Oldham Tourney Results

I KNOW TOURNEYS PUT A LOT OF PRESSURE ON THE LAKES WE FISH, BUT TOURNAMENT FISHING IS THE BEST THING THAT COULD OF HAPPENED FOR US AND THE FISH!, YEARS AGO WE ALL KILLED OUR CATCH, IF YOUR OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER, WE ALL BROUGHT THE CATCH HOME AND ATE IT, YEARS AGO YOU LOOKED LIKE AN IDIOT IF YOU LET YOUR FISH GO, NOW ADAYS WE ALL TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR CATCH AND RELEASE, WE WANT OUR SPORT TO SURVIVE , AND IF ANYONE IS STILL NOT A FAN OF TOURNAMENT FISHING, THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS ALLOWS ME TO KEEP AND KILL 5 BASS A DAY OVER 12" , THAT EQUALS
1,825 BASS A YEAR, NOT INCLUDING LEAP YEAR, MMMMMMMMM
NOT TRYING TO START ANYTHING, JUST MY OPINION, LOVE SCOTT.

because we have the money to pay the fines, that simple.

So true

THAT HAPPEN TO ME AT A-1 SITE, ASKED ME FOR EVERYTHING, BUT NOT ONE OF THE 5 BUCKET PEOPLE ON THE DAM, WHY? HE SAID HE COULD NOT SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE!, NICE, AND EVERY ONE OF THEM HAD EVERY FISH THEY CAUGHT IN THE BUCKETS.

I KNOW TOURNEYS PUT A LOT OF PRESSURE ON THE LAKES WE FISH, BUT TOURNAMENT FISHING IS THE BEST THING THAT COULD OF HAPPENED FOR US AND THE FISH!, YEARS AGO WE ALL KILLED OUR CATCH, IF YOUR OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER, WE ALL BROUGHT THE CATCH HOME AND ATE IT, YEARS AGO YOU LOOKED LIKE AN IDIOT IF YOU LET YOUR FISH GO, NOW ADAYS WE ALL TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR CATCH AND RELEASE, WE WANT OUR SPORT TO SURVIVE , AND IF ANYONE IS STILL NOT A FAN OF TOURNAMENT FISHING, THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS ALLOWS ME TO KEEP AND KILL 5 BASS A DAY OVER 12" , THAT EQUALS
1,825 BASS A YEAR, NOT INCLUDING LEAP YEAR, MMMMMMMMM
NOT TRYING TO START ANYTHING, JUST MY OPINION, LOVE SCOTT.

Well said Scott multiply that by 10-12 members of every third world family and the numbers get outrageous!

We had a dead fish that I suspect came from space limitations and I have a pretty big cooler. It's never had 18 pounds of fish in it before. That's our only dead fish in something close to 20 tourney's. I'm going to say that's a ratio that I can live with.

this was the first time i've ever been responsible for a dead tournament fish and i felt pretty bad about it. but it was absolutely not due to lack of oxygen or poor livewell maintenance. i used treatment, hydrogen peroxide, and switched out water about every 45 minutes. and used the aerator. every other fish was fine.

mine died because a hook happened to glance off of the side of its gill when i caught it or during the ensuing fight. i tried taking care of it all day but it looked bad right away.

i will say this, we are 100x better than the bucket brigade and most guys feel terrible when a fish dies and do everything they can to practice catch and release so they can go back another day to catch them. one guy even took his dead fish home to eat and not waste it.

like others have said, the law says i could have taken all our fish home. better 1 dead total in many tournaments than killing the catch every time.

The only reason for last weeks weights was that was the only scale I had with me.

I see. Like I said. I was just curious. I thought someone said thats how we were going to do it for now on, so I got a little confused.

You are talking apples and oranges here The "bucket brigade" are totally ignorant to any of the fisheries rules and regs. They don't know the minimum sizes, limits, etc. And I'm sure 1 in 100 may have a license You guys are well aware of the rules and regs and know how important catch and release is in order to preserve the resource that we all enjoy I know none of these fish were killed intentionally. It's just too bad that the bass died in overheated livewells, that's all And to make the statement that you are entitled to keep and kill 5 bass a day may be true but a true sportsman certainly isn't thinking along those lines

You are talking apples and oranges here The "bucket brigade" are totally ignorant to any of the fisheries rules and regs. They don't know the minimum sizes, limits, etc. And I'm sure 1 in 100 may have a license You guys are well aware of the rules and regs and know how important catch and release is in order to preserve the resource that we all enjoy I know none of these fish were killed intentionally. It's just too bad that the bass died in overheated livewells, that's all And to make the statement that you are entitled to keep and kill 5 bass a day may be true but a true sportsman certainly isn't thinking along those lines

