Despite booming bass fisheries in recent decades, this myth refuses to die. Anglers and managers opposed to tournaments, for one reason or another, propagate the idea that excessive mortality hurts fishing quality. In defense of competition, one need only check the weights caught at waters fished incessantly by tournament competitors for decades—Grand Lake, Oklahoma; Kentucky Lake, Kentucky; Lake Seminole, Georgia-Alabama; Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota; and Sam Rayburn, Texas, to name but a few. Catches today typically are as good as they’ve ever been.
Rayburn hosts more than 300 tournaments a year and has done so for decades. More than half the anglers there participate in tournaments, according to a recent analysis by biologists with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.* That tagging study found tournament mortality contributed from 1 to 16 percent of total annual mortality of the largemouth population, while non-tournament catch-and-release fishing were 2 to 17 percent of the total, and angler harvest (non-tournament) comprised 16 to 38 percent of annual bass mortality.
Fishing pressure doubtless makes bass harder to catch, but blame cannot be placed solely on competitive anglers. All who wield a rod contribute. Social issues have always been with us, and we can only hope that etiquette, fair play, and sportsmanship prevail on the water.
My main issue with tournaments is that some anglers (not all by any means) will dump the fish back in the water with little or no care after their bag has been weighed. This type of behaivor drives me nuts! It's like okay, I weighed my bag in, these fish don't have any other purpose to me.....slam the bag in the water and forget about it. I will always have a problem whether it's in a tournament or for fun when people don't care for the fish during the release.
agreed
I dont think tournaments hurt bass populations, but around here it definitely puts alot of added pressure on the lakes. I mean sure they did this study, but you cant really compare Sam Rayburn or Kentucky Lake to say Webster or South Watuppa.
They stock bass down south. A huge portion of the fish and game budgets are spent managing bass.Up here in Mass they spend almost $0 on bass management........ BIG difference. Thats why tourniesdown south dont seem to effect those lakes. IMO Bass tournaments do in fact hurt bass populations.
I dont think tournaments hurt bass populations, but around here it definitely puts alot of added pressure on the lakes. I mean sure they did this study, but you cant really compare Sam Rayburn or Kentucky Lake to say Webster or South Watuppa.
They stock bass down south. A huge portion of the fish and game budgets are spent managing bass.Up here in Mass they spend almost $0 on bass management........ BIG difference. Thats why tourniesdown south dont seem to effect those lakes. IMO Bass tournaments do in fact hurt bass populations.
agree