Question regarding FLW weigh in

Just a question regarding the weigh in. I see there have been some pretty nice walleyes caught during the tournament. I don’t know anything about FLW, so I was just wondering how fast these fish are released after the weigh in. Also with the final weigh in being held at Walmart in Lake Hallie, how are these fish going to be transported with the DNR rule requiring all water to be drained from the livewells? FLW is a well established organization, and I am sure are awesome stewards in conservation. I wish I could come and witness this for myself, but it wasn’t in the cards this weekend.

You’ll have a chance to find out for yourself next year. Word on the street is that the FLW league will be back with a WI division event in 2010. A great reception from the community and a challenging tournament left a tremendous positive impression on FLW, and we’ll be seeing more of them in the future.

I wonder if the rumblings will pan out?

Chris – From my experience fishing the walleye league and tour events, the FLW usually will return fish to the lake up to several times during the weigh in depending on the number of fish caught during the tournament. They have a great system setup with a 30ft plus pontoon boat with a rather large tank using an oxygenator system to ensure the fish are returned to the water in the best condition possible. The tank is capable of filling while on the water using the lake water in which we are fishing. The tank is empty directly in the water using a hatch system on the tank which involves no handling of the fish once in the tank. I hope this is helpful.

As far as the WI DNR transportation rule, an exemption was granted the FLW concerning this rule by the WI DNR. The local game warden addressed this during our premeeting.

Hope this is helpful.

Capt. Paul

I bet that is a sight to see! I will have to check it out next time they come around. I did get a chance to meet a few FLW pro’s. But I never once thought of asking them It sounds like everyone had a good time. Now it’s time to take advantage of fall fishing Wissota!

Chris – thanks for the reports on IDO and Lake-Link. Both you and Jason do a great job of sharing information on Lake Wissota. Thank you to Jason Halfen and Sully for sharing also. I appreciate your willingness to share information. Hopefully, the next time I am in town we can meet. If you ever get to the Detroit or northern ohio area (Toledo/Port Clinton), give me a shout. We will see if we can hook up for some great lakes walleye action on Lake Erie!

Thank you again….Paul

I hear that there were over 40 walleyes that didn’t live from the first day and over 70 from the second day of weight-in. They didn’t go to waste. Someone from the Rod and Gun Club spend the night cleaning fish. This is to bad. Is common for
this contest ???

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I hear that there were over 40 walleyes that didn’t live from the first day and over 70 from the second day of weight-in. They didn’t go to waste. Someone from the Rod and Gun Club spend the night cleaning fish. This is to bad. Is common for
this contest ???

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Thank you for your concern I am sure others have your same thoughts on this also.
With that said I will say this.

I was in the release boat on Friday and talked to the FLW people at length about the fish. I thought they did an excellent job with the handling of the fish. In fact some of the fish that the guys received penalties on were able to be revived and released, that was very educational. They had there hands full with the water temps in the high 70’s. That is uncommon for this time of year it just worked out that way this year. The water temps should have been in the 60’s that are also the reason for the September tournament to have cooler water. You can not obtain a permit to have a tournament on wissota in the months of July and August for this very reason high temps.

It is to bad but it is the way it turned out, so rather than have the fish go to waste we (the Rod and Gun) obtained a permit to have a over limit of fish in our possession and will have a fun raiser or a feed my people kind of thing with the fish (we will decide at our next meeting).

Here is the other way to look at this. The way the fish were biting on Thursday and Friday, it would have been no problem for 20 anglers to catch and keep there limit of 3 fish for the day that would equal 60 fish from the system each day. Also this is more thought, each participant obtained a license for the days they were here there for they should be able to keep there limit like anyone else, I am sad to see all those fish leave the system also, but Wissota will make more.

I am not as good at getting a point across as Jason but I hope this helps, maybe Jason will chime in here shortly.

Kind of surprised to hear the numbers were that high. Despite the high surface temps, our fish were very lively both days. Had plenty of ice & rejuvinade because of those temps. Didn’t really need to use much of either.