Largemouth bass

[DEJ]

Originally Posted by swnoel

It's interesting that some believe bass tournaments are detrimental to the bass fisheries considering they release the fish alive,

Unfortunately delayed mortality, whatever it is and we can debate that until the cows come home has taken a toll over the past few decades IMO is the key reason bass tournaments are the single most cause for the decline.

[NH Bass Guides]

Originally Posted by DEJ

Unfortunately delayed mortality, whatever it is and we can debate that until the cows come home has taken a toll over the past few decades IMO is the key reason bass tournaments are the single most cause for the decline.

I find your statement very interesting. Are you a fisheries biologist? There are many reasons why the fishing on Winni has changed. Blaming tournaments is a knee jek reaction. There are no big tounaments up this way, so there are probably no more than 40-50 bass fisherman out on 50,000 acres plus on a Sunday. Hardly impactful for a healthy lake.

[kawishiwi]

Originally Posted by NH Bass Guides

I find your statement very interesting. Are you a fisheries biologist? There are many reasons why the fishing on Winni has changed. Blaming tournaments is a knee jek reaction. There are no big tounaments up this way, so there are probably no more than 40-50 bass fisherman out on 50,000 acres plus on a Sunday. Hardly impactful for a healthy lake.

So about 175 fish, each week, say 25 weekends, is 4,375 fish, no not just fish but the largest & healtiest fish, all dislocated to a location a long way away. And the other say 4,375 fish that do a round trip into & out of the livewell due to culling. Thats not nothing and your out of hand dismissal of this is also "interesting". And saying the lake is 50k acres is disingeunous, at best. Its 44k acres and maybe half the lake never holds any appreciable numbers of bass. And, who said Winni is a healthy lake?

[DEJ]

Originally Posted by NH Bass Guides

Blaming tournaments is a knee jerk reaction.

How do you explain the outstanding bass fisheries the State of Maine has? IMO the reason is the State of Maine only allows less than a handful of bass tournaments on each water body a year which virtually eliminates the effects of delayed mortality due to bass tournaments.