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Juls_OH
10-05-2005, 10:20 AM
This system was used last week at the FLW Walleye Tour Championship. It's pretty slick.
The fish are weighed in a basket with water, so the fish are swimming and breathing while the weights are being registered. I like that. There is less stress on the fish, and it helps reduce the mortality rate.
I talked to Sonny this morning, and was informed that there was a 100% live release rate on all the fish caught at the Championship. I have to contribute that success rate to the careful handling of the fish by the Pros, the Pros' boat livewells, and to the new Shimano Water Weigh In System. It was nice to see the fish swimming upright, and breathing, instead of flopping around in a dry basket.

Here's how it worked...
The fish are brought to the scale in a basket with holes in the bottom of it.
The fish basket is placed in another basket, with water filled between 1/3 and 1/2 full.
The fish basket would fill with water, so the fish could swim upright.
The weight was taken, and the fish basket was lifted to drain water and then was removed.
A special weight that is the same weight as an empty fish basket was placed on top of the water basket, and the scale was zeroed out.
The next angler could then place his fish basket in the water basket for his weight to be registered.

This is a weigh in system that I think ALL tournament circuits should be using from now on.

Thank you Shimano!:bowdown: You Rock!:rock-on:

Juls
great system
10-05-2005, 11:08 AM
I too think this is a great system! Question: Is the water ever changed? And is there a problem with water loss from evaporation or water caught in the basket leaving, lessoning the weight of the water for the guys at the end of the weigh-in? I assume there is a check of the water weight throuout the weigh-in. Great system all in all!
Sunshine
10-05-2005, 11:36 AM
The basket with the water is recalibrated to zero every time the fish are removed prior to the next basket being weighed. This way there is no problem if some water was removed.
JB251
10-05-2005, 11:49 AM
A great idea. The only issue would be I believe if the fish while on the scale splashed out some water. Would you not have to then pull the fish basket out and re-tare the scale.

This did happen at the FLW championship but I do not remember if the water was splashed out after or before the official weight was taken. I was watching online at the time.
new system
10-05-2005, 12:05 PM
Was the championship the first time for this system, did they use it at the other qualifying events/league events?
Juls_OH
10-05-2005, 12:15 PM
I'm pretty sure they said that they had just used it, and tried it out, at the FLW Walleye League Championship in Winona a couple weeks before the Tour Championship.

Juls
True
10-05-2005, 01:37 PM
30-40lb weights....big basket!!
Sully
10-05-2005, 04:30 PM
>I'm pretty sure they said that they had just used it, and
>tried it out, at the FLW Walleye League Championship in Winona
>a couple weeks before the Tour Championship.
>
>Juls
It was used at the FLW Walleye League Championship and I thought it worked well. Some of us were concerned when they said we were the first ones to use it at an FLW event. I really liked it overall and improvement would be if they did change the water. The water didn't look the best at the end and I imagine the O2 levels had dropped.

Sully
CNDFish
10-06-2005, 10:36 AM
The Shimano Live release sytem has actually been used up here for the last 2 season on the stump carp tour. It was desigend with the help of our leading vet School in Ontario and believe it was a doctorate theisis.

Shawn Hannah
Juls_OH
10-06-2005, 12:29 PM
I'm just grateful someone thought of it...it's a step in the right direction.

Juls
Water Bug
10-06-2005, 02:35 PM
The water did get alittle dirty but they did change it about half way through weigh-in at Winona. As for the O2 level, they had one of those oxygenators in the basket to keep the O2 level up.

Worked slick!!
tournament guy
10-08-2005, 03:09 PM
where can you get information on this system. Cost etc.
Fish_on
10-10-2005, 08:37 AM
I agree that it is the wave of the future but for all tournaments to be using it is a LONG way off. The scale is very expensive, probably at least a thousand dollars more than the ones in common use now by most of these circuits.

Many of these tournaments are wighing fish on a card table or a tailgate.

We have four trailers each with a scale and a back-up scale so you can imagine how much it would cost us to upgrade our systems. We are considering investing in one system for use in our state and national championships in '06.

I think there are still some bugs to be worked out of it, but there is no question that the future is in this direction.
Chartertalk
10-10-2005, 06:41 PM
This system has been used the a couple of yrs by the CFT(Canadian Fishing Tour) Very good results for live release. If you are looking for more info contact Dan Carraro of the CFT.

www.canadianfishingtour.com

They are also looking at having a walleye tournament next yr(06)on the Detroit River.
The St. Clair Slayer
10-10-2005, 07:15 PM
I believe that this system was used at one of the Michigan Ontario Muskie tournaments this past summer. Sounds really cool.