Professional tournaments and fish question

[silkystud21]

I was flipping thru the channels today and came across the Outdoor Channel which had the PWT on. My question is what happens to the fish that are brought in for weigh in? Do they go back to the lake or do the anglers get to keep them? A few times some of the fish appeared to be dead. They also keep them out of the water a long time when they put them in those plastic tubs for weigh in.

[bolodunn]

as far as i know there is a penalty for unreturnable fish!
some put them back & some of the smaller tourny's let you keep them

[andy lacis]

Some tournaments/ Lake Erie the fish are kept donated = killed......some /Lake Huron attempts made to release.........yes, MWT has 1/4 pound penalty for unreleasabal fish.

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

The Infisherman P.W.T. Tournament ON Lake Erie out of Clevland Oh this past summer has been shown on oln,several times in the past week, in the P.W.T. they try to return all fish back unharmed.

[robin]

When I fished the MWT there was only a penalty it the fish was dead. As long as a gill was moving it counted as a live fish, even though it had no chance of surviving. I fished a tournament on Holloway Reservoir and saw a few dead fish the second day with a fin clipped. A couple of times I didn't even weigh fish the second day because I had no chance at the money and I wanted to take some fish home.

[BobB(MI)]

Good question...I was lucky enough to qualify for the RCL League Championship in Escanba last year. During the first day weigh-in, I was approached by a visibly upset man. As he was looking at the boat, I mentioned that he looked upset and asked if he had any questions. He replied that he liked fishing, but hated these tournaments in his area because of all the fish we killed.

He was under the impression that all the fish from the weigh-ins (PWT just the week prior) were killed. I informed him that the vast majority were relesed and showed him the release boat. We discussed more and I told him that some circuits (MWC, GNWC) actually put money back to loacal fishing clubs and causes to help the fisheries in the area. We talked more and he actually thanked me for taking the time to talk to him and said he was going to tell his friends now that he had the real story.

The tournaments on Erie are kill tournaments as mandated by the OHIO DNR. This may sound bad, but there are some very good, scientific points as to why this is right for that fishery. Those issues have regularly been posted at Ohio SeaGrant by biologists - another great site. For these tournaments, the fish are filleted and given to local shelters and food charities.

Most large tournaments encourage catch & release and most impose penalties for dead fish (PWT, FLW, MWC, FLW, GNWC). Many of the local, smaller events are the ones that I have seen that do not promote catch and release. For the release events, many times the dead fish are filleted and donated to charity.

Bob

[silkystud21]

Thanks for the answers guys. The one I was watching was a PWT tournament on Lake Erie. In what way is keeping the fish beneficial to the Erie fishery? Anyone care to explain.

One interesting note: the guy in 1st place after day 1 lives over by me. I believe he is the assistant varsity basketball coach at a school in the area.

[BobB(MI)]

It was awhile ago, but the same topic stirred a ton of controversy until a state biologist from SeaGrant set things straight. My memory fades a bit but as I remember, he made the following 2 main points:

1. The fishery of Erie is managed by a consortium of all bordering states and Ontario. They get together to determine total harvest yield or quota out of the lake, then each sets regulations to achieve that yield. Sport fishing accounts for very little of the yield (less than 15%??) and commercial fishing accounted for the rest. Commercial fishing is only allowed in Canadian waters. Every year, once the quota is met, the commercial fishermen have to stop. His point was that the amount of fish killed in a tournament came off of the total yield (commercial amount in reality) that in effect reduced the quota of the commercial harvest.
Since the total amount is reached anyway, the only difference was the distribution. It wasn't as if that amount of fish would not be killed as each year the total harvest yield or qutoa is met.

2. Keeping the big fish (27" plus) was a benefit to the system as well. His point was that even though the big fish produce a bunch of eggs, the eggs that are viable are a fairly small percentage. He said that the 24"-26" fish were the best reproducing fish as a much higher percentage of their eggs were viable. Also, over the time those big fish (27" plus) grew to that size, they already had contributed during their prime spawning years. So basically, many fishermen have it backwards as to what are the best fish to release.


This was eye-opening news to many, but makes a bunch of sense if really thought out. The thing that I liked was that it was written by those setting the regulations and studying the fishery - not by folks armed only with opinions and emotions.

Anyway, that's what I remember. Hope that helped answer your question a bit.
Bob