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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Hey Tyee:
If you have information on the kill rates of "two major tournaments" please share on this other thread. I believe that you have information that many do not have.
With a million + fish swimming in the system right now and lots of tournaments being done each and every year, how can we say that tournaments may be doing damage?
Please explain |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | I will be the first guy to weigh in on this.
I do not care how many fish were put to the knife for these events. I think they all should have been knifed and made into fish sandwhiches so everyone can enjoy the bounty of the lake we live by. Quite frankly the efforts of the clubs that are involved in these events put way more fish back into the system off the monies raised during these events than what is killed during these events. As far, "we should not do this for entertainment purposes", I say blah blah blah.....80,000 people give a economic rush to a city that needs it and depends on it. 2k fish die for this? Is that even close? I think it less. Again, lighthouse anglers, otter street fish club, walleyes for tomarrow amoungst many others put more fish back in the lake than what is killed. Ohh tyee will say its a disgrace that them bad guys do this, but ask ihim how many fish he takes from the system everyyear. How many fish do guides kill for a living every year? The same guys who say foul to the tournies killing fish have freezers full of them. I learned a long time ago not to throw stones if you live in a glass house. Would like to see some DNR go and check some of these guys freezers. |
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| Dennis, I don't want to publish anything that is not official, I'll leave that up to the organizers of those events and the DNR!
I haven't put a knife to a Walley this year and only 10 last year! White bass on the other hand are another story!
Good Luck
Tyee |
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Location: Menasha, WI | That's an interesting 2-step Tyee. You can't criticize the kill rates on the one hand and defer to the organizers on the other.
Let's assume for a minute all ~4500 fish caught at Otter St and Merc Nats were killed. So freaking what?
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| If you went back thru the years Im sure the average live release rate for 20years of merc and otter is 65-70%. The money raised for the rehabilitation of the marshes mostly fisherman and alot of them tourney guys! Tourney guys don't rape and pillage. They spend money in the community and every tourney donates to preserve the walleye of bago. |
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Location: Berlin | I was not aware that the system is running short on walleye 
I have quite a few friends that I respect very much that are bothered tremendously by the number of tournaments we have on this system year after year. My opinion is that if the system is not monitored closely this could have a catostrophic impact. The DNR and Walleyes for Tomorrow and other various clubs are doing wonders and it is obvious nothing needs to be changed right now based off of fish numbers. Throw in 4-6 consecutive years of bad spawn conditions and that will be a different story.
I believe the forage base is down. The only facts I have to back this up is how skinny the fish I have caught this year are. Hands down I have never caught so many skinny fish, especially the big ones. I still have not seen a shad in a fish yet this year. Might be a coincidence, who knows.
Harvesting fish (especially big ones) is an important part of management. CPR is being practiced more now then ever so having some big fish lost in tournaments is not hurting our fishery currently. This will continue to be true I believe as long as the system is monitored closely to which the DNR is doing a fantastic job.
This is just my opinion and take it with a grain of salt. |
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | If it were a total of 4,500 dead fish as mentioned above my math says that it would be less than 1/2% of the estimated population. And we know it was much less than that. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | 4500 is roughly the number of fish brought to the scales in the 2 events. As you suggest, the mortality rate was far from 100%. My point is also what you suggest, that it is an insignificant number and can hardly be called "damaging" to the system where the sustainable harvest rate is pegged right around 30%. |
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | I did a little internet research on the economic impact that sport fishing has on the Bago area. A 2006 report estimates the economic impact of angling in the Winnebago System can be determined at $234 million annually, which includes 4,300 jobs. Here is the link for you viewing. Thanks for the idea Stacker.
