Dead bass numbers rise with the temperature

It happens every summer... fishermen and non-fishermen alike start complaining about seeing dead bass floating around boat ramps. It often occurs immediately following bass tournaments and sadly, it's true. There is often as much as a 50 percent mortality rate following summertime bass tournaments. Here are my thoughts about that, and some tips on how to prevent it: http://newschannel9.com/sports/outdoors ... emperature

yeah, happens on KY lake too. a couple of hundred washed up 2 or 3 years ago after the Triton tourney. almost 2k fish were brought in and 50 or so were DOA.

i think every tourney boat should be required to have an O2 fizzer and a meter to measure DO in livewells and maybe tournies place a 3 fish limit.

im not a biologist but killing some of the top spawners cant be good. i know other sunfish types are affected in size structure and growth by the removal of the larger spawning fish.

Bass fishing tournaments will cause the death of bass fishing unless things change soon.

Just take them home and skin them this time of year, especially after they've rode around in the boat all day. The worst thing to do is waste the resource on the off chance that a handful survive.


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Crapload of guidelines to manage a live well. Would leave no time to fish.

Seems like people do not bass fish unless they are in a tournament. I must be odd because competition is the last thing I want interfering with my past times.


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bloodtrailing":3attrx00 said:

Seems like people do not bass fish unless they are in a tournament.

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you are correct!

i quit tournament fishing years ago because i lost the reason i fished....to relax, get away, chill out.

Tournament s kill more fish than any meat eater but they turn their nose up to a guy like me that will put them in a cornmeal Jacket.

wobblegobble":2q63bc7y said:

Tournament s kill more fish than any meat eater but they turn their nose up to a guy like me that will put them in a cornmeal Jacket.

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How do bass taste? I haven't fished for them in like 45 years and forgot.

Snowwolfe":17dnfl14 said:

How do bass taste? I haven't fished for them in like 45 years and forgot.

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In my opinion a mix between dirt and butt.

I know alot of people love them but I just didn't care for them at all.

wobblegobble":32bo6zrg said:

Tournament s kill more fish than any meat eater but they turn their nose up to a guy like me that will put them in a cornmeal Jacket.

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You are definitely right about that.

Snowwolfe":frhxjr3n said:

wobblegobble":frhxjr3n said:

Tournament s kill more fish than any meat eater but they turn their nose up to a guy like me that will put them in a cornmeal Jacket.

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How do bass taste? I haven't fished for them in like 45 years and forgot.

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ive only eaten them out of clear water lakes in early spring and too me, they are a lot like stripers and white bass, if you eat the smaller fish and not the big lunkers. i imagine if you ate some out of smaller ponds and lakes or in late summer when the algae blooms occur or lake turnover, they would taste like dirt.

if you never tasted a fish during an algae bloom, come to Camden in august and drink some city water, then you will get an idea of what im talking about. the water tastes like dirt.

my brother and i used to fish tournaments, along with a couple of BASS amateur pro's in the 90's and we never thought twice about eating bass. i guess its a new set of mentalities thats frowned on bass eating.

They taste great...Only Walleye and Bluegill are better IMO... Smallmouth are better than Largemouths.

wobblegobble":1o85bq7o said:

Tournament s kill more fish than any meat eater but they turn their nose up to a guy like me that will put them in a cornmeal Jacket.

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Not everyone who tourney fishes turns their noses up at #CMJ guys... but the majority do. I turn my nose up at guys who scream catch and release and drag them are around on the carpet and hold them out the water for 5 million pictures in the boat and at the scales. Morons! Then they toss back those that are dead or barely living like it's no big deal.

SilverFox":3n6x5odq said:

I turn my nose up at guys who scream catch and release and drag them around on the carpet
and hold them out the water for 5 million pictures in the boat
and at the scales.
Then they toss back those that are dead or barely living like it's no big deal.

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:super: POST OF THE MONTH :tu:

well said sir.

I think bass taste great... especially spotted bass. They compare to crappie (IMHO).

RUGER":3pnz7bim said:

Snowwolfe":3pnz7bim said:

How do bass taste? I haven't fished for them in like 45 years and forgot.

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In my opinion a mix between dirt and butt.

I know alot of people love them but I just didn't care for them at all.

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A pretty good description. It's one of the reasons I hate fishing for them. If I don't want to eat it and it doesn't have decent fight in it to make it interesting then I have no desire to catch it.

For eating I fill up the freezer every year with bluegill and crappie.

For fighting I like Striper, hybrids, whites, smallmouth, bluegill and just about anything out of salt water.

bass are AWESOME to eat! Only problem is the best ones to eat are the 10-13" bass and for the most part you can't keep them.

" cross their eyes"! "Let em swallow it a while before you wrench your back setting the hook"

Common themes from my bass friends.
Mediastinal injuries ( esophagus/gullet , heart) all common with bait and the #1 killer..... the J hook. Saltwater guys going to Circle hooks to prevent this. Don't worry the bass are on a decline due to Asian carp so worry not. Soon we will have carp tournaments!!

7mm08":t5jd16v0 said:

" cross their eyes"! "Let em swallow it a while before you wrench your back setting the hook"

Common themes from my bass friends.
Mediastinal injuries ( esophagus/gullet , heart) all common with bait and the #1 killer..... the J hook. Saltwater guys going to Circle hooks to prevent this. Don't worry the bass are on a decline due to Asian carp so worry not. Soon we will have carp tournaments!!

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I have never understood people who let bass "EAT" a bait, well especially a plastic worm or that type bait. I was told early on that a bass does not have hands, what are you waiting for? I set the hook as soon as my line is tight.

I have access to a private place in another state, and when we go there, it is legal, not only do we catch some really nice bass, some evenings you will catch 25 - 30 bass anywhere from 5 to 7 lbs each and it is incredible. Any "healthy" bass and any bass over 14" is released. Everything else is eaten. We also catch piles of small bass and the small bass eat just as good as any other fish I have ever ate (other than walleye). Haven't been in a few years but this pic was 3 guys, an hour and half of fishing. They are fine eating for sure.