To paraphrase Ron White; ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Especially willful ignorance. That being said...easy on the emoticons!! lol

i agree with don that's its very unfortunate. i can't speak for everyone else, but mine wasn't due to lack of oxygen. i paid extra close attention to the fish to make sure they had plenty of oxygen and fresh water throughout the day. the other 4 were completely fine.

i've never once thought about keeping a bass for several reasons - i don't like fish that much (freshwater bass would definitely be towards the bottom of my list), it's probably not good for your health anyways, and i support catch and release as much as the next guy.

We were fortunate and did not lose any fish. We added 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide to the livewell before filling it. We ran the pump ALL DAY. We have a small lawn motor battey we dedicate to the livewell and fishfinder only. As soon as the sun was up over the trees ( 8-8:30 ) we added 2 frozen water bottles to the cooler. We continued to swap out 2 frozen bottles every hour. our livewell was consistantly 5-10* cooler then the lake water itself. You are better off adding H2o2 and icing your water then you are swapping out water and reicing it. The up and down of the water temp is not good for the fish either. It is a shock to their system. DO NOT think that more H2o2 is better. You need very little to get amazing results and too much is toxic to the fish. a 1/4 cup treats a full sized bass boats livewell for the day. Google "adding hydrogen peroxide to livewells" and you will see many articles on the subject.
Having said all this sometimes fish just die. The fish right now are in thier summer feeding mode. This can result in gut hooked fish because they are so aggresive they are picking up your bait on the fall and have it for 5-10 seconds before tyou engage your reeland go to move your bait. By that time any salt inpregnated bait ( senkos, kalin grubs ect) will definitly be swallowed. A gut hooked fish is a dead fish 75% of the time.

Last edited by stratos1966 on Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

Rich & Guys,

Just glad to see this string, due to some great tips. I would have never researched the hydrogen peroxide technique and the frozen water bottles (learned not to use ice due the chemicals) if not for the info / education shared here. The bucket brigade not reading these posts, but enough of us going through an educational learning curve to keep more fish healthy.

You are talking apples and oranges here The "bucket brigade" are totally ignorant to any of the fisheries rules and regs. They don't know the minimum sizes, limits, etc. And I'm sure 1 in 100 may have a license You guys are well aware of the rules and regs and know how important catch and release is in order to preserve the resource that we all enjoy I know none of these fish were killed intentionally. It's just too bad that the bass died in overheated livewells, that's all And to make the statement that you are entitled to keep and kill 5 bass a day may be true but a true sportsman certainly isn't thinking along those lines

WHEN I SAID THAT THE STATE ALLOWS ME TO KILL 5 A DAY, I WAS JUST TYRING TO EASE YOUR PAIN ABOUT THE 6 FISH DEAD AT THE TOURNEY, SORRY FOR THE LOSS, OH , MY FISHING LICENSE THAT I PURCHASED FROM THE STATE THAT ALLOWS ME TO KILL DEER, BEAR, UNLIMITED ENGLISH SPARROWS, AND ALMOST UNLIMITED SORTS OF FISH IN THIS STATE SAYS "SPORTSMAN" ON IT, WHOOPS SOMEONE MESSED UP. ALL I KNOW IS THAT I COULD OF FILLED MY BUCKETS LEGALLY (SOMETHING THAT I WOULD NEVER DO) AND I CONCIDER MYSELF A TRUE SPORTSMAN, THESE TOURNAMENTS ARE THE BEST THING THAT COULD OF HAPPENED TO THE BASS, WE ARE CATCHING MORE AND LARGER FISH NOW THAT WE CATCH AND RELEASE, AND IF ONLY A COUPLE OF FISH DIE DURING A TOURNAMENT WHEN A FEW HUNDRED ARE RELEASED UNHARMED, THEN CUDO'S TO TOURNAMENTS, ITS BETTER THAN EVERYONE FILLING THEIR BUCKETS! LOVE SCOTT.

Hey Scott, Rock On Cudos is spelled with a K

I'm definitely going to use the hydrogen peroxide Sunday. Watch this video. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/bass-fishing-hydrogen-peroxide.html

I'm definitely going to use the hydrogen peroxide Sunday. Watch this video. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/bass-fishing-hydrogen-peroxide.html

Great Video Shawn, I used it at Cochituate and It made the difference, forgot to bring it Sunday but will have it this week for sure