http://basineducation.uwex.edu/foxwolf/economics/FinalSummary.pdf
Edited by Sunshine 7/30/2009 4:26 PM
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| Grain Taken. Opinions are like elbows everybody has a couple! |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Now, did you see that figure that said 86% of the fisherman were NOT affiliated with any fishing organizations. WOW is all i have to say about this. Everyone should read through that link. Thanks Dennis. Good find. |
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Location: mille lacs, mn. | I haven't read the other thread or whatever triggered this one but I wrote about "local" tournies the other day, kinda using Mille Lacs as an example but would say the same about any big walleye lake and "local" events. Here's the link:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/blogs/50577492.html?elr=... |
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| 2009 Has been listed as the year of the pillage by me and a bunch of my friends, I suspect it's due to the struggling economy. And maybe because they taste good. |
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Location: Orland Park, IL | Well there doesnt seem to be too much damage when I fish em.... HA....Which is a good thing! |
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Location: Neenah, WI | Having fished Otter Street for about 25 years or so, I'll offer my view. This year was unusual due to the RAPID rise in water temps on Sunday. I've never seen it go up that fast!!!! Out of our 10 fish for the tourney, 2 died on Sun. Both had a hook left in their gullets, a 21" and an 18". I doubt that's what killed therm. I ran the livewell on manual all day and these were the earliest fish caught. The water temp. climbed by about 13 degrees in the course of the day. Unless you have an ice truck following you around you'll never keep the water an an acceptable temp.
I will add this: Every year I see boats in line for the weigh-in that are still pumping water out of the bay into their livewells. Not a good idea. That water is much warmer than the main lake and also full of contaminents from exhaust, etc. That's the time to recirculate and not draw any more water into the boat.
Fish mortality in warm water months will always be with us. If the dead are put to good use, I see no problem. |
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| I'm with Dale and Stacker on this one. I fished Merc for 9 years and Otter Street for about 15. Every person in both are trying to do the best to keep them alive. Buck and I take block ice and rec our live well with great success. I will safely say more walleyes are killed every month from meat hunters then all tournaments combined. Not that I'm against keeping some fish for the freezer but I see the same boats day in and day out while I'm prefishing keeping limit after limit. Anyone complaining about tournaments is preaching to the wrong crowd. |
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| another way to look at it is like for merc theres 300 teams. thats 600 guys fishing for an average of prob. 4 days for the tournement with prefishing, releasing at mininium 2 days catches during tourny and most, everthing (bad carma to keep fish prefishing)not to mention any other fish caught the two days beyond your weigh fish. this eqauls out to a huge number of fish release during tournys. which is alot better than just a normal weekend of fishing. also a good number of these guys would be out fishing anyways more available to keeping some fish. I know this year my partner and I for merc fished a total of four days for just for merc catching roughly 50 walleyes all which were released. If we were meat hunters that would of been 40 walleyes under the knife.. my two cents |
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| stacker - 7/30/2009 1:05 PM
Quite frankly the efforts of the clubs that are involved in these events put way more fish back into the system off the monies raised during these events than what is killed during these events.
This thread could have ended with this very true statement. Stacker's genious doesn't always shine so brightly, but it does here. |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | oh thumper, sometimes you just need o read my posts a bit closer. this time it just came out right. LOL |
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| I even thought of you Saturday when I rode my bike past the marina...those dirt piles out front must be a blast in winter on a snowmobile, eh? |
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| whats wrong with meat hunting? i think if i caught 50 walleyes and ate 50 walleyes thats better than releasing 50 and a few of them dying and going to waste. am i missing something here? it is a proven fact that tournaments are not good for fish! but, it is good for the economy. i am pretty sure it was pelican lake that the dnr did a study a few years ago, they gave fisherman a beeper or something to call them and they would come to your boat and get the fish and keep it in a big net for study. if remember right the numbers werent in favor of catch and keep for awhile and awhile longer and then release. |
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| How nice would it be fishing all your favorite spots during prime time May through July without any Jet Ski's and Tournament boats in them during the week and weekends?
Priceless! |
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Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | Yes, "just a thought" we'd all love to have our favorite spot to ourselves, but eliminating jetski's and tournaments won't make that happen. Why not just chill out and enjoy the fishing instead of worrying about someone else who is trying to do the same? |
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| If peace and tranquility is what you're after you should be fishing 'Bago now.......the lake is a ghost town. Funny how all the fishermen aren't out there now, perhaps they should be called catchermen instead. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Jayman - 9/18/2009 10:24 AM
If peace and tranquility is what you're after you should be fishing 'Bago now.......the lake is a ghost town. Funny how all the fishermen aren't out there now, perhaps they should be called catchermen instead. :)
You go that right Jason. I've had practically the entire north end of the lake to myself for weeks! Awesome! |
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