PWT & FLW

I have always assumed that in these tournaments the walleye brought to the scale had to be releasable fish in order to count towards the competitors weight. While watching the FLW tour championships for 2006 on tv I noticed many fish that were totally upside down and not moving in the weigh-in container. I'm just hoping that these big events arn't taking advantage of their elite status. I'm not looking for contraversy here just some input. Thank you...

In the case of the FLW Championship, the fish were bumped dead or alive at the docks, before the competitors were driven 20 miles to the WalMart, in town, for the weigh in. I believe the fish at the FLW Championship were donated to a food bank, so no fish were wasted.

Also, in the case of the Championship, there were only 50 boats the first two days, and then it cut to the top ten on the last two days. A lot of guys didn't catch any fish, or they were short of their limit by quite a few fish those first two days.

The very last day, it was the Pros fishing by themselves in the boat, so they could only have 4 fish.

As big as Oahe is, these guys didn't hurt the fishery at all.

The regular season tournaments have a much higher live release rate by the way, and are being studied by the University of Mississippi and the DNR in four or five states. I think the study might be over now, or it has one more year to go...I can't remember which it is.

But, instead of getting into all that again...you can do a simple search here, and find a few threads covering that topic.

Juls
p.s. If a fish dies, you can still weigh it in, but you will lose a 1/2 a pound per dead fish. So yes, it is in the best interest of the competitors to keep their fish alive, which most have no problem doing.

[Burr]

Not too long ago and Oahe Walleye population was too high for the baitfish available. Through harvest, and re-establishing the forage base, the lake in making a nice comeback.

Some tournaments are catch and release, some are kill tourny's. However, this is decided by the State fisheries management and permitting process, and not the tournament orgainization.

Part of being a responsible tournament sanctioning body is making responsible site choices. My hat is off to both FLW and PWT organizations chosing their championship waters. I do believe transporting to an off site weigh-in facility for the purpose of producing a public and filmed event will, yes, result in higher fish mortality. Oahe can survive the small harvest that happens from the tourney.

A bigger concern would be if there is going to be any water in these resevoirs over the next couple of years. Downstream political manuvering is devastating the Mo river resevoirs in the north. Might as well let them run dry so the barge industry can really learn what it means to waste a resource - but that is another topic.