Toads....

[Steve Rizza]

The smallest of the day.

 

[Steve Rizza]

The biggest of the day.



Average size Lake Erie fish.

Landed six between these two.And hooked and lost more than I care to admit.

 

[Staci Matheis]

Mighty fine for an "only" fish!

Nice going, Steve!







OOPS!! You posted a second picture while I was typing my note! LOL!! I shoulda known better! Stooopid me!



MIGHTY nice fish, Steve!

How many did you get?

And WHERE???????

I wanna go wherever you went!

That looks better'n even Mini's sh##!



me!

 

[Al Greco]

Sweet fish Steve! Those are nice Smallies in anyone's book.

 

[Steve Rizza]

I also had the pleasure of seeing about twenty fish about this size laying dead next to the boat ramp after a tourney weigh in.Twenty was a quick count with out looking too hard.

They would dump fish after fish in and it would go belly up.A few kicks to get it to deeper water and they would walk away.

It was nice seeing all the non-fishermen and their kids standing there looking al all the dead bass laying in two feet of crystal clear water.I can only imagine what they were thinking.

It was only about a thirty boat tourney.

They were a B.A.S.S. chapter.



And the state park ranger did come to get photos for evidence.



I hope some of the tourney fishermen here will tell me that this sort of thing doesn't go on all the time after weigh ins.

 

[Bob G.]

Steve,



Awesome smallies!!! Lake Erie is still on my list of places to fish...maybe next year.



I see you got that smile down pat!!! LOL!!!



I fish in 6 to 8 club tournies during the season and we usually have 10 to 14 members at each one. Every now and then we have a few fish go belly up in the livewell, but we never dump the dead ones. Someone will take them home to eat. Twenty dead bass at the ramp is not good for our sport and is sure a black eye for tournament fishing.



Bob G.

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Love those Brownfish!!! Gettin' ready to head up myself Good to hear they're bitin'

 

[Texas Transplant]

No, it doesn't happen all of the time. Unfortunately, it does happen though. I don't know what the rules are up there, but down here, there are no specific laws governing this behavior.



As long as you are within the 'creel limit' for the day, what you do with them is your business. However, our club attempts to 'collect' any dead fish and either gives them away, or disposes of them properly. Most of our club won't take any home to eat.



I'm pretty sure that in some areas, dumping dead fish back into the water is against the law. Regardlesss, it's in very poor taste.



Tex

 

[JAMES MOORE]

I fish two clubs and total dead fish for the year was 8.

We've averaged just about 20 boats a tournament. The eight dead fish were all taken home to be eaten. The one club I fish, it's a 2LB penalty for a dead fish so we really work hard to keep them healthy. Smallmouth seem to be the most succeptable to sudden temperature changes and stress from handling and release into warm water.

 

[Sam Elkins]

I've been thinking about this tournament and dead fish thing for some time now. I'll preface this by saying I have absolutely nothing against tournament fishing whatsoever. Why do tournaments have to be for the most weight for the legal bag limit? Why couldn't it be for one fish, largest weight. Nothing else would have to change. The time frame could stay the same. The angling skill is still there. Nothing changes except the potential number of dead fish. Just something that crossed my mind, as feeble as it is.

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

Nice fish Steve. This year so far our club has had 4 dead fish, for the most part we all try to keep them alive and healthy but it does happen.

 

[gone bye bye]

Delayed mortality happens. It is the responsibility of each and every club member to insure that the public does not have to witness this. A simple recovery tank and a net to scoop out the floaters are all that is needed.



If the fish were laying on the bottom, they were probably "fizzed" at the weigh-in. Not good. Fizzing needs to happen right away, in the boat for fish caught deeper than 30 feet (or less).



Do you have any more info? Location of ramp, club name, park officers name?



As for the one fish/legal limit question. If one fish were enough someone could luck into one. A limit of good fish is harder to come by, thus better indication of skill.



I am not opposed to a 3 or 4 fish limit....



It all boils down to each fisherman taking care of their catch and then the organizers insuring their safe release. If the fish arent going to make it (recovery tank will let you know this) then dont release them.



All in all it does a disservice to tournament fishing to allow the public to see this.



Mini

 

[Barry Loos]

Nice catching.



Da Bear

 

[Steve Rizza]

Mini -

I'd say you hit the nail on the head.The smallie bite was in 30-35 feet of water.Even releasing them immediately they need a good push to get going down towards the bottom.





They were at the Lagoon launch at Presque Isle state park.It is the launch where all the canoeist,kayakers and paddle boaters usually launch to paddle through the nature preserve.

I don't want to say the name of the club in case it wasn't them.There was only one club with a tournament permit that day,so it it assumed it was them.



I realize there will be a few mortalities when fishing a tournament.I would be lying if I said I have never had a fish go belly up on me,but they really made ALL fishermen look bad to ALOT of people that saw those fish laying there.

 

[Steve Rizza]

Tex-

Looking at the state's regs about the only line on the subject is

"it is unlawful to kill any fish and fail to make a reasonable effort to lawfully dispose of it".

I guess kind of a judgement call on that one.



In the grand scheme of thing I guess it's not that big of a deal.It's not like I'll ever notice a difference when I fish there.But seeing that had my shorts in a bunch.

 

[TrepMan]

Steve - SWEET fish man!! HUGE Smallies!!! Is that the Mighty Tracker out on Erie???



Trep

 

[Steve Rizza]

Yeah Trep.

It was pretty nice.The waves stayed under 2 feet with some chop on top of them.It was alot better than the 5 1/2 footers I got caught in last time out.LOL

 

[Teri C.]

Sweet catches, Steve! Your Steelers looked good this weekend.