Whew, lol thanks. I just want to have fun , keep things safe and fair for everyone any additional ideas would be appreciated
I'm a follower. I adapt. Tell me where to go. BAM! I'm there. I don't have any problems with any of this. It is important for the big boys to not kill us cartoppers.
No, you can cull throughout the day. Neils point is that you can't show up to the weigh in with 6 or 7 fish in your tank, and start to cull at that point. Trim your bag down to 5 BEFORE you head to the weigh in, not at the weigh in.
From the way I read it, I believe you can NEVER have more then 5 fish in the livewell. Once you catch a 6th fish, you must stop fishing and cull right there and then, right away. Catch another one, the same applies. You can never have 6, 7, 8 fish in your livewell and be fishing. You can put that 6th fish in the livewell 1st then cull but no fishing until you are back to 5 fish in the livewell. This is a good rule. It is how every tournament trail I know of works.
Last edited by stratos1966 on Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:41 am; edited 1 time in total
thats why you should have the culling bobbers for your livewell, bring 5. that way you know how many fish you have keep in mind which color is the smallest fish and compare that color to a fish you just caught, and cull (upgade, swap, trade etc) if needed.
I bought a culling system for like 15 bucks that has the bobbers and a dry erase board to keep track of the weights. Makes it wicked easy
lets not get into a big thing over this. Plain and simple. When you come to weigh in, if you have more than 5 fish, you are DQ'd. End of story. As a general rule and for the safety of the fish, you should not have more than 5 fish in your live well at once.
Thanks again Neil
Last edited by napa on Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
thats why you should have the culling bobbers for your livewell, bring 5. that way you know how many fish you have keep in mind which color is the smallest fish and compare that color to a fish you just caught, and cull (upgade, swap, trade etc) if needed.
I bought a culling system for like 15 bucks that has the bobbers and a dry erase board to keep track of the weights. Makes it wicked easy
yea i had those same ones the little plastic bobbers, right? i ended up stepping on like 3 of them. and one other was lost....funny story actually.
at dudley last year, i never got to tell the story becuase we were all starstuck from a 25 pound bag, but anyway fast forward an hour at dudley i had 2 small keepers nuthing special and i just pulled one in the boat to make 3 he was a alittle bigger than the others but nothing impressive. i put the bobber on him opened the cooler and went to put him in holding him by the bobber, before i could close the cooler (after i let go of the bobber) he freaked and bailed right out of the boat.....i couldnt believe that just happened, after a few minutes i heard a splash followed by the metal clanking from the chain meeting the plastic. that bastard got away. LESSON LEARNED for sure
How do you guys avoid tangling of the culling bobbers, with small live wells or coolers?
We have a culling system, but always had the issue of them getting tangled up and fish not being able to move around. As a result, we had a casualty or two in the past, so we stopped using them. We went with a stringer of half rope, half chain. Some twisting, but not as much and haven't lost a fish yet on it because of tangles.
How do you guys avoid tangling of the culling bobbers, with small live wells or coolers?
I'll open the cooler and untangle them. The fish like when I play with them
We have a culling system, but always had the issue of them getting tangled up and fish not being able to move around. As a result, we had a casualty or two in the past, so we stopped using them. We went with a stringer of half rope, half chain. Some twisting, but not as much and haven't lost a fish yet on it because of tangles.
How do you guys avoid tangling of the culling bobbers, with small live wells or coolers?
I'll open the cooler and untangle them. The fish like when I play with them
I think you just like to play with them
Ardent sells a culling system for about $35.It has the dial weight right on them and they are color coded.I don't know what to tell you about cartoppers in the bassboat tourneys.A 5 minute head start is a long time.No matter what you do you will catch a wake at some time or another.The safest for cartoppers is to go last after the water settles down.It's a choice someone would have to make if your worried about gettin capsized.As far as culling goes some clubs weigh eight fish.They do not allow culling at the ramp.If you get enough fish to cull you should release them a.s.a.p.the fish will have a better survival rate that way.I wouldn't say you have to do it right away,but in a timely manner.See you guys on the water.
Ken, 5 minutes (equivalent to counting to 300) is not a long time at all for you bigger boats to wait for any car toppers (maybe the 2 or 3 that show for the big tourneys?) to putter away out of harms way.
As you said, we're gonna get some wakes regardless anyway, but at least we can be off to the sides or something. I don't think it's a lot to ask, but am grateful to be allowed in the big boat tourneys regardless. If it definitely becomes too much of a disadvantage for us, I'll fish strictly car topper tourneys and be just as happy. That being said, whatever you guys decide to do, it's all good and we'll try our best to compete and catch fish! Just my opinion and that's all it is, but if I don't speak up, then shame on me!