail (MWT) for 3 years. The way they did it is that a boat could have up to 11 fish in the livewell, and once you put number 11 in you are done. In reality nobody ever had 11 fish in because you could keep “culling” the smallest one out after you reach your limit. Teams would maybe keep one extra in the box in case a fish died or something, so they would have maybe 7 or 8 fish they would keep and weigh the best 6.

The State law in Minnesota says that once a limit of fish has been reduced to possession there is no culling. So this would mean once 12 fish in a team tournament are in the live well you could not cull. So in short as long as you don’t put 12 fish in the boat you can cull all day. I believe the same rule applies to fish over 20″ as well. Each angler can have 1 fish over 20″, and I believe you can cull these fish as well as long as you follow the above rules.

In my experience most teams don’t have to worry about culling. If you catch a limit with your 2 over 20″ you will be looking really good on most bodies of water.

One of the things that the Western Walleye Circuit did RIGHT and there were not many before it went belly up was you were given colored zip ties to put on your 7 fish if you had a fish in the livewell without a zip tie on it you were DQ’ed and our boat was boarded at least once every tourney by the officials checking livewells. Also if you “lost” one of your 7 ties DQ, if a fish had one that had been repaired DQ, the ties seemed to work really well and were cut off at the bump table.

Mille Lacs Guy,

On most of the lakes in MN you are correct, as long as you do not have a limit in the boat, you are legally able to cull. However, Mille Lacs is a no cull lake and if you put it in your livewell, it is yours. You can not exchange a smaller fish for a larger fish. I wonder about the over 20″ fish. I would say that 1 is your limit — so once that is in your livewell, that is your fish. Last year the MTT (Minnesota Tournament Trail) a team tournament, started doing random on the water livewell checks on Mille Lacs to
check for compliance. They allowed you to weigh 6 fish, but you could have 8 in the well. When you put your 8th fish in you are done fishing for the day.

Vickie

So basically on no cull waters, all of the wisconsin minnesota border, there is no real enforcement against culling. In team tournaments if both members are onboard with culling your pretty much pooched.

I invite you all to fish your tourneys on the Wisconsin side of the MISSISSIPPI in full veiw of a DNR agent, and see what happens when he or she sees you put any fish in your livewell for the seventh time if your alone or the 13th time if your a team no matter what you put back in the water… I realize some of you are saying that you never put another fish into the livewell past your fifth or 11th fish until you have the last one you want and quit fishing, but then it isn’t even called culling ???

If I were a tournament director, I’d put my scale up for sale on ebay and adopt AIM’s CRR format and never look back. No fish to handle, no illegal culling, no cheating etc. Have your stage presentation and award the plaques based on the angler’s score cards. Review the fish pics before sending out the checks. Simple. The best tournament format ever, and the most fun for the anglers to fish!

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

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If I were a tournament director, I’d put my scale up for sale on ebay and adopt AIM’s CRR format and never look back. No fish to handle, no illegal culling, no cheating etc. Have your stage presentation and award the plaques based on the angler’s score cards. Review the fish pics before sending out the checks. Simple. The best tournament format ever, and the most fun for the anglers to fish!

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

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I don’t see how that format would work for team tourneys.

-J.

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I don’t see how that format would work for team tourneys.

-J.

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I’m curious as to why you think AIM’s CRR will not work for team tournaments?

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

For the same reasons that AIM does not pay there Co-anglers.
Would be awful hard to keep everyone honest!

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For the same reasons that AIM does not pay there Co-anglers.
Would be awful hard to keep everyone honest!

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Nate- After helping to write the rules and fishing the AIM events last year and seeing the process in the trenches, I think it would work great if the proper steps were taken to ensure that the fish could be verified- even in a team style format.

You can’t fool the camera, a fish is as unique as a fingerprint. A couple of seconds looking at fish at high zoom is all that is needed to see this. Photograph the fish on the same side so it can’t be flipped and counted twice. No picture, blurry picture, etc, no credit. Anglers need to have a working camera in the boat. If it fails, its just like any other piece of gear we use, it could end your day. I carry 3 cameras at the AIM events. Supply the SD cards with unique markings. The EXIF data from the camera provides a time stamp. And there are other procedures that can be implemented to keep the playing field level for everyone. It would be tough to cheat this system.

More info here: http://www.aimfishing.com/display.asp?aid=2369

The end result is an exciting tournament to fish for the competitors- the AIM events were the most fun I’ve had tournament fishing. Go out and catch the biggest fish and you win. No slots, etc. That’s exciting fishing. You couldn’t pay me to go to Mille Lacs lake and fish the Wave Wackers when the slot was 14-16″, with one lucky lottery fish over 28″. I’d rather take my money to a casino and put it all down on red or black and give the wheel a spin. Look at the weights at the AIM event on Winnie this year to see what is possible when there are no slots. All with the added benefit of less pressure on the resource. Tournament fishing needs to be fun first, or it will go away.

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

We like the tagging fish method
give a team the number of unreusable tags to weigh limit
if they have more fish than tags in boat or are checked and have untagged fish in livewell they are bending rules
culling takes the certanty out of the sport
when racing nascar they have many sets of tires behind pitwall but must decide which ones go on car when the 17 seconds are up for pit stop
weigh it or let it go
The family audience and sponsors at shore really want to see the fish sso still will go for fish not pictures
gets to be like half way into PETA if you dont want to show the catch
if a lake is so endangered that pictures omly are way to give permit off day they shouldnt have tournaments