OBSERVATIONS ABOUT AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR TOURNAMENT WEIGH INS
By Larry E. Bridgeman

I admittedly have a bias (one of many) that every Bass Club and Tournament Organizer should have conservation as a primary goal. If catch, kill and eat is the plan, it will not be long before fish population in any active tournament reservoir will begin to suffer and the only equipment you need for weigh in is a set of scales and an ice chest. These are my thoughts on this process.

SEVERAL THINGS NEED TO BE DONE TO ASSURE THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FISH SURVIVE A TOURNAMENT. Some of these things are so basic that you would think them obvious and no mention should be necessary. However, time after time I see these aspects ignored or violated resulting in the needless deaths of many good fish and the resultant elimination of millions of fry from the upcoming spawns:

THE TOURNAMENT PLANNING PROCESS FOR ANY MAJOR EVENT MUST INCLUDE, before anything else, designation of an individual as Tournament Director who is responsible for every aspect and should ideally not be a tournament participant. Without this individual who will man the PA system and keep everything moving, any major tournament is doomed, as are the fish.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A GOOD SET OF RULES AND THE DATE FOR THE FUNCTION IS THE ABSOLUTE FIRST CONSIDERATION. As an example, do not have a major Tournament in South Texas lakes from May to Mid-October unless you are planning on a 50% or more death rate of fish as an acceptable loss. Live well hauling, 100-degree temperatures, multiple handling, multiple periods without oxygen and fish survival are incompatible. RULES must take into consideration the number of boats and the number of flights, departure location(s), fishing hours, weigh in times and a number of other things about which volumes of recommendations have been written and published. Etc. The RULES need to be fair for everyone, but fairness to the fish is the paramount consideration and should drive the process. I would recommend the following as a required reading for any organization contemplating tournament activity.
REFERENCE: A MANUAL FOR ORGANIZING AND CONDUCTING BASS TOURNAMENTS By Bass Anglers Sportsman Society® http://home.comcast.net/~scy33613/html/manbasstour.html

TEMPERATURE AS A SURVIVAL FACTOR CANNOT BE MINIMIZED. Although I have never seen this done, it is possible prior to a tournament to question people knowledgeable about current depths at which fish are being caught and even to survey the lake prior to a tournament to determine the average temperature at this depth. Using a depth thermometer, with the probe lowered to that depth, check the average temperature. Announce this prior to the tournament and encourage anglers to maintain live well water at this temperature. You are going to need some ice blocks and a thermometer for each boat. Equalize, as close as possible, the live well (and/or holding tank) water to that of the water at the depths they were caught." Too Cold" is not good and neither is *Too Warm". Variations should be 5 degrees or less.

A SUBSTANTIAL PENALTY SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED AS A TOURNAMENT RULE FOR ANY DEAD FISH WEIGHED. I would prefer to see a dead fish disallowed entirely. This might encourage dumping a dead fish, but there should be a lie detector (ld) and this should be a ld question ESPECIALLY ON ANY MONEY TOURNAMENT. An ice chest should be available as a depository for any dead fish. Remember few, if any dead fish will live. Just because they have a flicker of life does not mean they are going to survive. Post-release mortality can be as high or higher than the pre weigh rate. Proper handling from the boating of the fish to the release with a proper net, gloves (to reduce Slime loss) and recirculating live well (plus a properly applied live well additive (like Rejuvenade or Please Release me) to relieve stress and replace slime coating) are all important factors. The importance of having a Rule that requires (under penalty of disqualification) every fish weighed to be brought to the scales alive in a weigh bag containing adequate (define) water from the live well, cannot be minimized. I have seen instances where small children are allowed to grab and handle fish by organizers who seem to be impervious to damage to slime coatings or other factors affecting fish survival. In a recent tournament, fishermen brought fish to the scales in their hands (no weigh bag-no water). Speaking of weigh bags, one of the best I have ever seen comes out of Arkansas. FSA has a bag that features an inner mesh bag that will drain water into the black bag when lifted out. After fish are weighed in the mesh bag, they can be replaced in the outer bag holding water for transport to the release site or live release tank. This eliminates the need to touch the fish 3 or 4 times as well as the practice of emptying water and transporting fish dry. They are 23" x 25", have strong strap handles set in grommets and they are capable of handling 5 Falcon lunkers. This will dramatically improve fish survival and most clubs' weigh-ins can function effectively with 5 to 10 of these bags.

HOURLY WEIGH-INS AND REDUCED LIMITS CAN HELP IMPROVE SURVIVAL RATES. Consider changing rules to make the tournament fish friendly. I believe technology will someday come to the rescue of tournament fish and the weigh and release process will be revolutionized. It will be possible to integrate automated culling, weigh in and transmittal of results with the immediate release back to the water facilitating the end goal of fish survival. In the interim, reducing limits to three fish (especially May 1 to October 31), having mandatory hourly weigh-ins of fish over 5 lbs, and assuring all livewells are functioning properly before allowing participation should all be observed as priorities.

A TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR's (TD) responsibility is not a social one in any major tournament. The TD chief duty is to man the PA System and expedite the weigh in process, keep it moving and stage it so fish remain in an oxygenated environment the majority of the time. Jim Murray Tournament Director for Honey Hole, Media South and many other circuits/events was the all time master at this process and watching him do his thing was the basis for my understanding of proper tournament technique. You must have someone who can observe, evaluate and respond. Any single missing ingredient will not facilitate your achievement of the desired results. If you have not seen a good operation it will be hard for you to know what is needed. I suggest you attend a Bass Champs event and watch how they do it.

A FISH OUT OF WATER -Very few fish are going to survive a half hour out of the oxygenated water even in a weigh bag. Standing in line holding fish in a weigh bag makes no sense when they could be in the live well instead. As discussed above, weigh bags are not all created equal. There are bags available that have an inner-mesh bag that can be lifted out and will auto drain and eliminate several handling processes entirely. On the other end of the continuum, I have seen weigh ins where anglers actually bring fish to the scales holding them by their lower jaws with no bag or water. These fish-felons, masquerading as tournament anglers, should forfeit their fishing licenses or at least be refused a weigh-in. Clubs and tournaments should come down hard on this insensitivity and gross neglect.

FISH FLOPPING around in a weigh basket (or dropped on the ground) can either injure themselves or each other. Always have a weighted cover that can be placed on top of the weigh basket fish so as to minimize their activity during weigh in and reduce the time out of water These are some of my major concerns that I believe need to be addressed in the process of tournament weigh ins and there is a lot of research to support these tenets:
INFO FROM: http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Fishing/tournament_bass_guidelines.htm

WATER TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE for bass depends on the temperature to which it is acclimated. Fish living in 65º water cannot tolerate warmer water temperatures (>78º) as well as fish living in 75º water. A rapid temperature increase of 5º or a rapid temperature decrease of 10º can be lethal to bass. Bass metabolism increases rapidly as water temperatures go up - meaning bass need more oxygen, consume it more rapidly, at a time when the water's ability to hold more oxygen is declining. Therefore it takes more aeration of the live well water to keep bass alive at warmer temperatures. Live well water quality constantly changes during the tournament day as bass excrete metabolic waste in the form of ammonia, which is highly toxic to the fish with the toxicity increasing with water temperature. The build up of ammonia is easily resolved by continuous pumping of fresh water into the live well.

STRESS is a major cause of delayed mortality in tournament caught bass. Reducing stress to these bass requires three things: reducing handling injuries and loss of protective mucus; healthy conditions in the boat live well; and, quick, efficient weigh-ins where fish are subjected to minimal handling while maintained in adequate life-supporting conditions throughout the weigh-in process. Some procedures to expedite fish release (and thus reduce initial mortality) include: staggering start and weigh-in times, having shaded holding tanks with flow through circulation systems available at the weigh-in, not holding weigh-ins when air temperatures are > 90°F, and transporting fish from live-well to weigh-in in water-filled plastic bags (the time fish remain in water-filled plastic bags should be less than 10 minutes).

MORTALITY STUDIES have found larger black bass experience greater initial mortality than smaller black bass, indicating capture and confinement in live-wells appears to be especially stressful to larger fish. It is essential that losses of large black bass in northern populations are minimized since larger males and females spawn earlier in the spring, allowing the resulting progeny to accumulate more energy reserves prior to entering their first wintering period, which increases their chance for survival. Tournament organizers can address this issue by adopting big fish or big fish/hour formats that reduce the time large bass are held in live-wells before weigh-in and release. Initial mortality has also been positively related to daily limit, and mean weight and number of fish per angler.

REDUCE LIMITS studies show that the daily limit is the single most influential variable affecting initial mortality. Tournament organizers can address this concern by implementing reduced daily limits.REFERENCE: Recommendations contained within the B.A.S.S publication "Keeping Bass Alive: A Guidebook for Anglers and Tournament Organizers," which is available by contacting: B.A.S.S. Conservation Department 5845 Carmichael Road Montgomery, AL 36117 email: conservation@bassmaster.com

About the Author: Larry Bridgeman is the owner of Falcon Lake Tackle in Zapata Texas and a former guide on Falcon with some 45 years fishing under his belt with 35 years fishing Falcon. For the last six years, he and his wife Barbara have been selling fishing tackle from their store in Zapata, Texas to local and club fishermen as well as to customers in 48 states and 8 foreign countries via their online store. They have developed their store into one of the best-stocked stores in Texas featuring over 5000 lures and tackle selections used and recommended by their customers, many of which are tournament fishing professionals. Their specially is magnum tackle and lure selections designed to withstand the bone jarring strikes of South Texas and Mexico Bass.