Taking Care of our Great Lakes Smallmouth - Tournament Weigh-Ins

[rsaid19fish]

This may be the first time I have ever posted on here but I witnessed something Saturday that cannot go un-addressed.  I am sure this happens a lot, but witnessing it first hand Saturday was sickening.

I returned from a fishing outing on St. Clair with some friends from Texas to the Crocker Launch (also known as the Spillway or Clinton River Cutoff).  There were two bass clubs there, one from Indiana (I am assuming by all the "IN" registered boats) and another club that was wrapping up, so I could not tell where they were from, but it was likely Michigan.

These tournament anglers were dumping our smallmouth into 80-degree muddy nasty water.  At least 5 fish over 3 pounds were floating dead against the seawall.  Those were just the ones I could see right away.

I am not here to embarrass or call people out, but this CANNOT continue if we hope to keep our wonderful lake kicking out the smallmouth it does.  It was sickening to watch as angler after angler just dumped their fish in warm dirty water....some did not even bother to walk to the end of the dock.

Weather you are a club from California or from Michigan does not matter.  I too am a tournament fisherman.  I have nothing against tournaments.  We have to take better care of our fish.  The DNR is watching, non-tournament anglers are watching, non-fishing folks are watching.  What kind example are we setting?  Who is going to believe us when we say "we care about our fishery"?

Possible solution:  Leave two of your tournament boats in the water (draw straws if no one will volunteer...but that's sad if it comes to that).  The first 20 fish go in the first boat and he/she takes them out a half mile to some clean moving water to be released.  While he is out, the next 20 fish go in the second boat.  When the first boat comes back, the next 20 go there and so on.  Yes, technically this might not be legal because you have more than a 5 fish limit, but I have a hard time believing any conservation officer (whose job it is to protect the resource) is going to have an issue with us protecting the resource and making sure these fish live.

I understand that every tournament is going to have a few dead fish despite our best efforts.  That does not bother me.  What was bothersome was that this was not our "best effort."  It was wasteful and poor management of our resource.

If you are launching out of the Cutoff, Harley, and even down at Erie Metro, those fish deserve to a better chance to live and need to be put out in clean moving water.  Please protect our fish.  Please take better care of our fish.  We have to do better.

[dartag]

Sad that happened.  We are fishing a small lake in Brighton tomorrow.  I took the divider out of my live well so we can transport the fish back out to the lake after weigh in.   

Thanks for pointing it out.  Hopefully people will read your report and change the way they release fish.

Steve Smith
Commerce, Mi

[djkimmel]

That's been on my hit list as a boat ramp that is not good for releasing bass at. All I can probably do at the moment is talk to the MDNR about putting up a sign maybe the federation can create. It's a start and I would have it mention keeping bass alive.

If you ever identify the actual club(s) present I wouldn't have a problem contacting them and talking to them about not releasing bass there.

[LAPORTE]

 I have only fished the BASS opens or the BFL tourneys out there... other than catch and release for me. I guess I never really gave this much thought it makes sense though. thanks for the post...

Don L

[thedude]

Maybe if we could have tournaments early in the year when the water isn't 80 degrees, fish wouldn't be quite so stressed when they are released.

[djkimmel]

That's a great point! Share that with the NRC if you get a chance.